How to trim a video online for free
Trimming cuts a video to a shorter section — removing a slow start, cutting out an unwanted ending, or pulling out just one highlight from a longer recording.
How to trim
- Upload your video to the trimming tool.
- Set the start and end points for the section you want to keep.
- Download the trimmed result.
Trimming does not need to re-encode much
Cutting to a new start and end point keeps the content between those points essentially unchanged — it's a much lighter operation than compressing or converting.
Combine with compression
If the trimmed clip is still too large to share, run it through Video Compressor afterward.
Trimming as part of sharing a video
Cutting a long video down to just the relevant section before compressing is one of the most effective ways to reduce final file size — a trimmed 30-second clip compresses to a far smaller file than the full 5-minute original, regardless of compression settings.
After trimming
If the trimmed clip still needs to be smaller for WhatsApp or email, run it through Video Compressor next.
Trimming precision
For content where an exact cut point matters — removing a countdown before an important moment, for instance — zoom in on the timeline if the tool supports it, since a rough estimate on a compressed timeline view can be off by a second or more.
Related help articles
Keep the original untrimmed file until you are certain you have the section you actually need — if you trim too tightly and later realise you needed a bit more context at the start or end, you will need to go back to the original rather than the already-trimmed clip. Precision matters more for some content than others.
