How to download only part of a YouTube video (3 ways)

Downloading a two-hour stream to keep ninety seconds of it is slow, fills your disk and still leaves you trimming. Two of the three ways below fetch only the part you want; the third records it as it plays. Which one fits depends on whether you'd rather click, type a command, or just hit record.

The three ways side by side

Way 1: an online clip cutter

1. 1Copy the video link — a watch link, youtu.be, a Short or a finished /live/ stream.
2. 2Paste it into Clip Cutter. Open Clip Cutter and paste it under From a link. The video opens with a film strip under it.
3. 3Set the in and out points. Drag the markers, type an exact timecode like 01:12.40, or step one frame at a time with the arrows.
4. 4Choose MP4 or MP3 and the quality, then create the clip and download it.

You only ever download the section you picked, so a short clip from a long stream stays a small file, and it's cut exactly at your in-point rather than at the nearest keyframe. No watermark, no account.

Way 2: yt-dlp with --download-sections

yt-dlp is the free, open-source command-line downloader that many other tools are built on. Give it a time range and it fetches only that range instead of the whole video.

1. 1Install yt-dlp and FFmpeg. On Windows: winget install yt-dlp.yt-dlp and winget install Gyan.FFmpeg. On a Mac with Homebrew: brew install yt-dlp ffmpeg.
2. 2Download one range. yt-dlp --download-sections "*1:30-2:15" LINK saves 1:30 to 2:15. The * tells yt-dlp the values are times, not chapter names.
3. 3Make the start exact. Add --force-keyframes-at-cuts. Without it the clip can start a few seconds early, at the nearest keyframe — faster, but less precise.
4. 4Several pieces at once. Repeat the option — --download-sections "*0:10-0:40" --download-sections "*5:00-5:30" — and each range becomes its own file.

Way 3: record your screen

If a video plays on your screen, you can record it. OBS Studio is free on Windows, Mac and Linux; Windows has a recorder in Xbox Game Bar (Win+Alt+R), and macOS has one under Shift+Cmd+5. It's the slowest way — ten minutes of video take ten minutes to record — and the result is only as sharp as your screen.

Comparing online tools rather than methods? See the best YouTube clip cutters compared. Wondering where YouTube's own Clip button went? It was retired in April 2026.