Cut Video Online — Trim Clips in Your Browser, No Upload
Drop a video, drag the start and end handles, and download the trimmed clip. Everything happens on your device with FFmpeg WebAssembly: fast cut copies the original data with zero quality loss, while precise cut re-encodes so the clip lands on the exact frame. No upload, no watermark, no install.
How it works
Cut video online without installing anything
Almost every video needs trimming at some point. A screen recording runs twenty seconds longer than it should. A phone clip has a shaky first few seconds before the subject settles. A wedding speech starts with a minute of the camera operator finding their feet. A downloaded file opens with a branding card you would rather not keep. These are small jobs, and they rarely justify installing an editor, creating an account, or uploading private footage to someone else's server.
This tool handles exactly that job. Drop an .mp4, .mkv, .mov or .avi into the panel above, drag the two handles to the range you want to keep, press Cut, and download the result. There is no registration, no watermark, no queue and no cap on how many clips you trim. Because the work happens on your own machine through WebAssembly, your video is never transmitted anywhere — a claim you can verify yourself by opening your browser's network tab while the tool runs.
Two cutting modes are offered because they suit different situations. Fast cut copies the original video and audio data straight through, which means it finishes in seconds and loses absolutely no quality, at the cost of snapping the start point to the nearest keyframe. Precise cut re-encodes the selected range so the clip begins and ends on the exact frame you chose, which takes longer but is frame-accurate. Most people want fast cut; editors and anyone matching a clip to a beat want precise cut.
Fast cut vs. precise cut: which one should you use?
Fast cut — stream copy, zero quality loss
Fast cut tells FFmpeg to copy the existing video and audio streams rather than rebuild them. Nothing is decoded and nothing is re-compressed, so the picture and sound in your clip are bit-for-bit identical to the source. It is also dramatically quicker: a multi-gigabyte file can be trimmed in a few seconds, because the tool is moving data rather than recomputing it. The trade-off is that a stream copy cannot start anywhere it likes — it has to begin at a keyframe, so your chosen start point may shift back by up to a second or two on footage with widely spaced keyframes.
Precise cut — re-encoded, frame-exact
Precise cut decodes the selected range and re-encodes it with H.264 (video) and AAC (audio). That lets it begin and end on the exact frame you marked, which matters when you are matching a cut to music, removing a specific stumble, or producing a clip that has to align with another take. The cost is time and a very small quality change: re-encoding always throws away a little information, although at CRF 18–20 the difference is essentially invisible for typical footage. The output in this mode is always a standard H.264 MP4, which plays everywhere.
A practical rule of thumb
If you just need the clip shorter and you do not care about a fraction of a second, use fast cut — it is quicker and technically lossless. If the exact frame matters, or if fast cut fails on an unusual file, switch to precise cut. The tool also falls back automatically: if a stream copy is not possible for your file, it retries with a re-encode and tells you which mode produced the result.
What a keyframe is, and why fast cuts snap to one
Understanding keyframes explains most of the behaviour people find surprising about trimming. A video codec does not store every frame in full. It stores a keyframe (also called an I-frame) as a complete picture, and then stores the frames that follow as a set of differences — which parts moved, and where. This is what makes modern video files small enough to stream.
The consequence is that playback cannot begin at an arbitrary frame. To reconstruct a difference-frame, the decoder needs the keyframe it was built from. When you ask for a stream copy starting at 00:12.4, FFmpeg has to back up to the most recent keyframe before that point, otherwise the first frames of your clip would be un-decodable garbage. On footage with keyframes every two seconds, your cut may therefore start up to two seconds earlier than you marked; on footage with dense keyframes, the difference is imperceptible.
Re-encoding removes the constraint entirely, because the encoder simply generates a fresh keyframe at the exact moment you chose. That is the whole reason precise cut exists. It is also why precise cut takes longer: creating new keyframes means real encoding work rather than a straight copy.
Supported formats in detail
The cutter accepts the same broad set of containers as the rest of the tool cluster: MP4, M4V, MOV, MKV, AVI, WebM, MPEG-TS/M2TS, FLV, OGV, 3GP and more. Internally it handles common video codecs (H.264, HEVC/H.265, VP8, VP9, AV1, MPEG-2/4, DivX, Xvid) and audio codecs (AAC, MP3, AC3, Opus, Vorbis, FLAC).
Output depends on the mode. Fast cut writes the same container you started with, so an MKV stays an MKV and a MOV stays a MOV — this is what lets it preserve quality and keep extra tracks such as embedded subtitles or a second audio language. Precise cut always produces an H.264 MP4 with AAC audio, because that combination is the most broadly playable output there is. The downloaded filename keeps the original base name with a -cut suffix so you can tell the two files apart at a glance.
Browser video cutter vs. desktop editing software
A browser tool and a desktop application solve the same problem under very different constraints. The table below is an honest comparison of where each one wins.
| Aspect | This online cutter | Desktop (Total Video Converter / Player Pro) |
|---|---|---|
| Install required | No — runs in the browser | Yes — Mac app |
| Privacy | Local only, no upload | Local only |
| Lossless stream-copy trim | Yes, fast cut mode | Yes |
| Frame-accurate cut | Yes, but CPU-bound re-encode | Yes, hardware-accelerated |
| Speed on 4K / long files | Slow, single tab | Fast, hardware encoding |
| Remove a middle section | Not in one step | Timeline editing |
| Multiple clips or batch jobs | One at a time | Batch queues |
| File size limit | ~4 GB tab memory | Disk only |
| Best for | One-off quick trim | Regular, heavy editing |
Common scenarios for trimming a video
Cleaning up a screen recording
Recordings almost always start late and end late — you fumble with the share button, then sit through the meeting outro. Dropping the file in, setting the start a few seconds in and the end a few seconds before the finish produces a tight clip in seconds, with no upload involved.
Making a clip short enough to send
Chat apps and email reject large attachments. Trimming to the thirty seconds that actually matter usually solves the problem on its own, and if it does not, running the result through the online video compressor brings it down the rest of the way.
Pulling a highlight out of a long recording
A ninety-minute stream, a two-hour webinar or a full sports match usually only has one moment worth sharing. Scrub to the moment, use "Use playhead" to mark the start, play forward and mark the end, then cut — no timeline, no project file, no export settings.
Removing a branding card or a silent lead-in
Downloaded or screen-captured video often opens with a logo sting or several seconds of silence. A fast cut removes it with zero quality loss, because stream copy leaves the rest of the footage completely untouched.
Preparing footage for social media
Most platforms impose a length limit. Trimming to fifteen, thirty or sixty seconds before uploading is quicker here than in a full editor, and because the file never leaves your machine there is no third-party copy of your unreleased material.
Privacy: your video never leaves your device
Every step happens inside your browser tab. When you open a file, the browser reads it into memory; the FFmpeg engine, loaded as WebAssembly, performs the cut on your CPU; and the result comes back as a download link pointing at data still on your machine. No request carrying your video ever reaches our servers, and there is nothing for us to store or delete afterwards. The only network traffic is the page itself plus a one-time download of the FFmpeg engine (about 32 MB, served straight from this website rather than a third-party CDN) the first time you cut a file; your browser caches it after that. You can even disconnect from the internet once the page has loaded and the tool keeps working.
This is also why there is no file-size policy to read and no queue to wait in. The practical ceiling is your own hardware rather than a rule we invented: a browser tab can address roughly 4 GB of memory, so the tool warns you above about 1.5 GB and lets you decide whether to continue.
Frequently asked questions
Is this online video cutter really free and does it upload my video?
Yes. There is no registration, no watermark, no daily limit and no paywall. All trimming runs locally with FFmpeg WebAssembly, so your video is read on your device and never uploaded to any server.
What is the difference between fast cut and precise cut?
Fast cut uses stream copy: it copies the original video and audio data without re-encoding, so it is very quick and loses no quality at all, but the start point snaps to the nearest keyframe. Precise cut re-encodes the selected range with H.264, which takes longer but lands on the exact frame you chose.
What is a keyframe and why does fast cut snap to one?
A keyframe is a complete frame stored in full; the frames between keyframes only store what changed. Playback therefore has to start from a keyframe. Because a stream copy cannot rebuild frames, a fast cut begins at the nearest keyframe — usually within a fraction of a second, occasionally a second or two on sparsely keyframed footage.
Which video formats can I cut?
MP4, M4V, MOV, MKV, AVI, WebM, MPEG-TS, FLV, 3GP, OGV and similar containers. Fast cut writes the same container you started with; precise cut always produces a broadly compatible H.264 MP4 with AAC audio.
Does cutting a video reduce its quality?
Fast cut does not, because no re-encoding happens — the original data is copied byte for byte. Precise cut re-encodes at CRF 18–23 by your choice, which is visually very close to the original but not mathematically identical.
Is there a file size or clip length limit?
Because nothing is uploaded, there is no server-imposed limit. The practical boundary is your device memory: a browser tab can use roughly 4 GB, so the tool warns you above about 1.5 GB. There is no limit on the length of the range you select.
Can I remove a section from the middle of a video?
This tool keeps the range you select and discards the rest, which covers trimming the start, trimming the end and extracting a clip from the middle. To delete a middle section while keeping both ends, cut out the parts you want to keep and join them in an editor; a desktop editor does that in a single step.
Why is the precise cut slower than the fast cut?
Precise cut decodes and re-encodes every frame in your selected range, which is CPU-heavy work inside one browser tab. Fast cut just copies existing data and can finish a large file in seconds. For regular or heavy editing, a desktop app with hardware acceleration is much faster.
Will the cut file keep my subtitles and multiple audio tracks?
Fast cut copies the streams the output container can carry, so embedded subtitles and extra audio tracks usually survive. Precise cut produces a standard H.264 MP4 with a single video and audio track, so extra tracks are not included in that mode.
Can I use this on a Mac, Windows or a phone?
Yes. It is a web page, so it behaves the same on macOS, Windows, Linux and mobile browsers, though phones have far less memory and CPU for video work. For regular trimming of large files on a Mac, the desktop software linked below is considerably faster.
Troubleshooting: when a cut does not go as expected
The engine download stalls or fails
The first cut downloads the FFmpeg engine (about 32 MB) from this website, and the progress bar shows exactly how far it has got. If it fails, check your connection and press Cut again — the download resumes from zero but usually completes in well under a minute on a normal connection, and never happens again afterwards. The page also refuses to start on a file:// URL (for example a copy saved to your desktop), because browsers block Web Workers there; open the live page instead.
The clip starts earlier than the time I set
That is the keyframe behaviour described above, and it only happens in fast cut mode. Switch to precise cut if you need the exact frame, or nudge your start point slightly later and try again.
The cut is very slow or the tab becomes unresponsive
Precise cut is CPU-bound by nature, and long or 4K clips can take several minutes in a single tab. Close other memory-hungry tabs, try fast cut instead — it is often fast enough that the keyframe snap does not matter — or use a desktop editor with hardware encoding for the job.
The output will not play
Fast cut writes the same container you supplied, so if the source had an unusual codec combination the copy may not be playable everywhere. Try precise cut, which always produces a standard H.264 MP4. If the source file itself is damaged, cutting it cannot repair it.
Audio and video are out of sync after the cut
This is rare but can happen when a stream copy starts mid-stream on certain containers. Running the same range again in precise cut mode rewrites both streams cleanly and resolves it.
I need to remove a middle section, not trim the ends
The tool keeps one continuous range by design. Cut out the sections you want to keep and join them in an editor, or use a desktop editor that supports timeline deletion in a single pass.
When to use a desktop editor instead
The online cutter is built for the job most people actually have: one file, one range, one download. It deliberately keeps the interface to two handles and a button, it needs no installation, and it never touches your footage off-device. For a one-off trim on a machine you do not own, or for material you would rather not upload, that is the right tool.
If editing is part of your routine — cutting a dozen clips a week, working with 4K or HEVC source, needing frame-accurate cuts on long timelines, removing middle sections, or batch-processing a folder — a desktop application is the better fit. Total Video Converter for Mac uses your Mac's hardware encoders, handles queues of files and writes to any format you need, while Total Video Player Pro plays and manages large libraries at full speed with no conversion step. That is exactly what this free tool is here to point you towards.
Need to cut and convert videos regularly on your Mac?
Total Video Converter for Mac trims, joins and converts with hardware-accelerated encoding — frame-accurate cuts, batch queues and any output format you need. No browser memory limits, no waiting on a single core.