YouTube AI Shorts tools missing in EEA, UK, Switzerland: use an API
YouTube lists several Shorts AI tools as not available in the EEA, UK or Switzerland. If you are there, generate the clip with an API and upload the MP4.
If you are in the European Economic Area, the UK or Switzerland, several of YouTube's own Shorts AI tools are not offered to you. YouTube's help page lists Green Screen Background as unavailable in the EEA, Create Standalone Video Clip as unavailable in the EEA and UK, and Photo to Video and Make Me Move as unavailable in the EEA, UK and Switzerland. The workaround is to generate the clip elsewhere, for example through Sume's video API, export a 9:16 MP4, and upload it as a normal Short. The label question stays yours.
What the help page says, tool by tool
The list comes from Create content for Shorts using AI-generated features, read 2026-10-04. The Create app page, Create with AI in the YouTube Create app, has its own country list, which lists Gemini Omni video generation as available on mobile in Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and the United States. Check both pages for your market on the day you read this; availability changes.
| Tool | What it makes | Not available in |
|---|---|---|
| Green Screen Background | Images and videos from text prompts, added as a green-screen background | EEA |
| Create Standalone Video Clip | Videos up to 10 seconds from text prompts and reference images | EEA and UK |
| Photo to Video | Shorts from your own photos | EEA, UK, Switzerland |
| Make Me Move | A Short where you move in the style of a reference video, from a photo of yourself and preset moves | EEA, UK, Switzerland |
| Audio-to-Short | Shorts of 8 seconds to 3 minutes from audio-first videos with text transcripts | Available only in Australia, Canada, UK and US (desktop only) |
The API route
Video generation and the Video Router are available through an API key, not through a YouTube feature flag. The router docs describe Auto defaults of 720p and 8 seconds, with 3 to 10 second clips at 16:9 or 9:16, and per-model limits, for instance seedance-2.5 at 4 to 30 seconds and 480p, 720p or 1080p, and gemini-omni-flash-1.1 at 3 to 10 seconds with synced audio. Read capabilities from GET /v1/video-router/models rather than assuming a model's range.
Set aspect_ratio to 9:16 for a Short, wait on the job as described in jobs and results, and download the MP4. Several clips become one Short through Timeline 1.0, whose default output is 1080x1920.
What you do not get
Sume does not replicate YouTube's one-tap flow: you upload the file yourself in Studio or through YouTube's API. I did not verify how YouTube's own tools disclose their output. For a file generated elsewhere, set the altered or synthetic content answer yourself when you upload, if the clip shows realistic people, places or events. The YouTube rule is covered here.
Also check regional rules that sit outside YouTube's help page; this post does not summarize EU or UK law.
Sources
Related posts
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Written by Sume