Kick gives you a clip button, but a Kick clip is a straight cut of the stream (widescreen, for most channels) with no captions, and the VOD it came from disappears after 7 or 30 days. Here is how to clip Kick streams properly in 2026: what Kick's own tool can and can't do, how long you have before a VOD expires, and how to turn a four-hour stream into vertical, captioned clips for TikTok, Shorts and Reels. (We build a clipping tool that takes Kick links; the limits below are Kick's own, checked today.)
Kick clips run from 10 to 180 seconds, any logged-in viewer can make one, and they download as MP4. They are not ready for TikTok or Shorts as they are: they keep the stream's shape and have no captions. VODs last 7 days on non-verified channels and 30 days on verified ones, so clip a stream in its first week. The quickest route is to paste the past broadcast link into a clipping tool, pick the part of the stream you want, and get vertical, captioned clips back.
How long can Kick clips be?
At least one of the top-ranking guides says a Kick clip only captures the last 30 to 60 seconds. Kick's own help centre says otherwise. As of its June 2026 update:
- Length: 10 to 180 seconds, on desktop and mobile. You trim it with a slider before publishing.
- How: press C, or click the clip icon, while watching a live stream or a VOD.
- Who: any logged-in viewer, as well as the streamer.
- Cooldown: 60 seconds between clips.
- Downloads: open a clip and press Download to save it as an MP4.
- Deleting: only the channel owner can delete clips from their channel.
Three minutes is a useful ceiling, because YouTube now counts square and vertical videos of up to three minutes as Shorts. What Kick's tool doesn't do is the part feeds care about: the help centre describes a length slider and a title, and nothing for vertical framing or captions.
How long do Kick VODs last?
This is the deadline that decides your clipping routine. Per Kick's help centre (updated May 2026):
- Channels that aren’t verified: VODs stay up for 7 days after the stream ends, and up to 16 are held at once.
- Verified channels: VODs stay up for 30 days after the stream ends, and up to 30 are held at once.
Partner and Verified channels can also pin up to five VODs, and Kick keeps a pinned VOD for good. Pin the streams you'll want to go back to. You can only pin a VOD while it's still inside its retention window.
Downloading a full VOD is clunkier. Kick's help article on it (May 2026) points to third-party downloaders, or to finding the stream's .m3u8 address in your browser's developer tools. If you'd rather not deal with either, use a tool that takes the VOD link directly.
Three ways to clip a Kick stream
1. Kick’s clip button
Good for grabbing one moment in seconds, live or from a VOD. The catch: the clip keeps the stream’s shape, has no captions and tops out at 3 minutes, so it still needs editing before TikTok or Shorts.
Free · one moment at a time
2. Download the VOD and edit it yourself
Good for full control, including the stacked facecam-over-gameplay layout. The catch: a third-party downloader, then hours of scrubbing through a long stream to find the moments.
Free · costs you the hours
3. Paste the VOD link into an AI clipping tool
Good for turning a whole stream into a batch of finished clips. The catch: you pay for the minutes processed, and you still need to review what it picks.
Paid per minute of video · minutes of your time to review
The first two are free and work fine if you clip one moment a week. Once you want several clips from every stream, scrubbing becomes the bottleneck: a four-hour stream is four hours of footage to search, even at double speed.
Paste the past broadcast link (kick.com/channel/videos/…) and drag the time range to the part you want: the two hours after you started ranked, say, or just the last 90 minutes. You're only charged for that range, at 1 credit per minute, so 90 minutes of a four-hour stream costs 90 credits. The AI reads the transcript, picks the moments with a hook and a payoff, reframes them to 9:16 and burns in word-by-word captions. A stream that's still live is turned away until it ends, and so is a single Kick clip, which is too short to cut into more clips. See how it works →
What to clip from a Kick stream
The rules are the same as for any stream. The moments that travel are the ones a stranger understands in the first two seconds:
- Reactions: the big win, the disaster, the moment your voice cracks.
- Takes: 30 to 60 seconds of you being properly opinionated about the game, the meta or the drama of the week.
- Stories with a payoff: a setup, a turn and an ending, inside about a minute.
- Chat moments: you and chat sparking off each other. That's the part only live content has.
Skip raw gameplay with no commentary, in-jokes that need a year of channel history, and anything that opens with "so anyway". Our Twitch clipping guide covers stream moments in more depth, and this one covers clip length.
One rule worth knowing before you post a long clip to YouTube: a Short over one minute with an active copyright claim of any kind is blocked worldwide until the claim is resolved. If a moment has game music or a song playing under it, keep the clip under a minute or cut the music.
Making a widescreen stream work vertically
A 9:16 frame is about a third as wide as a 16:9 stream, so something has to give. Three layouts work:
- Crop to the speaker. For reactions and takes, you are the content. Crop to your face and let the gameplay go. ClipDocker's Follow speaker mode does this automatically and follows whoever is talking.
- Keep the whole frame. When the play itself is the moment, show the full 16:9 shot with bars above and below, and put the captions in the bar underneath. In ClipDocker that's Full frame.
- Split the screen. For duo or group streams, Everyone puts up to three people on screen at once. ClipDocker doesn't build the classic facecam-over-gameplay stack for you; that's still a job for a manual editor. On paid plans you can adjust any clip's framing in ClipDocker's editor before export.
Whichever layout you use, caption everything. Captions carry the clip for anyone watching with the sound off, and stream audio (game noise, alerts, mic peaks) is the hardest kind to follow without words on screen.
What it costs
Streams are long, so the time range does the real work on cost. Pick the best stretch rather than processing the whole broadcast. With ClipDocker:
Free: try it on one stream
60 one-time credits is an hour of a stream: enough to test it on your best hour. Clips download with a ClipDocker watermark, and because TikTok refuses watermarked videos through its posting API, posting to TikTok from ClipDocker needs a paid plan. Clips are kept for one day.
£0 · 60 credits once · watermarked
Starter: one weekly stream, tight ranges
150 credits a month, so about 35 minutes from each of four weekly streams, with up to 10 clips from each. No watermark, the full editor, and posting and scheduling to TikTok. Good if you already know roughly where the best part of your stream is.
£9.99 a month (monthly only) · 150 credits a month · see Starter
Pro: the streamer plan
400 credits a month (about 6.5 hours), so 90 minutes from each of four weekly streams with room to spare. Up to 20 clips per stream.
£19.99 a month or £10 a month billed yearly · see Pro
If you stream daily or clip for several channels, Studio (1,000 credits a month) is the next step. Credit top-ups start at 10 for £2.99 if you only run over occasionally. And remember the deadline: download your clips while they're kept (two days on Starter and Pro), and process each VOD before Kick deletes it.
Clipping someone else's channel? Kick lets any logged-in viewer make a clip, but reposting it on your own TikTok is a separate question. Ask first, or work through a paid campaign that grants the rights. This guide covers getting paid to clip.
Turn this week's stream into this week's clips. Paste a Kick VOD link, pick the range and get captioned 9:16 clips back. Pro is £19.99 a month for 400 credits, or start with Starter at £9.99. See plans → Not ready yet? Try it free with 60 credits.
Frequently asked questions
How long can a Kick clip be?
Between 10 and 180 seconds, on desktop and mobile, according to Kick's help centre. Press C or click the clip icon on a live stream or a VOD, trim it with the slider and publish. There is a 60-second cooldown between clips.
How long do Kick VODs stay up?
Seven days after the stream ends on non-verified channels and 30 days on verified ones. Partner and Verified channels can pin up to five VODs, and Kick keeps pinned VODs for good.
Can you download Kick clips and VODs?
Clips, yes: open one and press Download to save an MP4. For full VODs, Kick's help centre points to third-party downloaders or to finding the stream's .m3u8 link yourself. Clipping tools that take a Kick VOD link skip the download altogether.
How do you post Kick clips to TikTok?
A Kick clip keeps the stream's shape (widescreen, for most channels) and has no captions, so reframe it to 9:16 and add captions first. A clipping tool like ClipDocker does both from the VOD link, and paid plans can post or schedule straight to TikTok.