User Guide

How to Use ClipPilot

From a single YouTube URL to scroll-stopping clips — auto-posted to TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and Facebook. Here's exactly how it works and how to get the best results.

01
🔗
Paste a YouTube URL

Copy any YouTube video URL and paste it into ClipPilot. The video must be publicly available (not private or age-restricted). Videos between 5 and 90 minutes work best — longer videos give you more clips to choose from.

Best content types: Podcasts, interviews, long-form commentary, vlogs, tutorials, debate videos, and finance/property content all perform exceptionally well.
02
🎯
Choose Your Settings

Before generating, customise how ClipPilot processes your video:

  • Number of clips — 3 to 25 depending on your plan
  • Content Pack — Finance, Podcast, Street Debate, Motivation, Conspiracy, or Property. Picks the right scoring signals for your niche
  • Keyword — type a specific topic (e.g. "house prices", "crypto", "mindset") and the AI will prioritise moments about that topic
  • Caption style — Yellow, White, or Blue animated word-by-word captions
  • Clip length — 30, 45, or 60 second clips
  • Also create long clips — tick this to also produce 90–300 second clips for YouTube watch hours (see Long Format section below)
Pro tip: Start with 5 clips on your first job. It uses fewer credits and lets you see the quality before committing to a full batch.
03
Let ClipPilot Process

Hit Generate and ClipPilot does the rest. The AI downloads the video, transcribes every word, finds the most engaging moments, renders them in 9:16 portrait format with animated captions, and scores each clip on viral potential.

A typical 10-minute video takes 2–4 minutes. A 60-minute video may take up to 10 minutes. You can close the tab and come back — processing runs on our servers.

Credit usage: 1 credit = approximately 1 minute of source video processed. A 10-minute video costs roughly 10 credits.
04
📊
Review Your Clips

Each clip gets a Viral Score out of 100 with an explanation of why the AI rated it highly — the hook, the emotional pull, the information value. Use this to decide which clips to post first.

You also get 4 AI-written title options per clip and a set of hashtags, written specifically for that clip's content — not generic placeholders.

Elite clips (90–100) are your priority posts. Strong clips (75–89) work well as daily content. Post Elite clips first to test engagement.
05
🚀
Auto-Post to Your Channels

Go to Settings → Social Accounts and connect your platforms once:

  • YouTube — Shorts post as YouTube Shorts; Long clips post as regular YouTube videos
  • TikTok — clips upload to your TikTok inbox as drafts ready to publish
  • Instagram — clips post directly as Instagram Reels
  • Facebook — short clips post as Facebook Reels; long clips post as Facebook feed videos

After connecting, tick Auto-post clips when running any job and select which pages to post to. ClipPilot queues them and posts one every 2–4 hours automatically — you don't need to touch a file.

Prefer manual? You can still download individual clips or grab the whole batch as a ZIP. Each clip is an MP4 in portrait 9:16 format, ready to upload anywhere.

Advanced Features

Available on higher plans — built for creators who want full automation.

🤖 Channel Autopilot Agency Plan

Add any YouTube channel URL from the Autopilot tab in the sidebar. ClipPilot monitors it around the clock — the moment a new video is uploaded, it automatically downloads it, runs the full clip pipeline, and queues all clips to post to your connected social accounts.

You choose the check interval (every 6–24 hours) and the posting cadence (e.g. one clip every 2 hours). On first setup, ClipPilot seeds the 5 most recent video IDs as "already known" — so it only processes new uploads, not old content.

Use case: Add a channel you have permission to clip. Every video they publish gets turned into a set of clips and posted to your pages — completely hands-free.
📅 Content Calendar Pro Plan

The Calendar tab shows a full month view of every clip scheduled to post across all your connected pages and channels. Click any day to see which clips are queued and to which platforms. Filter by brand or page using the sidebar. Great for managing posting schedules across multiple clients or channels.

⏱ Long Format Clips (2–5 minutes)

Tick "Also create long clips" before hitting Generate. Alongside your normal 15–60 second Reels and Shorts, ClipPilot will also produce 90–300 second clips cropped to 9:16 with captions burnt in.

Long clips auto-post as regular YouTube videos (not Shorts) and Facebook feed videos (not Reels). This is important because YouTube Shorts do not count toward the 4,000 watch hours required for YouTube monetisation — but regular videos do. Long clips from one source video can accumulate significant watch time passively.

Strategy: Use Shorts to grow subscribers fast. Use Long clips to build the watch hours needed for monetisation. ClipPilot does both from a single URL.

Which Plan Do I Need?

Free
£0
50 credits to try it out. Up to 5 clips per job. Clips have a watermark. Perfect for testing ClipPilot before committing.
Starter
£19/mo
200 credits/month. Up to 12 clips per job. No watermark. All platforms. AI titles and hashtags. Good for creators posting 3–5 times per week.
Pro ⭐ Most Popular
£39/mo
500 credits/month. Up to 25 clips per job. Content packs, batch processing, priority queue, long format clips, multi-language subtitles.
📅 Content Calendar included
Agency
£79/mo
1,200 credits/month. Up to 50 clips per job. Built for agencies managing multiple channels or clients. Long format clips, Content Calendar.
🤖 Channel Autopilot included

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of YouTube videos work best? +
Videos with clear speech work best — podcasts, interviews, debates, vlogs, tutorials and commentary. Music videos, heavily edited content, or videos without much talking will not produce great results. Videos between 10 and 60 minutes give you the most clip options.
Can I use ClipPilot on any YouTube video? +
You can submit any public YouTube URL, but you should only clip content you own or have explicit rights to republish. Using ClipPilot on content you don't have rights to may infringe copyright law. See our Terms & Conditions for full details.
How many credits does a job use? +
Roughly 1 credit per minute of source video. A 10-minute video uses approximately 10 credits. The number of clips you request does not significantly affect credit usage — it's mainly the video length that matters.
How does auto-posting work? +
Go to Settings → Social Accounts and connect your platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook). Once connected, tick "Auto-post clips" when running a job and select your pages. ClipPilot queues your clips and posts one every 2–4 hours automatically — with the AI-generated title and hashtags already attached. Short clips go to YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Instagram Reels and Facebook Reels. Long format clips go to regular YouTube videos and Facebook feed posts.
How does TikTok auto-posting work? +
TikTok clips upload to your TikTok Creator inbox as drafts. You'll see them waiting in the TikTok app under "Drafts" — tap Post to publish. Full automatic publishing to TikTok requires TikTok app review approval, which we are in the process of obtaining. In the meantime, the draft workflow means you're one tap away from posting.
What are Long Format clips and how do they help with monetisation? +
Long Format clips are 90–300 second vertical clips generated alongside your normal Shorts. They post as regular YouTube videos (not Shorts) and Facebook feed videos. YouTube requires 4,000 watch hours to unlock monetisation — Shorts don't count toward this total, but regular videos do. Long clips passively accumulate watch time while your Shorts grow your subscriber count. Enable Long Format by ticking "Also create long clips" before hitting Generate.
What is Channel Autopilot and how do I set it up? +
Channel Autopilot (Agency plan) monitors YouTube channels for new uploads. Go to the Autopilot tab in the sidebar, click "Add YouTube Channel" and paste any public channel URL. Set your check interval (6–24 hours) and posting cadence. When a new video is detected, ClipPilot automatically downloads it, generates clips, and queues them to your connected social accounts. On first setup, the 5 most recent videos are skipped — only new uploads trigger the pipeline.
What does the Content Calendar show? +
The Content Calendar (Pro and Agency plans) shows a full month view of every clip scheduled to post across all your connected pages and channels. Click any day to see the clips queued for that date. Filter by brand or page from the sidebar. It covers clips from all sources — manual jobs and Autopilot.
Why is my job taking a long time? +
Processing time depends on video length and server load. A 10-minute video typically takes 2–4 minutes. A 60-minute video can take up to 15 minutes. If your job is stuck at the same percentage for more than 20 minutes, contact us at hello@getclippilot.com and we'll look into it.
What happens if my job fails? +
If a job fails, your credits are automatically refunded. Common failure reasons include: the video being private or age-restricted, the video being very short (under 3 minutes), or temporary YouTube download issues. Try again with a different URL — if it keeps failing, contact support.
Can I cancel my subscription at any time? +
Yes. Cancel any time from your account settings. Your subscription remains active until the end of the current billing period — you won't be charged again after that. We don't offer refunds for unused time or credits within a billing period.
Do my clips expire? +
Yes. Clips are stored on our servers for 3 days (Free), 7 days (Starter), 14 days (Pro), or 30 days (Agency). After that they are permanently deleted. Make sure to download any clips you want to keep before the retention period ends.
What does the viral score mean? +
The viral score (0–100) is ClipPilot's AI assessment of how likely a clip is to stop someone mid-scroll. It considers the hook strength, emotional resonance, information value, pacing and speaker energy. Scores of 80+ are consistently strong performers. Scores of 90+ are Elite clips — post these first.

Ready to Start?

Your first 50 credits are free — no card needed.

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