How to cut a video
Drop your video into the box above, or click Choose files. MP4, MOV, MKV and WebM all work.
Drag the start and end handles, or type the exact times. The picture jumps to the handle you move, so you can see where the cut falls.
Press play to check the selection, then choose Exact or Fast and click Cut video.
Download the cut MP4.
Why cut a video?
Most videos have more than you want to share: the fumbling before the moment starts, the minutes after it ends. Cutting keeps just the part worth watching, and a shorter video is also smaller to send.
Trimming a clip for a story, a presentation or a message shouldn't need an editing app or an upload to someone's server. Here it happens in your browser.
Exact or Fast
Exact cuts at the times you chose, to the frame, by re-encoding the selection as H.264. It takes a moment and changes the quality very slightly, which is rarely visible.
Fast copies the video as it is, so it's instant and lossless. A video can only start on a key frame, which phones record every second or two, so the file begins at the key frame before your start and tells players to skip ahead to it. Nearly all players do; a few apps show those extra seconds.
| Property | Exact | Fast |
|---|---|---|
| Cut point | Exactly as chosen | As chosen in most players |
| Speed | A few seconds per minute of video | Instant |
| Quality | Re-encoded at high quality | Untouched |
Is it safe?
Yes. Video Cutter runs entirely in your browser. Your files are read and converted by your own device using built-in browser technology, so they are never uploaded to a server and nobody else can see them.
You can check this yourself: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab and convert a file. No upload requests are made.
Videos are cut by your browser's own media engine (WebCodecs). Nothing is uploaded.
Files stay in this tab's memory only until you remove them or close the page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does a Fast cut start earlier in some apps?
Videos are stored as key frames followed by changes from them, so a copy has to start on a key frame. The file tells players to skip to your start time, but a few apps ignore that. Choose Exact for a cut that starts precisely everywhere.
Can I cut out the middle of a video?
Not in one go: this keeps one continuous part. To remove a section from the middle, cut the part before it and the part after it separately.
Can I get just the sound of the selection?
Yes: use the MP3 Cutter, which accepts videos too and saves the selection as an MP3.
Which browsers work?
Recent Chrome, Edge and Safari on computers and phones. Exact cuts need a browser that can encode H.264 video; Fast works wherever the video can be read.
How long can the video be?
Up to 1 GB. The video is read from disk in pieces, so it doesn't need to fit in memory, and only the selection is processed.