Rescreen / Free tools / Video trimmer
Video trimmer
Trim video online without uploading it: choose where the clip starts and ends, preview it, and download it. Cut fast with no re-encoding, or exactly to the frame. Works with MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV. No account, no watermark.
Trim a video
This browser can only make fast cuts. Exact cuts re-encode the video with WebCodecs, which is in current Chrome, Edge and Safari on a computer. Fast cuts copy the video as it is and work here.
Drop a video here
or choose one from your device
MP4, MOV, WebM or MKV, up to 8.0 GB. Stays on your device.
- File
- Contains
- Length
This browser cannot play this file, so there is no preview. You can still type the start and end, and the clip is checked after it is made.
Type seconds (12.5) or minutes and seconds (1:05.25). In a time box, the up and down arrow keys move one frame; with Shift, one second.
Starting…
How to trim a video
From a long recording to the clip you need, in your browser.
Choose your video
Choose or drop an MP4, MOV, WebM or MKV file. The page reads what is inside it and shows a preview. Nothing is uploaded.
Set the start and end
Drag the Start and End sliders, type exact times, or pause the preview and press Set to current frame. Play the clip plays just the part you kept.
Pick fast or exact
An exact cut starts on your frame and re-encodes. A fast cut copies the video untouched and starts on the key frame before; the page tells you how much earlier.
Trim and download
Press Trim video. The finished clip is opened again and checked — its tracks and its length — before Download clip appears.
Fast cut or exact cut?
Compressed video does not store every frame as a whole picture. Every so often there is a key frame, a complete image; the frames after it only describe what changed. A player can only start from a key frame. Screen recordings and phone videos usually have one every one to ten seconds.
A fast cut copies the compressed frames as they are, so it is quick, loses no quality and keeps the original format. But it has to begin on a key frame, so the clip starts at the key frame at or before the start you chose. The page shows exactly where, and how much earlier that is. The end is cut where you put it.
An exact cut decodes the frames and encodes them again as H.264 video and AAC sound in an MP4, starting on precisely the frame you chose. It takes longer and, like any re-encode, can soften fine detail slightly. If your start already sits on a key frame, the two are the same, and the page makes the fast one.
Exact cut starts on your frame
Fast cut starts at the key frame before
Fast: no re-encode, same format. Exact: re-encoded to H.264 MP4.
Worked example
Press Try a 12-second sample. It is a short narrated clip with a frame counter in the picture and a key frame every two seconds. Drag the start to 0:03.00 and the end to 0:09.50. With Exact cut selected, the summary reads 0:03.00 to 0:09.50, 6.5 seconds, and the clip opens on the frame you chose.
Switch to Fast cut and the note changes: the clip will start at 0:02.00, one second before your start, because that is the key frame before it. It comes out 7.5 seconds long, in seconds rather than the time an encode takes. Move your start to 0:04.00, which is a key frame, and the page says the fast cut is now exact.
- File
- sample.mp4
- Contains
- H.264 video, 640×360 · AAC audio, mono
- Your cut
- 0:03.00 to 0:09.50
- Fast cut
- Starts at 0:02.00, the key frame 1 second earlier
Checked: an MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio, 0:07.50 long, as planned.
Which files and browsers it works with
The trimmer opens MP4, MOV (QuickTime), WebM and MKV files. A fast cut writes the same kind of file it was given and never decodes the picture, so it also works with codecs the browser cannot play, such as HEVC video from an iPhone in a browser without HEVC support; you just get no preview. An exact cut needs WebCodecs to decode and re-encode, which current Chrome, Edge and Safari have on a computer. Where a browser has no AAC encoder, as in Firefox, the page downloads a small open-source one (about 1 MB, FFmpeg’s, built for the web) the first time it is needed; it runs on your device like everything else.
We have tested it in a Chromium-based browser (the engine behind Chrome and Edge) on a Mac, at desktop and phone screen widths, with H.264 and AAC MP4s (with and without B-frames), VP9 and Opus WebM, a MOV with uncompressed sound, a video with no sound and a sound-only file. In each, every frame and sound packet of a fast cut was the original’s, moved by the same amount, so picture and sound stay in sync. We have not tested Safari or Firefox yet. If a browser cannot handle a file, the page says which part is the problem and offers the other kind of cut where that would work.
Limitations
- Files up to 8.0 GB. The file is read from your disk in pieces, but the finished clip is held in memory until you save it, so a clip can be up to about 2.0 GB; a phone may run out of memory well before that.
- One clip at a time, from one start to one end. To cut out a part in the middle, trim twice, or use the silence remover for pauses.
- Only the first video track and first sound track are kept. Subtitles and chapter marks are not carried over.
- A fast cut can start up to one key-frame gap early — sometimes several seconds in a video with few key frames. Use an exact cut when the first frame matters.
- An exact cut always makes an MP4, and very large pictures (beyond roughly 4K) may be more than a browser’s H.264 encoder can take; the page checks first.
- Keep the tab open until it finishes; closing it cancels the trim.
Is my video uploaded?
No. The file is read, cut and checked inside this page and never sent anywhere. We count anonymous page views and whether a trim started, finished or failed, which kind of cut it was, and why it failed from a fixed list of reasons; those events never include the video, its name, its size or the times you chose. See the privacy policy.
Only on your device
Your video is never uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
Editing a tutorial? Read how to make a tutorial video, convert a browser recording with the WebM to MP4 converter, or turn a few seconds into a GIF with the video to GIF converter.
Does trimming a video lose quality?
A fast cut does not: the compressed frames and sound are copied byte for byte. An exact cut re-encodes the clip at a bitrate based on the original’s, which can soften small text or busy motion slightly. Compare the saved clip before deleting the original.
Why does my fast cut start a little early?
Because a video can only start on a key frame, and your start was between two. The fast cut begins at the key frame before, and the page tells you how much earlier that is. Choose Exact cut to start on your frame instead.
Can I trim an MOV from an iPhone or a Mac screen recording?
Yes. A fast cut keeps it a MOV with the same video and sound. If the browser cannot play HEVC video there is no preview, but the cut still works; an exact cut needs a browser that can decode it.
Is there a watermark or a time limit?
No watermark and no time limit. The only limits are the 8.0 GB file size and how much your browser can hold in memory for the finished clip.
Spend less time editing
your next recording.
Create an account and record your first video in your browser.