There is a three-letter edit that turns any YouTube page into an audio editor: type cut into the domain, so youtube.com becomes youtubecut.com, and press Enter. Same video id, same everything else — you land on Samplecut with that video's audio already being extracted.
No paste step, no download client, no account. Below: the edit itself, every URL form it accepts, the timestamp shortcut, and the things it will not do.
Step 1 — Add three letters to the domain
Open the video on YouTube and click into the address bar. Insert cut straight after youtube so the host reads youtubecut.com, and leave the rest of the URL exactly as it is.
youtube.com/watch?v=… → youtubecut.com/watch?v=…
If the address bar shows www.youtube.com, m.youtube.com or music.youtube.com, replace the whole host with youtubecut.com — the prefixes do not carry over.
Step 2 — Press Enter
The address resolves to Samplecut and extraction begins on arrival: the audio track is pulled server-side and drawn as a waveform, normally within a few seconds. Nothing is installed, and nothing is uploaded from your machine.
You are now in the editor, on the video you were watching a moment ago.
Step 3 — Trim the waveform and download
The highlighted region on the waveform is your cut. Drag its edges onto the section you want, loop it to check them by ear, then download it as WAV (uncompressed, for audio headed into an editor) or MP3 at 320 kbps (a tenth of the size, plays anywhere). Both are free and neither asks for an account.
The editor itself — zooming, keeping several cuts from one video, publishing a cut to a permanent link — is covered in cut audio from a YouTube video.
A worked example
Using the id every example on the internet uses:
- Before —
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ - After —
https://youtubecut.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
Only the host changed. The v= id is the part Samplecut reads; parameters it has no use for, such as a playlist list=, are ignored rather than rejected.
Which YouTube links it works on
Every URL form YouTube hands out has a target here:
youtube.com/watch?v=…→youtubecut.com/watch?v=…youtube.com/shorts/…→youtubecut.com/shorts/…youtube.com/live/…→youtubecut.com/live/…youtube.com/embed/…→youtubecut.com/embed/…youtu.be/…→youtubecut.com/watch?v=…
The short youtu.be links are the one case that is not a plain host swap: they carry the id as a bare path segment with no /watch in front of it, so move the id into ?v= yourself. For the other four, it is the host and nothing but the host.
A timestamp pre-selects a ten-second range
YouTube's "copy link at current time" appends a t parameter. Carry it across and it is not merely preserved, it is used: a ten-second range starting at that moment is already selected when the waveform appears.
youtubecut.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&t=90 opens at 1:30 with 1:30–1:40 highlighted.
Both forms YouTube emits are understood — bare seconds (t=90) and the clock form (t=1h2m3s) — and start= behaves the same as t=. Ten seconds is a starting point, not a commitment; drag the edges once you are there.
What it will not do
The limits are worth knowing before you send someone a link:
- Long videos are rejected. Extraction caps out at roughly 40 minutes of source video; past that the link fails rather than half-working.
- Some videos cannot be pulled at all. Age-restricted, private and members-only videos usually fail, and region-locked ones can too. Another upload of the same content often works.
- It is not a video downloader. Audio only, as WAV or MP3 — there is no video file at the end of this.
- The audio is not yours. It belongs to whoever made the video. Personal use is one thing; releasing, publishing or monetising what you cut needs the rights or a license.
Frequently asked questions
What does adding cut to a YouTube URL actually do?
It points the same address at Samplecut instead of YouTube. Samplecut reads the video id out of the URL you kept intact, extracts that video’s audio server-side, and shows it as a waveform you can trim. YouTube itself is untouched.
Does it download the video?
No — audio only. You get a WAV or an MP3 of the whole track or of the section you highlight, and nothing is written to your machine until you press download.
Does the trick work on Shorts and youtu.be links?
Shorts, live and embed URLs work with a plain host swap: keep the path, change youtube.com to youtubecut.com. A youtu.be short link needs one extra move, because the id sits in the path with no /watch in front of it — write it as youtubecut.com/watch?v=<id>.
Do I need an account or any software?
Neither. Extracting, trimming and downloading run in the browser, free, with no sign-in. Signing in is required for exactly one optional thing: publishing a cut to the shared library so it gets a permanent link of its own.
Why did a link fail?
Two common reasons: the video is longer than the roughly 40-minute extraction cap, or it is age-restricted, private or members-only, which usually cannot be pulled. Region-locked videos can fail too.