How it works
- 01
Open a video
Drop it or choose it. It plays here first, so you can see what you are cutting.
- 02
Set the two ends
Drag the handles or type the timecodes. The player follows the handle you move.
- 03
Save the clip
The file downloads when it is written. A copied cut is quick.
Copy the cut, or re-encode it
Copying is the default. The tool puts the original video packets into a new file without decoding them. The picture is the one you started with, and even a long video is quick.
The catch is keyframes. A video usually stores a full frame only every few seconds. The frames in between are stored as changes from that one, and mean nothing without it. So a copied cut has to begin on a full frame, and it lands on the nearest one before the handle you set.
Turn on re-encode when the cut has to be exact. The tool decodes the clip and writes it again, frame by frame, so it starts where you asked. That takes far longer than a copy, and the picture goes through one more round of compression.
Try a copy first and watch the result. For a clip someone will simply watch, a second either way rarely shows.
- Input
- MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM and AVI. One video at a time.
- Output
- The format you gave it, or an MP4 when you re-encode.
- Engine
- ffmpeg, built for the web, running in this tab.
- Limits
- No watermark, no length cap, no daily count.
What comes out, and how big
A copied clip keeps the format it came in as. A MOV stays a MOV, an MKV stays an MKV, and the codec inside is untouched. Re-encoding always writes an MP4 with H.264 video and AAC sound, which is the pair that plays on every phone, browser and television.
The figure under the buttons is an estimate for a copy. It assumes the bits are spread evenly through the source, so keeping a third of the running time keeps about a third of the bytes. Re-encoding gets no figure, because the size depends on how much moves in the part you kept.
This tool only removes running time. If the clip still has to fit an email or a chat limit, send it through the video compressor afterwards.
Sound stays in step with the picture on both paths. Turn off Keep the sound and the clip is written silent, which is smaller and often what a background loop wants.