Most videos are too long for where they are going. A 40 minute livestream holds one great 45 second moment for Shorts, a product demo has 8 seconds of fumbling at the start, a screen recording runs on after the point is made. Trimming keeps the part that matters and makes the file smaller at the same time, which also makes every later step faster.
This trimmer combines a preview in your browser with a cut on our server. You play the video, set the start and end with two handles or by typing exact times, watch the selection, and only then send the file. It accepts MP4, MOV, M4V, WEBM, MKV, AVI, WMV, FLV and 3GP.
How to trim a video
- Drag the video onto the box above, or click it to choose. The size limit for today is shown in the box.
- The video appears in a player with a timeline under it. Play or scrub to find the moment where your clip should begin.
- Set the start: drag the left handle, or press Start at current frame while the player is paused at the right moment, or type the time in Start. You can type
1:23.5or83.5; both mean 1 minute 23.5 seconds. - Set the end the same way with the right handle, End at current frame or the End box. The line below shows the clip length.
- Press Play selection. The player plays from your start and stops at your end. Adjust until it feels right.
- Click Trim video. The progress bar shows the upload, your place in line and the cutting progress.
- When Your file is ready appears, the clip downloads automatically, or use the Download button. Play it once from the start.
Fine control with the keyboard
Click a handle (or move to it with Tab) and use the arrow keys: each press moves it by 0.1 second, and holding Shift moves it by a full second. The player jumps to the handle's position, so you can see the exact frame you are on. Handles cannot cross each other while you drag them, and the selection is drawn in gold on the timeline.
Typing times
The Start and End boxes accept minutes and seconds or plain seconds, with tenths after a decimal point. When you leave a box, the time is rewritten in the same m:ss.s format the timeline uses, so you can see exactly what the tool understood.
| You type | The tool reads |
|---|---|
15 | 0:15.0, fifteen seconds in |
1:05 | 1:05.0, one minute five seconds |
83.5 | 1:23.5 |
1:02:30 | 62:30.0, one hour two minutes thirty seconds |
Why the preview is local and the cut is on the server
Playing a video and finding the right moment is something your browser does well, instantly and without uploading anything. Cutting the video and writing a new, clean file is heavier work that phones and older laptops struggle with, especially for long 4K files, and browsers can only write a few video formats. So the trimmer splits the job: the preview and the handles run on your device, and the file is uploaded only when you press Trim video, together with your start and end times.
The upload goes over HTTPS to our conversion server and nothing else is sent. The server deletes your upload as soon as the job ends, and the trimmed clip 30 minutes after it is ready.
When the preview does not play
Browsers play only some video formats. Chrome, Edge and Safari play common MP4 files; Safari also plays most iPhone MOV files; MKV, AVI and WMV usually do not play in any browser. If your video cannot be previewed, the tool says so, the timeline is hidden, and you type the start and end times instead. Open the video in a player on your computer (VLC, QuickTime, Windows Media Player) to find the times. The server reads many more formats than a browser, so the cut still works.
Before you trim
- Use the original recording. A video saved from a chat app or social platform has already been compressed, sometimes heavily. The original from your camera or phone gives a cleaner clip.
- Know where the clip is going. Check the length limit in the table below before you choose your range, so you do not trim twice.
- Note the times while you watch. For long recordings, jot down the minute marks of good moments as you go. Typing
23:04is faster than scrubbing through 40 minutes on a small timeline. - Charge your phone and use Wi-Fi for large videos. The upload of a long 4K recording can take several minutes on mobile data.
Clip lengths for each platform (October 2026)
| Where it goes | Length | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram Reels | Up to 3 minutes | Raised from 90 seconds in January 2025 |
| YouTube Shorts | Up to 3 minutes | Vertical or square video |
| TikTok | Uploads up to 60 minutes | Most clips that perform well are far shorter |
| X (Twitter), free account | Up to 2 minutes 20 seconds | Premium accounts can post longer videos |
| Etsy listing video | 3 to 15 seconds | Up to 100 MB; plays without sound |
Platforms change these limits from time to time, so check the app if a clip near a limit is refused. A trimmed clip keeps the shape of the original video: this tool cuts in time, it does not crop a landscape video to vertical.
Worked examples
A Short from a livestream
Your 42 minute livestream recording has a strong answer to a viewer question at 23:10. Scrub to 23:04, press Start at current frame, play until the answer ends around 24:01, press End at current frame, and check with Play selection. The result is a 57 second clip, small enough to upload quickly from a phone. Finding moments like this is easier when you know what people are already searching and sharing in your niche: AM Jarvis Viral Finder shows trending searches, videos and posts for a topic and turns them into post and video ideas.
An Etsy listing video
Etsy listing videos must be 3 to 15 seconds long. From a 1 minute product clip, select the best 12 seconds (type 0:08 and 0:20), trim it, and if the file is still large, run it through the video compressor. Etsy plays listing videos without sound, so you can also remove the audio with Mute Video to avoid surprises if the clip is reused elsewhere.
Dead air at the start of a screen recording
Screen recordings often start with you clicking to the right window. Set the start to the first useful second, leave the end at the end of the video, and trim. Small cuts like this make tutorials feel much more professional.
A customer testimonial for a product page
A customer sent a 2 minute phone video. The strongest part is a 20 second stretch in the middle where they show the product and say why they kept it. Trim to that stretch, compress it with Balanced, and the clip is light enough to sit on a product page without slowing it down. Ask the customer for written permission before you publish it.
Several clips from one long video
The trimmer makes one clip per job. To cut five highlights from a webinar, trim the first, click Convert another file, choose the same video again, set the next range, and so on. Each clip uploads the full video again, which is fine for files of a few hundred megabytes on a good connection. For many clips from a multi-gigabyte recording, a desktop editor that opens the file once is faster. Write your ranges down first (for example 03:10 to 03:55, 12:40 to 13:30) so each job takes seconds to set up.
Vertical, square and landscape video
A trimmed clip keeps the width and height of the original. Reels, Shorts and TikTok are built for vertical 9:16 video, so a landscape recording shows up with bars or gets cropped by the app. If short vertical clips are the goal, record vertically from the start, or crop the clip in an editor such as CapCut or Clipchamp after trimming. Trimming first still helps: the editor gets a short file instead of the whole recording.
Trimming tips
- Leave a breath at each end. Start about 0.3 seconds before the first word and end about 0.5 seconds after the last one. Clips cut tight to the syllable feel abrupt.
- Cut on a pause or a movement. Viewers notice a cut in the middle of a sentence far more than one at a natural break.
- Check the first frame. Platforms often use it as the default cover. Starting on a clear, sharp frame helps.
- Keep the payoff early. On Shorts, Reels and TikTok, viewers decide in the first two or three seconds whether to keep watching. If the best line comes 10 seconds in, consider starting the clip closer to it.
- Trim before compressing or converting. A shorter clip uploads faster everywhere and compresses to a smaller file. If you only need the sound, trim first and then use MP4 to MP3.
Other ways to trim a video
- iPhone and iPad: open the video in Photos, tap Edit, drag the ends of the timeline, then Done > Save as New Clip to keep the original.
- Android: Google Photos and most gallery apps have a trim tool under Edit.
- Mac: open the video in QuickTime Player and use Edit > Trim.
- Windows: Clipchamp, included with Windows 11, can trim and export.
- ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -ss 83.5 -to 140 -i input.mp4 output.mp4cuts from 1:23.5 to 2:20. - This trimmer: works the same in any browser, gives exact numeric times, and handles formats your phone or laptop cannot open.
Troubleshooting
"Your browser cannot preview this video format"
Type the start and end times instead, using a desktop player to find them. The cut works the same.
"The end time must be after the start time"
The end box holds a time before or equal to the start. Check both boxes; a typo such as 1:5 (1 minute 5 seconds) instead of 15 is common.
The clip starts a fraction of a second early or late
Move the start by 0.1 to 0.3 seconds in the right direction and trim the original again.
The handles are hard to grab on a phone
Use the Start and End boxes instead, or pause the player at the right moment and tap Start at current frame or End at current frame. Turning the phone sideways also makes the timeline wider.
The file is refused as too large
The limit is shown in the drop box. Compress the video first, or split a very long recording on your computer before trimming.
The upload failed or the converter is unavailable
Check your connection and click Try again. If the converter is paused, click Check again after a minute. The daily free count resets tomorrow.
Limits to know about
- One continuous clip per job. To keep two separate parts, trim twice.
- Cutting in time only: no cropping, rotating, text or music.
- Times are set in tenths of a second.
- The clip is deleted from our server 30 minutes after it is ready.