How to Trim a Video Without Losing Quality

To trim a video without losing quality, open the free Trim Video tool, drop in your video, drag the Start and End sliders (or use Set to playhead), and press Trim. The normal cut copies the video without re-encoding, so it takes seconds and the quality is exactly the same as the original.

How does lossless trimming work?

Videos are stored as a series of keyframes (complete pictures) with smaller changes in between. A lossless trim simply copies the original data from one keyframe to your end point, without decoding and re-encoding every frame. That's why it's so fast, even for a 1 GB file, and why nothing is lost.

The catch is that the copy has to start on a keyframe. Phones usually place one every second or two, so the trimmed clip may start up to a second or two before your mark. For most uses (cutting a long intro, removing the end of a recording) this doesn't matter.

How do I trim a video step by step?

1. Add your video. Open Trim Video and drag an MP4, MOV, WebM or MKV file onto the box, or click to choose it. The video plays right in the page.
2. Set the start. Drag the Start slider, or play the video to the moment you want and press Set to playhead under Start.
3. Set the end. Do the same with the End slider.
4. Choose the cut type. Leave the box unticked for a fast, lossless cut. Tick Frame-exact cut for a cut on the exact frame; it re-encodes the video to MP4 and takes much longer.
5. Trim. Press the Trim button. The first time, the video engine (about 31 MB) loads and is cached. The trimmed clip downloads automatically.

Fast cut or frame-exact?

	Fast cut (default)	Frame-exact
Speed	Seconds, even for large files	Much slower (re-encodes)
Quality	Identical to the original	High, but re-encoded
Accuracy	Nearest keyframe (about 1–2 s)	Exact frame
Output	Same format as the input	MP4

Use the fast cut for most jobs. Choose frame-exact when timing matters, such as cutting exactly on a beat, a spoken word, or a scene change.

When should I use the full video editor instead?

Trim Video does one job very quickly. If you also want to crop for TikTok, rotate, change speed, compress, or export as GIF or MP3, use the Video Editor, which has trimming plus all of those. Any extra edit there re-encodes the video anyway, so the cut lands on the exact frame.

To cut out a part in the middle, trim the video twice (keeping the first part, then the second), or use a desktop editor that can join clips.

Is it private and free?

Yes. The trimmer runs FFmpeg inside your browser. Your video never leaves your device, there's no watermark, and there's no limit on how many videos you trim.

Troubleshooting

• The trim button is greyed out. The video's length hasn't loaded yet, or the end is set before the start. Wait for the video to load or adjust the sliders.
• The video won't play in the page. Your browser may not support that codec (some HEVC or H.264 files in some browsers). Try Chrome or Edge, or convert it first.
• The start is a bit early. That's the keyframe effect; tick frame-exact for a precise start.

Trim your video now. To remove the sound as well, see how to remove audio from a video.