Best Clipping Software for PC in 2026

Medal is the easiest clipper to live with if you play often and share clips with friends. It keeps a replay buffer running while you play, so you press a hotkey after a good moment and save the last seconds or minutes without thinking about recording in advance. In supported games such as Valorant, Fortnite and CS2, highlights can save themselves, which means you miss fewer moments when you forget to press the key. The built-in editor covers trim, text, slow motion and separate audio tracks for game, mic and Discord, so many clips are ready to share without opening another app. Share links play inline in Discord and can be formatted for short-form video. Medal is free, with Premium listed at 9.99 dollars per month in some comparisons for longer replay, longer link hosting and no ads. The free tier shows ads and limits quick-share hosting, so check current Premium terms if you share a lot.

OBS Studio is not a clipper in the same sense as Medal, but it is the most capable free recorder on PC, and many creators already use it for streaming. You can record any window or display, set bitrate and encoder settings, add facecam and overlays, and stream to Twitch or YouTube from the same app. That control is why power users and streamers keep OBS even when they use a simpler clipper for quick moments. For clipping, you need to enable the replay buffer and set a hotkey, then trim the saved file in an editor. There are no auto highlights and no share links, so the workflow is longer. OBS is free and open source with no paid tier, which makes it the best choice when budget is zero and control matters more than speed. If you want one-hotkey clips with no setup, Medal will feel faster.

NVIDIA App, which includes the ShadowPlay instant replay feature, is the best clipper for many NVIDIA owners simply because it is already there and costs nothing extra. It keeps a replay buffer running with hardware encoding, so saving the last minutes of play has very little effect on frame rate. That low cost matters in competitive games, where a heavy recorder can hurt performance at the worst moment. Capture quality is strong, and clips save as local files you can edit or upload anywhere. The trade-off is that NVIDIA App is not a social clipper: there is no feed, no auto highlights in the Medal sense, and sharing means uploading the file yourself. If you own an NVIDIA card and want reliable instant replay without a new app, start here. If you want auto highlights and one-click sharing, add Medal alongside it.

Xbox Game Bar is the fallback every Windows PC already has, and that is its main strength. You can open it with a shortcut, record a clip or take a screenshot, and trim the result without installing anything. Background recording needs to be enabled in Windows Settings under Gaming and Captures, so take a minute to set length and quality before you need it in a match. Quality is capped at 1080p at 60 frames per second for background recording, and sharing means finding the local file and uploading it yourself. There are no auto highlights, no cloud library and no advanced editor. Game Bar is best for casual players who clip rarely, for a second PC, or for a quick capture when another app fails. Serious creators will outgrow it fast, but it is always available when you need it.

Outplayed, by Overwolf, is built around automatic highlights. In games with event detection, it detects kills, wins and other events and bookmarks them on a timeline, with clips running up to 180 seconds before and after the event in vendor descriptions. That hands-off capture suits competitive players who want a record of key moments without pressing a key after every play. Clips upload to outplayed.tv with one click and can be shared to Discord, YouTube and TikTok. The app is free, with a Premium subscription that removes ads and extends hosting, since free-tier uploads are hosted for three months in vendor comparisons. The main trade-off is the Overwolf platform itself: you need to run Overwolf, and some players prefer a standalone app. If you play supported titles and want auto highlights without managing a replay buffer, Outplayed is a strong pick.

SteelSeries Moments lives inside SteelSeries GG, the companion app for SteelSeries headsets, mice and keyboards. If you already run GG for device settings, Moments adds clipping without another standalone app to manage. You can capture moments, trim them and share them, with the same low-friction flow as other instant replay tools. Moments is free, which makes it easy to try alongside Medal or NVIDIA App. It is less suited to players who do not use SteelSeries gear or GG, since the main benefit is integration with that ecosystem. Editing is simpler than Medal, so creators who need text, effects and vertical formatting will still need another editor. For SteelSeries users who want quick clips from an app they already open daily, Moments is a practical choice.

Streamlabs Desktop is based on OBS but adds a more guided setup, built-in alerts, overlays and widgets for streamers. That makes it a good pick if you plan to move from clipping to streaming, because you can record now and add a live setup later without learning a second app from scratch. Recording quality and scene control are close to OBS, with a friendlier first-run flow. The downside is weight: Streamlabs uses more resources than a light clipper such as Medal or NVIDIA App, and some themes and advanced features require a Prime subscription. For pure clipping, a dedicated clipper will be faster. For a creator who wants one app for recording, streaming and on-screen alerts, Streamlabs is a sensible middle ground between OBS control and Medal simplicity.

Bandicam is a long-running Windows recorder that focuses on simple, high-quality capture rather than social clipping. You can record a game, a window or a screen region, with settings for quality and frame rate that are easy to understand. That simplicity suits players who want clean local files for YouTube or tutorials, and creators who record non-game content as well. The free version has limits, including a watermark and recording length limits in vendor descriptions, while the paid version is listed at around 33 dollars per year in some comparisons. Check the current Bandicam pricing page for your region before you buy, since pricing can vary. Bandicam has no auto highlights, no replay buffer in the Medal sense and no share links, so it fits best when you plan to record full sessions and edit them yourself.