Medal

What is Medal and how does it work?

Medal is a game clipping app: it records your PC gameplay in the background and saves a clip when you press a hotkey, so you only keep the moments worth sharing.

You choose how far back a clip reaches, from the last 15 seconds to a whole session. Medal says it works with any PC game and with Nvidia, AMD and Intel graphics cards, records up to 4K at 144fps (60fps by default), and uses 100 to 400MB of memory while it runs. In supported games such as Valorant, League of Legends, Fortnite and Counter-Strike it can clip automatically when something happens, such as a multi-kill. Each clip gets a link you can paste into Discord or a group chat, and the phone apps let you watch, trim and post clips you made on your PC.

Is Medal free?

Yes. Medal's own Premium page says all free users can download, clip, edit, upload, share and watch posted clips from any device.

The free plan has limits, set out in Medal's Cloud FAQ:

• Uploads up to 20 minutes long, at up to 1080p and 60fps
• No Medal Cloud sync for backing up your library
• Watermarks and outros that can't be removed from downloads
• Adverts in the app

Private share links on the free plan expire after 14 days, according to Medal's help pages, while Premium links stay up as long as the clip stays in the cloud.

How much does Medal Premium cost in the UK?

Medal doesn't print a price on its Premium page, but the UK App Store lists the subscription (called Medal Gold there) at £7.99 a month or £76.99 a year, which works out at about £6.42 a month.

The store also lists a second price of £6.99 a month and £69.99 a year, so the price you're offered may vary. Premium is billed monthly or yearly and starts with a 14-day free trial, one per account. On the desktop app Medal takes a small test charge to check your card and refunds it. Prices on the desktop checkout may differ from the App Store, so it's worth comparing before you subscribe.

Is Medal Premium worth paying for?

Premium is worth it if you upload long clips or want to keep your library in the cloud; for occasional clipping and sharing with friends the free plan is enough.

Premium adds unlimited upload length, uploads up to 4K and 144fps in original quality, unlimited Medal Cloud storage, links that don't expire, removable watermarks, auto-generated subtitles in the editor and no ads. The rest of the perks are profile cosmetics: GIF avatars and banners, custom hotkey sounds, an animated background and a premium badge. If you mainly clip for Discord and never download clips for YouTube or TikTok, the watermark and quality limits matter less.

Medal vs Nvidia ShadowPlay and Outplayed: which is better?

Medal suits players who want clipping, editing and sharing in one free app on any graphics card; ShadowPlay suits Nvidia owners who only want a lightweight instant replay.

ShadowPlay, part of Nvidia's own software, only works with Nvidia graphics cards and saves clips to your PC with no sharing network around them. Outplayed, which runs inside the Overwolf platform, focuses on automatically recording highlights. Medal's extra pull is its social side: a feed of friends' clips, instant links, a Discord bot and phone apps. Trustpilot reviewers who left Medal mention missed or vanished clips and overlay crashes, so if reliability in one particular game matters most, it's worth comparing the apps on your own PC.

Is Medal safe to install?

Medal is made by Medal B.V., a Dutch company, and is listed on the App Store and Google Play; the most common complaint about the desktop app is how hard it is to get rid of.

Some Trustpilot reviewers say the desktop app is hard to uninstall and keeps starting with Windows, so it's worth checking its startup settings after installing. Clips you post publicly can be seen by anyone, so check a clip's privacy setting before sharing.