Long videos & livestream replays
→ viral vertical shorts
A free, open-source AI clip generator that runs 100% on your machine. AI highlight detection · 9:16 face-tracked reframe · karaoke word-level captions — ready for TikTok, Reels, Shorts, Douyin and Bilibili.
Open source (AGPL-3.0) · no Python, no Docker — a real desktop app
The AI reads the whole transcript and nominates highlights — each with a virality score, hook, reasoning and word-accurate cut points. You make the call.
Three steps to publish
Import
Drop in a podcast, livestream replay, lecture or vlog (MP4 / MKV / MOV / FLV / TS, audio-only too). Hours-long replays go straight in — everything is processed locally.
Pick highlights
Local word-level transcription, then the AI nominates quotables, conflicts and peak moments — each with a virality score, an opening hook and its reasoning. Untick anything you don't like.
Export
One click produces vertical 9:16 clips: face-tracked reframe, karaoke captions, title cards, loudness normalization — plus a cover image and metadata, ready to post.
Why HotClip
🔒 Footage never leaves your machine
Transcription, highlight detection and cutting all run locally. Unreleased footage, client work, NDA material — nothing is handed to a cloud server.
🎯 Accurate cuts, with receipts
The LLM only decides which part; timestamps come from reverse-aligning the word-level transcript — the AI never guesses times. Every candidate ships with scores and reasoning you can veto.
✂️ Edits that feel hand-made
Silence jump cuts, filler-word removal, semantic caption line breaks, speaker-colored captions, opening-hook burn-in, -14 LUFS loudness — the whole finishing chain built in.
🤖 One-click hands-off mode
Press one button: transcribe → find highlights → export finished clips. A processing receipt logs exactly what the AI did to each clip.
🌏 Native Chinese + English
Dedicated ASR engines for Chinese (dialects and code-switching included), bilingual UI, language-routed prompts — not a translation afterthought.
🆓 Actually free
No credits, no watermark, no caps, no paywalled features. Bring your own LLM key — or run a local Ollama model fully offline.
How it compares
| HotClip | OpusClip / Klap / Vizard | CapCut smart clipping | FunClip etc. (open source) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free & open source | $15–29+/mo, credits per source minute, expire monthly | Core features paywalled | Free |
| Your footage | Stays local | Mandatory cloud upload | Mostly cloud | Local |
| Watermark / caps | None | Free tier: watermark, caps, projects expire in 3 days | Some restricted | None |
| Setup | Double-click installer | Web app | Easy | CLI / Docker |
| Cut quality | Word-aligned, reasoning attached | Black-box scoring | Black box | Sentence-level, unranked |
FAQ
Is HotClip free?
Yes — open source (AGPL-3.0), local, no watermark, no credits, no length caps. Optional cloud LLMs bill your own key; a local Ollama model makes it fully free and offline.
How is it different from OpusClip / Klap / Vizard?
Your footage never leaves your machine. Those tools upload to the cloud and meter credits per source minute (expiring monthly; watermarked free tiers). HotClip is free, local, watermark-free — and every cut comes with auditable reasoning.
Does it need an internet connection?
Transcription, captions, cutting and export are fully offline. Only highlight detection calls a cloud LLM by default (your key) — point it at local Ollama for a 100% offline pipeline.
Do I need a GPU?
No — the local ASR models are int8-quantized and run fine on CPU.
Can I clip other people's streams?
HotClip is for your own content or clips you're authorized to make (e.g. streamer clipping programs). Unauthorized re-uploading is not supported and not welcome.