Can I Take a Clip From a YouTube Video? (2026)
This question usually comes from someone wondering if it's technically or legally okay to grab a piece of a video for personal use, an edit, or a repost. Here's the distinction that matters.
Personal, private use
Saving or clipping a short piece of a video purely for your own private viewing — not sharing or reposting it anywhere — carries very little practical risk. This is different from redistributing it publicly.
Using it in your own edit or reaction video
This is where permission starts to matter. If you're taking a clip and republishing it — even inside a longer reaction or commentary video — you're using someone else's copyrighted material publicly, which brings in the same considerations as reposting: permission, fair use, and platform copyright systems.
The technical side: how people take clips
Practically, this is usually done with screen recording, a browser clip tool, or by downloading the video (where permitted by the platform's terms) and trimming it in an editor. The technical method doesn't change the legal considerations above.
Frequently asked
Is it legal to download a YouTube video to clip it?
YouTube's terms of service generally don't allow downloading videos except through official offline features. Whether taking a clip afterward is fine depends separately on permission and how it's used, as covered above.