Best Clipping Software for PC in 2026: 9 Tools Compared

Medal is our pick for most PC gamers. A replay buffer runs while you play, and pressing F8 saves the last 15 seconds to 10 minutes, while supported games like Valorant, Fortnite, and CS2 also save highlights on their own. Every clip gets a link that plays inline in Discord, and the built-in editor handles trimming, text, slow motion, and separate tracks for game audio, mic, and Discord chat.

The free tier carries ads and caps quick-share links at 14 days, while Premium starts at 6.99 dollars per month for an ad-free tier and 9.99 dollars per month for the full premium tier, adding watermark-free downloads, higher quality capture, and unlimited cloud storage. If you mainly want clips saved and shared with friends in seconds, Medal is the simplest tool that does the whole job.

Outplayed suits players who never want to think about clipping. In games with event detection, it bookmarks kills, wins, and other moments on a timeline automatically, with each clip covering up to 180 seconds around the event. Uploads go to outplayed.tv and onward to Discord, YouTube, and TikTok with one click, and the core recorder is free with a premium subscription removing ads and extending hosting.

The trade-off is the Overwolf wrapper. Outplayed runs inside the Overwolf client, which some players dislike having installed, and free-tier uploads are hosted for 3 months rather than indefinitely. For competitive players who review their own highlights, the automatic detection alone makes it worth trying.

OBS Studio is the most powerful free tool here, and the most work to set up as a clipper. Its replay buffer can save the last minutes of gameplay, but you must configure it yourself, including buffer length, hotkeys, and output settings. In return you get full control over bitrate, codecs including x264, x265, and AV1, scenes, sources, and overlays, plus full streaming to Twitch, YouTube, and Kick.

There is no built-in editor or one-click sharing, so clips become local files you edit and upload yourself. OBS suits players who already stream or want exact control over quality and performance. If you only want clips with friends, Medal or Outplayed will get you there faster.

NVIDIA App, which replaced GeForce Experience, includes ShadowPlay-style instant replay for owners of supported NVIDIA graphics cards. It records with hardware encoding, so the performance hit stays small, and you can save the last minutes of play with a hotkey, then trim and share from the in-app overlay. It costs nothing beyond the graphics card you already own.

The limits are hardware and sharing. Without an NVIDIA card it does not run, and its editing and social features are thinner than Medal's. For an NVIDIA owner who wants reliable capture without installing another app, it is the obvious first stop, and it pairs well with OBS for anyone who later wants more control.

Xbox Game Bar is already on your PC if you run Windows, which makes it the zero-effort option. Press Windows plus G to open widgets for capture, audio mixing, and performance, and save clips without installing anything or creating a new account. Clips land in your Videos folder and can be shared from there.

Dedicated tools beat it on settings, codec choice, and automatic highlights, and its capture length and quality options are modest. Still, for a casual player who clips occasionally and does not want another app running in the background, Game Bar covers the basics well enough that many players never need more.

SteelSeries Moments lives inside the SteelSeries GG app, which many players already install for headsets, keyboards, and mice. It captures clips with a hotkey and auto-detects highlights in supported games, then lets you trim and share without leaving the app. The core capture is free, and it integrates with SteelSeries hardware profiles.

The catch is the ecosystem tie. If you do not use SteelSeries gear, there is less reason to install GG just for clipping, and its supported-game list is narrower than Medal's or Outplayed's. For a SteelSeries household, though, Moments is a convenient extra that costs nothing.

Streamlabs Desktop takes OBS and wraps it in a friendlier setup, with guided onboarding, themes, alerts, and widgets for streamers. Its replay buffer works like OBS, saving recent gameplay on a hotkey, and the same app handles full streams, so a player who both streams and clips needs only one tool. The base app is free.

It is heavier on system resources than plain OBS, and some themes and advanced features require the paid Ultra subscription. A pure clipper will find Medal simpler, but a streamer who wants one app for broadcasts, alerts, and replays will find Streamlabs a comfortable middle ground.

Bandicam is a general screen recorder that works well for gameplay. It records DirectX and OpenGL games, the desktop, and external devices, with a simple interface that new users learn quickly and a small performance footprint. The free version watermarks recordings and limits length, while the paid license removes those limits.

It has no automatic highlight detection and no social sharing layer, so it fits players who want clean recordings to edit themselves rather than instant clips for Discord. For tutorials, reviews, and long recordings, Bandicam's simplicity is a genuine strength.

FBX Game Recorder targets players on modest hardware. It records gameplay with a small footprint, uses a simple hotkey workflow, and offers a free version for basic capture, with a paid version adding longer recordings and higher quality. Setup takes minutes, and the interface stays out of the way.

The downside is scale. FBX has a smaller community than OBS or Medal, fewer guides, and basic editing, so power users will outgrow it. For an older or budget PC where every frame counts, its light touch makes it a sensible choice.