People look up GTA 5 recording for two opposite reasons. Some just pulled off a getaway or a heist finale and want to know which key saves it and where the clip went. Others never meant to record anything, yet a red dot keeps blinking in the corner and clips keep piling up. Both are about the Rockstar Editor, the recorder and video editor built into GTA V on PC. Because its prompts live on the same Alt key you use to switch characters, it is easy to start a recording by accident while driving or fighting. This guide follows Rockstar Support's article How to Record Clips and Access the Rockstar Editor in GTAV on PC, last updated April 26, 2024, for the start and stop keys and for where the editor lives. The cancel key and the folder paths are not in that article, so they come from what several community guides and Steam threads agree on. Bindings can be changed, so the Key Bindings screen in your own game always has the final word. It also covers the most common search, rockstar editor export location, and the fix for the editor not showing up. At the end you will find a way to keep whole sessions of GTA 5, GTA Online and FiveM roleplay without pressing a single key.
Short answer: hold Alt, F1 to record, F2 to save, cancel with Alt+F3, then export from Story Mode
Rockstar Support says that on PC you hold the Switch Characters control, Alt by default, to bring up the recording prompts. Press F1 while holding it to start recording, then hold Alt and press F2 to stop and save the clip. Community guides consistently list F3, pressed with Alt, as the cancel key that ends a recording without saving it, but they do not all describe the other combinations the same way, so treat the Rockstar Editor section under Settings > Key Bindings as the source of truth. The same prompt also offers Action Replay. While it is on, the game keeps buffering recent gameplay in the background so you can save a moment after it happens, and that buffering is what most players see when a red dot blinks even though they never pressed record. On a controller, hold down on the D pad to open the character wheel and follow the button prompts it shows. A saved clip is not a video file yet. Pause in Story Mode, open the Rockstar Editor tab on the far right, add clips to a project and export it to render an mp4. If the editor is not showing up while you are in GTA Online, that is expected: the tab only appears in the Story Mode pause menu, and clips you recorded online are waiting there too. If videos keep appearing but no prompt ever showed up in the game, the culprit is probably Windows Game Bar background recording or your GPU software's instant replay rather than GTA itself, so check Xbox Game Bar recording and NVIDIA Instant Replay as well.
From recording to an exported video, step by step
- 1Check your bindings under Key BindingsPress Esc, go to Settings, open Key Bindings and scroll to the Rockstar Editor section. It lists the keys for starting, stopping and cancelling a recording and for Action Replay. Rockstar's defaults are Alt for the prompts, F1 to start and F2 to stop. If you are on a shared PC or you have remapped controls before, this screen is the only reliable answer.
- 2Hold Alt and press F1 to record, F2 to saveJust before the moment you want, hold Alt and the recording prompts appear. Press F1 to start and a recording indicator shows in the corner. When the moment is over, hold Alt again and press F2 to stop and save it as a clip. On a controller, hold down on the D pad to open the character wheel and use the buttons it displays. Time slows while the wheel is open in Story Mode but not in GTA Online, so get to cover before you open it there.
- 3Use Action Replay for moments you could not planCrashes, stunt jumps and police chases rarely give you time to press F1. Turn on Action Replay from the same Alt prompt and the game keeps buffering recent footage, so you can save the last stretch after something happens. Remember that the red dot keeps blinking while it runs. Clip length is not fixed: guides describe roughly 30 to 90 seconds, shorter when the scene is busy.
- 4Stop a recording you started by accidentIf a red dot is blinking and you never meant to record, hold Alt and press the cancel key, F3 in most guides, to end it without saving. Clips that were already saved can be deleted from Clip Management in the Rockstar Editor. If it keeps happening, remap the Rockstar Editor keys to something like the numpad. On a controller it often starts when you tap down on the D pad while sprinting, so stop, open the wheel on purpose and let go.
- 5Open the Rockstar Editor from the Story Mode pause menuRockstar Support places the editor in the Story Mode pause menu, under the Rockstar Editor tab on the far right. If the Rockstar Editor is not showing up, check whether you are in GTA Online; the tab does not appear there, so switch to Story Mode first. Clips recorded online are stored in the same Clip Management list. Inside the editor you will find Clip Management, project creation, Director Mode for staging scenes, and the Video Gallery for finished exports.
- 6Build a project and export it to mp4Create a new project, add clips, trim them to the parts you need and choose Export. Rendering starts, and only when it finishes do you have a video file you can play or upload. Raw clips do not open in other programs, so this step is required before sharing. PC Gamer notes that footage recorded in first person does not let you change the camera in the editor, so record in third person when you want more angles. Render time grows with length and quality.
- 7Find the files on diskCommunity threads point to two folders. Raw clips sit in Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA V\videos\clips, and exported mp4 files go to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Rockstar Games\GTA V\videos\rendered. Paste %LOCALAPPDATA% into the File Explorer address bar to jump straight there. The clips folder grows quickly, so delete clips you do not need from Clip Management, and back up before moving the folder by hand. Paths can differ by install.
GTA 5 recording at a glance: keys and locations
| Task | Default PC input or location | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Start recording | Hold Alt, press F1 (controller: hold down on the D pad, follow the prompt) | Default binding per Rockstar Support. If you changed it, check the Rockstar Editor section of Key Bindings. |
| Stop and save | Hold Alt, press F2 | Saved clips appear in Clip Management inside the Rockstar Editor. |
| Cancel without saving | Alt+F3, as community guides list it | Guides differ on details, so trust your Key Bindings screen. On laptops where F keys change brightness or volume, add Fn. |
| Action Replay | Turned on and saved from the same Alt prompt | A red dot blinks while it buffers. If you see the dot and did not mean to record, turn this off first. |
| Raw clips | Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA V\videos\clips | Path reported across community threads. These are editor files and will not play in a media player. |
| Exported videos (mp4) | %LOCALAPPDATA%\Rockstar Games\GTA V\videos\rendered | This is the usual rockstar editor export location; the Video Gallery in the editor plays them too. It can vary by install. |
| First person footage | Camera angle cannot be changed in the editor, per PC Gamer | Record in third person when you want to reframe the shot later. |
Before you record GTA 5
- You checked the start, stop, cancel and Action Replay keys in the Rockstar Editor section of Key Bindings.
- On a laptop, you know whether your F keys need Fn to reach the game.
- Shots you want to reframe later will be recorded in third person.
- Action Replay is off when you are not using it, and the red dot is gone.
- You will edit and export from the Rockstar Editor tab in the Story Mode pause menu.
- The drive that holds the clips folder has free space to spare.
- Windows Game Bar or GPU software is not also recording in the background.
Record GTA 5 without pressing a key: DOR records it for you
The Rockstar Editor needs a key press before the moment, and every clip has to go back through Story Mode and a render before it becomes a video. If you would rather skip all of that, use DOR. DOR is a free Windows app that detects GTA 5 when you launch it and records the whole session in the background as one mp4 until you close the game. Story Mode, GTA Online and the FiveM roleplay servers you join with friends all work the same way, so the heist finale or the physics accident nobody saw coming is already on disk. Game audio and your microphone are captured together, so the voice chat with your crew stays in the clip, and the recording plays straight from the DOR library with no render step. Trim the part you want in the library, export it in 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1, and send a single dor.gg link that opens in any browser without the app. To stitch several moments into one video, open DOR Studio in your browser with nothing to install, add text, background music and effect templates such as shake zoom, and download an mp4. For the next steps, see how to share GTA 5 gameplay video, the DOR browser editor, and GTA 5 FPS settings for keeping frame rate up while you record.
