Podcast to Reels: turn a full episode into vertical clips

What podcast to Reels really involves

A podcast episode is an hour of two people in a wide frame. A Reel is a vertical clip that has to earn the next swipe in its first seconds. Getting from one to the other is four jobs: find the moments worth a clip, cut them cleanly, crop a wide shot to vertical without losing the speaker, and add captions people can read with the sound off. KeyMo does all four in one pass and hands you finished files.

Instagram's help page says a reel can be uploaded at any aspect ratio from 1.91:1 up to 9:16, with a minimum of 30 FPS and 720 pixels. 9:16 is the full-vertical end of that range. Instagram for Creators adds two pieces of advice that matter for podcast clips: upload the highest resolution you can, and make the first 3 seconds engaging.

That second point is the real editing problem with podcasts. Conversation rarely opens on its best line, so the cut point decides whether a clip works. KeyMo scores every clip out of 10 and gives a one-line reason, so you start from a ranked shortlist instead of scrubbing a timeline.

How the podcast to Reels workflow runs in KeyMo

1. Add the episode. Upload an MP4 or MOV (5 minutes to 3 hours, up to 10 GB), or paste a YouTube link if you are on a paid plan. Link import fetches up to 1080p, and you confirm that you own the video or have permission to use it.
2. Choose a clip length. Auto picks 15 to 90 seconds. Short is 20 to 40, Medium 40 to 60 and Long 60 to 90.
3. Read the shortlist. Each clip carries a score out of 10 and a one-line reason. Only clips scoring 7 or higher are kept, so a weak episode returns fewer clips, never more than 15.
4. Pick a caption style. There are 12: Pro Glow, Bold Pop, Clean, Punch, Classic, Spotlight, Pulse, Karaoke, Reader, Duo, Slide and Headline. You can also export with no captions. Captions run word by word.
5. Check the crop. KeyMo reframes to 9:16 by tracking faces, and it trims silence.
6. Adjust and export. Open a clip in the chat editor and tell KeyMo what to change, add a track from the music library (sorted by mood), then download the clips as one ZIP.

If you want the same process for a different shape of show, the podcast clip generator page covers it, and how to clip a podcast explains choosing moments by hand.

Instagram's numbers next to KeyMo's output

Instagram's boosting page asks for a reel of 90 seconds or less in full-screen 9:16. KeyMo's longest clip is 90 seconds and nothing it exports is 16:9. Boosting has other rules, including no licensed music, so read that page before you add a music bed to a clip you plan to promote.

Captions and the Reels safe area

Instagram's official safe-zone numbers come from Meta's ad guide for Reels video ads: keep at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side free of text and logos, so the profile icon and call to action do not cover them. That is ad guidance. The Instagram pages read for this article give no equivalent figures for organic Reels.

KeyMo's caption placement is not documented against those figures, so do not assume a style clears them. Post one test clip, look at it in the Instagram preview on a phone, and change the caption style if the words sit under the interface. Then run the rest of the batch. The same ad guide calls on-video captions optional but recommended.

Example: a 45-minute two-person interview

Say you have a 45-minute interview recorded as a wide shot of two people. You upload the MP4 and leave the length on Auto. For a video up to 60 minutes, KeyMo's built-in target is 8 to 12 clips. That is a target, not a measured result, and the 7-out-of-10 cut-off can bring the number down.

The episode uses 45 of the 300 source minutes in a Starter month. In the shortlist you read the reasons, watch the first few seconds of each of the top clips, and drop any that open mid-thought. KeyMo tracks faces to make the 9:16 crop, so check that the speaker stays in frame on each clip. Open a clip in the chat editor if the crop or cut needs a change, then download the survivors.

What you get and what you do not

Files are kept briefly: source uploads for 7 days and finished clips for 30. Download what you want to keep.

Who it suits and a quick rule

• Hosts who publish a full episode every week and want a batch of Reels from it without opening an editor.
• Small teams and clip editors who need a ranked list to hand around.
• Creators whose shows are mostly talking, where captions and a good crop carry the clip.

The rule: if you need one hand-picked clip a month, a phone editor is enough. If you want eight or more clips from each episode, a ranked, captioned batch saves the repetitive part. Starter is $12 a month for 300 source minutes and Pro is $29 for 900. Minutes are counted on the length of the video you put in, not on clips out. Yearly plans are ten times the monthly price, and visitors in India see Rs 799 and Rs 1,999. See pricing for the current plans.

Compare before you pay

Other clippers cover similar ground, and the details differ by plan and by month. Our side-by-side pages read each vendor's own site: KeyMo vs Opus Clip and KeyMo vs Vizard are the two most requested. Once your clips are ready, captions for Reels covers how to choose a style.