Free tools
YouTube Shorts Tools
Everything here works on a /shorts/ link. Thumbnails at full vertical
resolution, the transcript of what was said, titles, hashtags — free, no account,
nothing to install.
Shorts Thumbnail Downloader
The full vertical thumbnail, up to 1080×1920 — not the 16:9 crop the usual addresses return.
Get the thumbnailShorts Transcript
What was actually said, as readable text. Handy when a Short talks fast and you want the claim in writing.
Get the transcriptTitle Generator
Shorts titles are read in a fraction of a second. Generate options and check length and keyword position before you post.
Write a titleHashtag Generator
Build a set from your topic and see what Shorts in your niche use. Keeps you under YouTube’s limit of 15.
Build a setDescription Generator
On a Short, the first line and the hashtags are nearly all anyone sees. This puts them in the right order.
Write a descriptionTags Extractor
See the tags behind any public Short, with character counts against YouTube’s 500-character limit.
Extract tagsWhat's different about a Short
Mechanically, a Short is a normal YouTube video with a vertical frame and a short runtime, which is why every tool above takes the same link. Three things genuinely behave differently, and they are the ones worth knowing.
| What | How it differs |
|---|---|
| Thumbnails | Stored twice: the standard names are 16:9 crops, the original vertical frame lives under a different name |
| Chapters | Don't apply. Timestamps in a Short's description stay plain text |
| Descriptions | The same 5,000-character field, but almost nobody opens it — the first line and the hashtags are the whole of it |
| Captions | Auto-captions often miss fast speech and music beds, so a Short's transcript can be rougher than a talking-head video's |
Saving a Short
We don't have a video downloader, and it's a deliberate gap: YouTube's terms don't permit downloading videos outside their own offline feature. There are legitimate ways to keep a Short — including your own — written up here, along with what each one actually gives you.
The thumbnail is a different matter: it's a public image at a public address, and saving it is what your browser already did to show it to you.
Working on Shorts as a creator
The order that tends to help most: write the title before you edit, so you know what the Short is promising; keep the description to one line plus three hashtags, because that is all that shows; and look at the vertical thumbnail after posting, since it is what appears everywhere the Short is listed rather than played.
And if you are studying what works in your niche, pull the transcript of a Short that did well. A minute of speech is about 150 words — you can read a month of someone's output in an afternoon and see the structure they repeat.
Frequently asked questions
Can I download a YouTube Short with these tools?
Not the video itself. YouTube's terms don't allow downloading videos except through their own offline feature, so there's no downloader here and there isn't going to be. You can download a Short's thumbnail and its transcript, and the legitimate ways to keep a Short — including your own — are written up separately.
Do these work with /shorts/ links?
Yes. A Shorts link, a regular watch link and a youtu.be link all point at the same video, and every tool here accepts all three.
Do I need an account?
No. Everything on this page works without signing in, and most of it runs entirely in your browser.
Why is the Shorts thumbnail I get from other sites squashed?
Because they ask for the classic thumbnail addresses, which are all 16:9 and predate vertical video. The original portrait frame is stored under a different name, which is what the Shorts thumbnail downloader reads.
Every tool, not just the Shorts ones
Nine free tools for YouTube, all of them in the browser, none needing an account.
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