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Trim Video

Cut and trim videos to a time range — browser-based, no upload needed.

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MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, WebM — or click to browse

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What is Trim Video?

Trim Video cuts a video down to a specific start and end point, extracting exactly the segment you want and discarding the rest. It does this with FFmpeg's stream copy mode, meaning the video and audio data inside your chosen range is copied out unchanged rather than decoded and recompressed, which is why trimming even a long file typically finishes in a couple of seconds rather than the minutes a full re-encode would take.

There's a real technical wrinkle worth understanding about how stream-copy trimming actually works, because it explains why the exact frame you asked for isn't always the exact frame you get. Compressed video isn't stored as a simple sequence of independent frames — H.264 and most modern codecs organize footage into groups of pictures (GOPs), where a keyframe (I-frame) contains a complete image and the frames after it store only the differences from that keyframe. A stream copy can only start cleanly at a keyframe, because starting mid-GOP would mean trying to decode a delta frame with no base image to build from. That's why this tool places -ss (the seek position) before -i (the input) in the FFmpeg command — this triggers a fast input seek that jumps to the nearest keyframe at or before your requested start time, rather than a slow, frame-accurate seek that would require re-encoding. In practice this means your trim's actual start can land up to a couple of seconds before the timestamp you typed, depending on how far apart the source video's keyframes are (most consumer video keeps keyframes every 1-2 seconds, so the drift is usually small and often imperceptible).

If you need truly frame-accurate cuts — for a broadcast deliverable, a precisely-timed edit, or content where being a second off actually matters — the trade-off is re-encoding instead of stream copying, which lets FFmpeg decode down to the exact requested frame rather than snapping to the nearest keyframe; that's slower but gives you exact control. For the overwhelming majority of everyday trimming — cutting a highlight out of a long recording, removing dead air from the start and end of a screen capture, pulling a shareable clip for social media — the keyframe-snapped stream copy is the better trade: it's instant, completely lossless for the footage it keeps, and close enough in practice that the difference rarely matters.

The -avoid_negative_ts make_zero flag handles a related quirk: after seeking mid-stream, timestamps can end up offset from zero in a way that confuses some players, so this flag resets them cleanly so the trimmed clip starts playing immediately rather than showing a black frame or stutter at the very beginning. Everything runs locally through FFmpeg WebAssembly, so a personal recording, an unreleased project file, or footage you're clipping for legal or evidentiary reasons never needs to be uploaded anywhere just to cut it down to size.

How It Works

FFmpeg seeks to the nearest keyframe at or before your specified start time (placing -ss before -i triggers this fast input seek), then copies the video and audio streams from that point for the specified duration using -c copy, without decoding or re-encoding anything. The -avoid_negative_ts make_zero flag corrects timestamp offsets introduced by the seek so playback starts cleanly. Because this is a stream copy rather than a transcode, trimming is nearly instant regardless of the source video's length, though the actual cut point may land on the nearest keyframe rather than the exact frame requested.

How to Use

  1. 1

    Upload your video

    Drop a video file onto the upload zone — it loads into a player with playback controls so you can review it first.

  2. 2

    Set the start point

    Enter a start time in HH:MM:SS format, or play the video and use "Set from video position" to capture the exact playhead location.

  3. 3

    Set the end point

    Enter an end time the same way, marking where the trim should cut off.

  4. 4

    Review the range

    Check the start and end times against the video's actual content before processing, since stream-copy trims snap to the nearest keyframe.

  5. 5

    Click Trim Video

    FFmpeg seeks to the nearest keyframe at your start time and copies the video and audio streams for the selected duration.

  6. 6

    Wait for the near-instant cut

    Because this is a stream copy, even long source videos trim in a few seconds rather than minutes.

  7. 7

    Download the trimmed clip

    Save the output — the filename gets a _trimmed suffix so you can tell it apart from the original.

Who Uses This Tool

✂️

Removing Dead Air & Bloopers

Cut out silence, false starts, or off-topic tangents from a recording before sharing it with others.

🎬

Highlight Extraction

Pull a specific standout moment from a long recording to share independently, without the surrounding footage.

📧

Shrinking Files for Sharing

Trim a long screen recording down to just the relevant section to keep file size manageable for email or chat attachments.

🎓

Splitting Lessons Into Segments

Cut one long lecture recording into shorter, topic-specific clips for an online course or knowledge base.

📣

Fitting Platform Length Limits

Extract just the portion of a longer video that fits within Instagram Reels, TikTok, or YouTube Shorts duration limits.

⚖️

Evidence & Compliance Clips

Extract a specific, precisely-bounded segment from security or meeting footage for a legal, HR, or compliance review.

Why Choose This Tool

True Stream-Copy Speed

Kept footage is copied directly from the source without decoding or re-encoding, so trims finish in seconds even on long videos.

Zero Quality Loss on Kept Footage

Because nothing is recompressed, the trimmed clip is bit-for-bit identical in quality to the corresponding section of the original.

Flexible Time Entry

Enter start and end times as HH:MM:SS or grab them directly from the video player's current position.

Timestamp Correction Built In

-avoid_negative_ts make_zero prevents the black-frame or stutter glitches that can occur right after a stream-copy seek.

Fully Local Processing

FFmpeg WebAssembly performs the cut inside your browser tab — footage is never uploaded to a server.

Free, No Watermark

Free with no account for files under 40 MB; sign up free for 80 MB or go Pro for 250 MB — output is never watermarked.

Key Benefits

  • Stream copy trimming finishes in seconds, even on long videos
  • No quality loss — kept footage is copied byte-for-byte
  • Accepts time input as HH:MM:SS or plain seconds
  • Works with MP4, MKV, AVI, MOV, and WebM source files
  • Timestamp correction avoids black-frame or stutter glitches at the cut point
  • Browser-based — your video is never uploaded to a server
  • No file size or duration limits from a server-side cap
  • 100% free with no watermark on the trimmed output

Frequently Asked Questions

Also Known As

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