What can you post as a YouTube Short? Formats and ideas

Short answer

YouTube’s Help Center names these ways to make a Short: the Shorts camera, an uploaded file, a Short edited from your own long video, a remix (Sound, Cut, Green Screen or Collab), a template and a reply to a comment. A related video can be linked afterwards. The example sentences are ours, for an invented woodworking channel; YouTube’s pages describe each tool and publish no ranking of which one brings more viewers.

Written by the Mellow team · Updated October 31, 2026, sources read October 11, 2026

The ways a Short can be made

Each row is a feature YouTube documents on its own Help Center page, under YouTube’s name for it. The middle column paraphrases the page, and the last column is our example, not YouTube’s.

Format	What the page says	Example (ours)
Shorts camera	Record one or more clips that add up to three minutes in the YouTube app, then add music, effects, text-to-speech and more. A “Get feedback” button analyses the video’s hook and pacing (Help Center).	“One clamp, three ways to hold a joint, 40 seconds.”
Upload a file	Upload a video of up to three minutes with a square or vertical aspect ratio; up to 15 short videos can be chosen at a time (Help Center).	“A phone clip of the finished shelf, cut to one angle.”
Edit into a Short	From the watch page of a public long video of yours: Remix, then Edit into a Short. Select up to 60 seconds; the Short links back to the original, only you can edit your own long video this way, and the video must have “Allow people to sample this content” ticked under Shorts remixing in Studio (Help Center).	“The 50-second moment of a long build video where the drawer closes first time.”
Remix: Sound	Use the audio of another Short or of a long video; the source is credited. Up to 90 seconds of a music video’s audio, and some are limited to 30 (Help Center).	“Reuse the sound of a Short that answers a joinery question, with our answer on screen.”
Remix: Cut	Sample a 1 to 5 second segment of a music video, audio and video together (Help Center).	“A beat drop on the saw’s first cut.”
Remix: Green Screen	Use a music video as the background, visual only or with its audio (Help Center).	“Ourselves in front, a favourite workshop video behind.”
Remix: Collab	Remix video from another Short or video in a collaboration (Help Center).	“Our bench next to another maker’s bench, same joint.”
Template	Recreate a Short from a framework of its length, number of clips, text, music and effects: Remix, then Use this template (Help Center).	“Five clips, five offcuts we turned into something.”
Reply with a Short	Answer a comment with a Short; the comment appears as a sticker, and the reply shows under the comment (Help Center).	“Someone asks which glue; the Short is the answer.”
Related video	After upload, link a video, Short or live stream of yours under the Short; “advanced feature access” is required (Help Center).	“Link the full build under the 30-second preview.”

Where to look for inspiration

YouTube’s Shorts page for creators says that to see what’s trending you can open Shorts and then Trending in the mobile app (YouTube for Creators). The same page lists AI-powered tools (Dream Track, Veo in Shorts, effects and photo to video). Whether you use them is a decision for your channel; YouTube’s Help Center notes that content made with them must follow its Community Guidelines, and the AI remix feature was documented as English-only when we read it.

Three things the pages say that change what you can make

Length. Shorts can be up to three minutes if they are square or vertical, and uploaded after 15 October 2024 for standard channels (Help Center).
Music. A Short made from your own long video can’t use Shorts Audio Library music (Help Center). Remixed audio and music videos carry the limits in the table above.
Copyright claims. The two pages we read differ. The three-minute page says a Short over one minute with an active copyright claim is blocked globally. The Create YouTube Shorts page says such Shorts are no longer automatically blocked and may stay playable. We state both and don’t resolve them.

What YouTube doesn’t say

No page we read ranks these formats, gives a best length, or says that a remix, a template or a reply brings more views. “What to make” is therefore your call, with your own YouTube Analytics as the evidence (how to see YouTube analytics).

Where Mellow Hub fits

Hub publishes one video to YouTube, with a required title of up to 100 characters and a description of up to 5,000. YouTube decides what is a Short: Hub has no separate Shorts setting, and a square or vertical video of up to three minutes is classified as one on YouTube’s side. Remixes, templates, replies with a Short and related videos are made in YouTube’s own app and Studio. The Shorts length answer and scheduling Shorts have the details.

Once you have the idea, the packaging is the next job. Mellow Hub, whose answer this is, has a YouTube packaging guide, an AI YouTube thumbnail generator that spends credits, and a free YouTube thumbnail tester.

The first 3 posts are free, however many networks each one goes to, and need no card. After that Hub is paid: plans start at $19 a month (Solo), after a 7-day trial with a card on file that costs nothing if you cancel before it ends, and a monthly plan's first month is 20% off. Publishing is unlimited on every plan, under a fair-use ceiling that stops automated floods (900 publications a month on Solo), where one publication is one post on one account, so a post sent to five networks counts as five toward it. There are no automatic overage charges.

Questions people also ask

How long can a YouTube Short be?

Up to three minutes with a square or vertical aspect ratio, for standard channels on videos uploaded after 15 October 2024. The Shorts length answer has the full page.

Can I turn a long video into Shorts?

Yes, from your own public long video: Remix, then Edit into a Short, selecting up to 60 seconds. YouTube says private and unlisted videos and videos with third-party copyright claims can’t be used, and the video has to allow sampling in Studio. The Short links back to the original.

Can others remix my Shorts?

By default eligible Shorts can be used by other creators, including as a template. YouTube Studio has a Shorts remixing setting per video, “Allow people to sample this content”, and the templates page says you can opt out of Shorts remixing if you don’t want your Shorts used as templates.

Can I reply to a comment with a Short?

Yes, on comments posted on your channel. Tap Reply on the comment and the camera icon, or pick a comment sticker inside the Shorts camera. You can also save a comment and answer it later.

Do Shorts need a title?

The Create YouTube Shorts page says you can add a title of up to 100 characters on the details screen. Through an API, YouTube refuses an upload without a title, which is why Hub requires one.

Sources

Other companies’ features change. Every statement about them rests on these pages, as they read on the date above.