Free Video Trimmer

Why trimming is the most useful edit

For advertising video specifically, cutting is worth more than almost anything else you can do to a clip. A feed ad lives or dies on its first second, and most footage has two or three dead seconds at the front — a hand reaching for the camera, a breath before the line, a slow fade.

Removing them does three things at once: it improves the hook, it shortens the clip, and it reduces the file size. Very few edits pay three ways.

Where to cut

• Start on motion, not on stillness. A frame where something is already happening holds attention better than a clean establishing shot.
• Cut the breath. Spoken-word clips almost always begin with a quarter-second of nothing. It reads as hesitation.
• End on the point, not after it. The instinct to let a clip breathe at the end costs you completion rate and file size for nothing.
• Four to six seconds is usually enough for a single shot in a vertical feed ad. Longer clips are rarely improved by their extra seconds.

Accuracy, and why it costs a moment

There are two ways to trim a video. The fast way copies the existing compressed stream without re-encoding, which takes a second — but it can only cut at a keyframe, so your actual start time jumps to whichever keyframe is nearest, sometimes a second or more away.

The accurate way re-encodes, so the cut lands exactly where you asked. That is what this tool does, which is why it takes longer than a stream copy would. For a short clip the wait is small and the precision is the point.

Why this one does not upload your file

Most free video tools send your file to a server, process it there and hand back a download link. That works, and it means a stranger now has a copy of your footage, kept for however long their retention policy says — which for unreleased product shots, client work or anything with a face in it is a real cost, not a theoretical one.

Here the encoder is compiled to WebAssembly and runs in this tab. The trade is honest: your laptop is slower than a server farm, so a long clip takes longer. In exchange there is no upload, no queue, no account and no copy of your video anywhere but your own disk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is my file uploaded anywhere?

No. The encoder runs inside your browser through WebAssembly, and the file never leaves your device. You can check this yourself: open your browser's network tab while it runs, or disconnect from the internet once the page has loaded — the tool keeps working.

Do I need an account?

No. There is no sign-up, no email and no watermark on the result.

Is the cut frame-accurate?

Yes. The video is re-encoded so the cut lands exactly where you set it, rather than snapping to the nearest keyframe the way a fast stream-copy trim does. That is why it takes a few seconds rather than being instant.

Does trimming reduce quality?

Slightly, because the video is re-encoded. The settings here are conservative enough that it is not visible in normal viewing, but you should still trim from the original file rather than from an already-exported copy.

Can I cut out a section from the middle?

Not in one pass. Trim the part before it and the part after it separately, then join them in an editor. This tool extracts one continuous section.

Which formats are supported?

MP4, WebM and MOV go in; MP4 comes out.

How long can my video be?

The input must be under 500 MB, because everything is held in your browser's memory. The trimmed section can be any length within that.

Why is it slower than a site that uploads my file?

Those services encode on a server farm. This one uses your laptop. For a short clip the difference barely shows, and you skip the upload, the queue, the download, and handing your footage to someone else.

Does the audio stay in sync?

Yes. Audio and video are cut together and re-encoded as a pair, which is the usual cause of drift when it goes wrong elsewhere.