Opus Clip AI: Turn Long Videos into Viral Short Clips Automatically (2026)

What is Opus Clip?

You filmed a 45-minute podcast. It's great content, but you know nobody's watching the full thing on social media. You need short, punchy clips for TikTok, Reels, and Shorts—but editing 10+ clips manually would take all day.

Enter Opus Clip. Upload your long video, and it uses AI to automatically identify the most compelling moments, clip them, add animated captions, include B-roll, and export ready-to-post vertical videos. What would take 8 hours of editing now takes 10 minutes.

Why Content Creators Are Switching to Opus

The secret sauce is Opus's "virality AI." It doesn't just randomly chop your video—it analyzes speech patterns, hook effectiveness, audience retention predictors, and emotional beats to find moments that have the highest chance of going viral.

Each clip gets a "virality score" from 1-100. Focus on posting the 70+ scores first. One podcaster told me his clips with 80+ scores averaged 10x more views than those below 50.

Key Features That Save Time

AI Clip Detection

Opus watches your entire video and identifies 10-20 potential viral moments based on:

• Hook strength (does it grab attention immediately?)
• Emotional peaks (surprise, humor, controversy)
• Complete thoughts (clips make sense standalone)
• Optimal length (30-90 seconds for most platforms)

Auto-Captions with Style

Captions aren't just accurate—they're animated. Key words zoom in, change color, or bounce to emphasize important moments. You can customize fonts, colors, and animation styles to match your brand.

Smart Reframing

Your horizontal video becomes vertical automatically. Opus keeps the speaker in frame even when they move. No more awkward off-center shots or cutting people's heads off.

B-Roll Integration

Opus can add stock footage or images relevant to what's being discussed. Talking about pizza? It overlays pizza footage. Discussing productivity? Shows laptop scenes. It's not perfect but saves time.

Multi-Clip Export

Generate 15 clips from one video and export them all with one click. Each gets optimized for different platforms (9:16 for TikTok, 4:5 for Instagram Feed, 16:9 for YouTube).

Real-World Results

Podcast Host: "I used to spend 6 hours editing clips for every episode. Now Opus does it in 10 minutes. I'm posting 5x more content and my audience has tripled."

Course Creator: "I turned my 2-hour webinar into 23 short clips. Five of them went viral on LinkedIn—brought in 200 new students."

YouTuber: "Opus helped me understand which parts of my videos resonate most. Now I structure my long-form content to create more 'Opus-friendly' viral moments."

Who Should Use Opus Clip?

Perfect For:

• Podcasters: Turn every episode into 10+ social media posts
• Course Creators: Create promotional clips from webinars
• Interview Shows: Extract quotable moments automatically
• Vloggers: Repurpose long videos for all platforms
• Business Coaches: Share client success stories and tips

Not Ideal For:

• Highly visual content (cooking, travel vlogs with lots of scenery changes)
• Music videos or artistic content
• Videos with multiple speakers talking over each other
• Content under 5 minutes (not enough to clip)

Pricing (2026)

Free Trial:

• Process 60 minutes of video
• All features unlocked
• See if it works for your content

Starter Plan ($19/month):

• 150 minutes of video processing
• Unlimited clips from processed videos
• Auto-captions & B-roll
• Virality scores
• 1080p exports

Pro Plan ($69/month):

• 600 minutes of video processing (~10 long videos)
• Priority processing (faster)
• Custom branding (add your logo)
• API access
• Team collaboration

Business Plan ($299/month):

• 2,400 minutes (~40 long videos)
• White-label exports
• Dedicated support
• Custom AI training on your content style

How to Get Started

1. Upload Your Video: Drag and drop or paste YouTube/Zoom link
2. Let AI Process: Takes 5-15 minutes depending on video length
3. Review Clips: Opus presents 10-20 potential clips with virality scores
4. Customize: Edit captions, adjust timing, change styling
5. Export & Post: Download all clips or schedule directly to social media

Pro Tips From Heavy Users

1. Record with Opus in Mind Create "clip-worthy moments" intentionally. Start segments with hooks: "Here's the counterintuitive truth about..." or "The mistake everyone makes is..."

2. Review Before Posting The AI is good but not perfect. Watch clips to ensure they make sense without full context.

3. Post Highest Scores First Virality scores are surprisingly accurate. Test by posting 80+ scores first and monitoring performance.

4. Use Custom Templates Set up your brand colors, fonts, and logo once. All future clips maintain consistency automatically.

5. Add Context in Captions When posting, add context in the social media caption: "From our recent episode with [guest]—full conversation linked in bio."

Common Questions

Q: Does it work with Zoom recordings? A: Yes! Perfect for webinars and online meetings.

Q: Can I edit the AI-generated clips? A: Absolutely. Adjust timing, delete sections, change captions, modify B-roll.

Q: What languages does it support? A: English is best, but supports 20+ languages including Spanish, French, German, Portuguese.

Q: Do clips have watermarks? A: Only on the free trial. Paid plans have no watermarks.

The Honest Verdict

Opus Clip is one of those tools that immediately justifies its cost. The first time I used it, I processed a 90-minute interview and got 17 usable clips—work that would've taken me literally all day.

Is it perfect? No. Sometimes it clips mid-sentence or the B-roll doesn't quite match. But it's 90% accurate, and fixing the 10% takes minutes instead of hours.

The virality score is the killer feature. It taught me what actually makes content engaging—not what I think is interesting, but what data shows performs well.

Best For: Anyone creating long-form video who needs a social media presence

Skip If: Your content is highly visual or under 10 minutes

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

For podcasters, interviewers, and educators, Opus Clip is non-negotiable. It's the difference between posting once a week and posting daily—with less effort.