Video Trimmer
Cut a video's start and end to the exact frame, or copy the part you keep as is from a key frame.
- Free
- No sign-up
- No watermark
- Runs in your browser
Loading the tool.
Exact or fast?
A compressed video stores a full picture only every so often, at key frames, and describes the frames in between as changes from the one before. A cut that starts between two key frames has to rebuild those first pictures, which means decoding and encoding the video again: that is Exact. Fast skips the work by copying the original data, so it must begin on a key frame, the last one at or before your start. The tool tells you which one before you trim.
| Mode | How it works | Speed | Quality | Cut accuracy | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exact (default) | Decodes the part you keep and encodes it again | Seconds for a few seconds of HD video (see the note) | A fresh encode at a high-quality setting: very close to the original, not bit-identical | On the frame: a 3-second selection gave exactly 90 frames at 30 fps | You cut the beginning, or you need the in point on a specific word or gesture |
| Fast | Copies the original packets, from the key frame at or before your start up to your end point | A fraction of a second for a few seconds of HD video (see the note) | Identical to the original: the video packets are the same bytes | Begins on the key frame at or before your start, so it can start earlier than you set; the video can end a frame or two before your end point | You want the original quality back at once, and the start can move back to a key frame |
Measured with this tool in Chrome on one Windows PC, so treat the times as that machine's, not a promise. Exact: keeping 3 seconds of a 10-second 1080 × 1920 phone clip took 2.8 s and gave exactly 90 frames at 30 fps; the audio ran 8 ms longer, because AAC audio comes in packets of 1024 samples (21 ms at 48 kHz). The same cut from a 1280 × 720 clip took 4.0 s and landed within one frame. Fast: that phone clip has key frames only at 0.0 s and 5.3 s, so a Fast cut from 2.0 s began at 0.0 s, two seconds early, and took under 0.1 s; a cut from 6.0 s began at 5.3 s and took 0.2 s, with video packets identical to the original's. A Fast copy can end a frame early, because a frame shown before the end point can be stored after it, and a file whose video starts before 0:00 cannot be copied from 0:00: the tool points you to Exact instead.
How it works
Open the video. Drop it on the box or choose it from your device. The preview appears with a strip of frames along the timeline under it, and the whole video starts out selected.
Mark what to keep. Play the preview and press Set start here and Set end here, drag the two handles, or type times such as 1:05.3 into the Start and End fields. While it plays, the preview loops inside the selection, so you hear exactly where each cut falls.
Trim and download. Choose Exact or Fast and press Trim. The finished clip plays above the Download button, with its measured length, which tracks were copied or re-encoded, and, for Fast, where the copy really begins and ends.
What you get
- Check both cuts before you commit
- Playback jumps back to the start the moment it reaches the end point, and a paused preview shows the frame under whichever handle you just moved. You see the first and last frame of the clip before anything is exported.
- Keyboard precision
- A focused handle moves a tenth of a second per arrow key, one second with Shift and ten with Page Up or Page Down. Start and End also take typed times, including subtitle-style ones like 00:01:05,300.
- Lossless cuts from a key frame
- Fast writes the original packets straight into the new file: no generation loss and no encoder settings to get wrong. It begins on the key frame at or before your start, and the note under the mode names that frame for your file before you press Trim. In our test, copying three seconds out of a 1080p clip took a fifth of a second.
- Your format and frame, kept
- WebM stays WebM, MOV stays MOV, and everything else comes out as MP4. Width, height and frame rate carry over from the original, so a 720x1280 phone video is still 720x1280 after the trim.
Questions people ask
How do I cut the end off a video?
Leave the start at 0:00.0, drag the right handle to the last moment you want (or pause the preview there and press Set end here), choose Fast and press Trim. On most files the first frame is a key frame, so the copy begins exactly at 0:00.0 and the file is ready almost at once; the note under the mode confirms it for your file before you trim.
Do I lose quality when I trim a video?
Not with Fast: it copies the original data without decoding it, so the part you keep is identical to the original. Exact decodes the part you keep and encodes it once more at a high-quality setting, so the result is very close to the original but not bit-for-bit the same.
Can I trim a video on my phone?
Yes, in a mobile browser with WebCodecs, such as a current Chrome on Android or Safari 26 or newer on an iPhone; older Safari versions can decode the picture but not always the sound. The handles follow your finger, and Set start here and Set end here save you from aiming at a tiny target. A phone has far less memory than a computer, so a very long or 4K recording is easier to trim on a desktop.
How long does it take to trim a video?
A Fast cut takes a fraction of a second for a few seconds of video, since nothing is decoded. An Exact cut re-encodes what you keep, so its time grows with the length and resolution of the selection: see the measurements under the table for 1080p and 720p clips.
Can I cut a part out of the middle of a video?
Not in one pass: the trimmer keeps one continuous stretch, from a start to an end. If the parts you want gone are pauses, the silence remover cuts every one of them in a single export.
Why is the trimmed file bigger than I expected?
An Exact trim is a new encode at a high-quality setting, and it can spend more bits per second than a heavily compressed original did. A Fast trim keeps the original data, so its size is close to the original's share for the time it keeps, which includes the stretch back to the key frame it starts on. If the result must be smaller, run it through a compressor afterwards.
Is my video sent anywhere while the trimmer cuts it?
No. The preview, the strip of frames and the trim itself are all made by this tab from the file on your device, and the result is handed to you as a download from the same tab.
Not sure where to cut?
This trimmer keeps the part you mark. GPT-Video reads the transcript of a long video, finds the moments that stand on their own, and cuts them into vertical clips with captions, so you start from a shortlist instead of scrubbing.
Related
Your file is processed on your device and never uploaded.