How to clip Twitch and Kick streams

Twitch vs Kick: clip and VOD facts

The table compares the built-in tools as documented in each platform's help center in September 2026.

Sources: Twitch Help on clips and on-demand content; Kick Help Center on clips, VODs and VOD downloads. Kick also caps stored replays at 30 for verified channels and 16 for non-verified channels.

How to clip on Twitch

1. Open the live stream or the past broadcast. Click the clip icon on the player. On mobile, tap the video first to show it.
2. The Clip Creator opens as a movable overlay. Stream audio mutes so you can hear the clip audio.
3. Drag the slider under the video to set the length, up to 60 seconds.
4. Review the suggested crop. You can choose any aspect ratio from landscape 16:9 to portrait 9:16, or accept, adjust or dismiss the suggestion.
5. Add a title and click Publish. Clips are only saved when you publish with a title.
6. Open the Clips Manager to trim again, edit the portrait layout, download the clip, or share it.

Two limits to know. You cannot yet edit the portrait layout on mobile. And Twitch warns that clipping the first 1 minute 30 seconds of a VOD may cause an error. If only a landscape download is offered, the portrait version has not been made yet: edit the layout once, save, and wait for it to render (Twitch Help).

How to clip on Kick

1. Open the live stream or VOD while logged in.
2. Click the clip icon or press C.
3. Use the slider to set the length, up to 180 seconds, and add a title.
4. Click Publish.
5. Click Download to save the clip as an MP4, or copy the link to share it.

Only the channel owner can delete clips of their channel (Kick Help Center).

Longer edits: work from the VOD or provided footage

Built-in clips are short and lightly edited. For a tighter cut, captions, a hook and a campaign watermark, you need the source video in an editor.

• Streamers and their editors: download the VOD from the Twitch Video Producer (three-dot menu, then Download). Twitch has no bulk download. Audio muted by Twitch's audio recognition stays muted in the download.
• Clippers in a campaign: use the footage the brief names. On 2026-09-25, 8 of 22 public Clipster clipping campaigns (36%) were built on stream content, and 82% of clipping campaigns named a footage source such as a Drive, frame.io or Discord folder (Clipster campaign data).
• Everyone else: Twitch clips give you an official download of clips you created. Twitch's terms of service do not permit "downloading (except page caching) of any portion of the Twitch Services... except as expressly permitted on the Twitch Services" (Twitch Terms of Service). Third-party VOD downloaders are outside that permission unless you have the streamer's consent.
• Beat the expiry. Twitch deletes past broadcasts after 7, 14 or 60 days depending on the account, and Twitch Support cannot recover a VOD after that. Kick deletes replays after 7 or 30 days. Download or clip what you need early.
• Use markers. Streamers and editors can type /marker in chat during the stream. Markers and viewer clips then show on the Highlighter timeline, which makes the best moments easy to find (Twitch Help).

Vertical layouts: facecam and gameplay

Most stream clips need two things in a 9:16 frame: the streamer's face and the action. Twitch's own portrait editor offers two layouts: Stacked, which "splits your screen into 2 boxes" and is "ideal if your stream captures both face cam and gameplay", and Full, which uses one box. You can drag the line between the stacked boxes to change their sizes.

• Stacked (cam top, gameplay bottom): the default choice for gaming. Give the gameplay the larger box when the action carries the clip, and the cam the larger box when the reaction does.
• Full cam: for talking, IRL and "just chatting" moments, where the face is the content.
• Full gameplay with a small cam inset: when the play is the point and the face adds little.
• Keep the key HUD readable: the kill feed, the score or the chat message that triggered the reaction. Crop so it stays visible.
• Leave room for text: the seam between the two stacked boxes is a natural place for captions, clear of faces and the bottom app interface.
• Add the watermark last, in a zone that neither box needs. See how to add a campaign watermark.

Twitch says its automatic crop detects where the camera and gameplay appear and "does not store face data or perform facial recognition". If it cannot find them confidently, it starts from a centered crop.

Permission and platform rules

• The streamer controls clipping. On Twitch, streamers can turn clips off, limit them to followers or subscribers, block users, delete clips, and time out or ban clip makers.
• The streamer controls sharing. Viewers can post a streamer's clips directly to their own social accounts only if the streamer turned that setting on. On TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat, Twitch adds the streamer's channel name as a hashtag that cannot be removed.
• Commercial reposting needs permission. Posting someone else's stream to your own accounts for views or pay needs their permission, usually through a campaign or a direct agreement. See copyright and fair use for clippers.
• Do not take other clippers' clips. Many campaigns ban it outright. Clipster briefs for streamers on 2026-09-25 included "Reuploading, stealing, or downloading clips from other accounts = BAN".
• Watch for music. Twitch's Audio Recognition system can mute parts of a VOD, and the muted audio stays muted in downloads. The target platforms have their own music rules, so cut around licensed songs rather than reposting them.

Common mistakes

• Waiting too long, so the VOD expires before you clip it.
• Clipping a streamer who has not agreed to it, then posting for pay.
• Leaving the default landscape clip with black bars instead of making a proper portrait layout.
• Cropping away the facecam, so viewers see the play but not the reaction.
• Starting the clip too early. Start one or two seconds before the key action, not thirty.
• Forgetting the campaign watermark, or placing it under the app's buttons.

Questions

Sources

We checked every claim on this page against these sources on the date above. Platform rules and rates change often. Found an error? Tell us and we will fix it.

1. Twitch Help: How to Create, Edit, and Share Clips
2. Twitch Help: On-Demand Content on Twitch (VOD retention and downloads)
3. Twitch Help: Creating Highlights and Stream Markers
4. Twitch Terms of Service
5. Kick Help Center: How to create clips on KICK
6. Kick Help Center: KICK VODs (stream replays)
7. Kick Help Center: How to download your KICK VOD
8. Clipster public campaign data, snapshot 2026-09-25

Keep reading

• How to find the best moments to clip from a long video or streamFind clip-worthy moments fast: check YouTube's Most replayed graph, search the transcript, use Twitch clips and markers, then score each moment.
• How to add a campaign watermark or logo to your clipsAdd a campaign watermark or logo that gets approved: file types, placement, safe zones, steps in CapCut, Resolve, Clipchamp and iMovie, and rejection reasons.
• Is clipping legal? Copyright, permission and fair useClipping is legal with permission or a real fair use case. How DMCA takedowns, Content ID and strikes work, and why “no copyright intended” does nothing.
• What is a clipping campaign, and how does it work?A clipping campaign is a funded budget that pays clippers a rate per 1,000 verified views. See how briefs, caps, verification and payouts work, with 2026 data.
• The best tools for clipping, by jobCompare clipping tools by job: AI auto-clippers, free editors, stream clip tools and caption tools, with prices from each vendor's pricing page, September 2026.
• How to choose a niche for a clipping accountPick a niche where paid campaigns exist, footage is licensed, and you know the audience. Live Clipster data shows which niches campaigns accept.