Why Do This in Your Browser?
Trimming a video — picking a start and end point and discarding the rest — is the single most common video edit. Yet it's strangely hard to do well online: cloud tools upload your file, paid editors want a subscription, and desktop apps require installing software for a 30-second job.
This tool puts a frame-accurate trim in your browser. Drop a video, scrub to the start, set the in-point; scrub to the end, set the out-point; preview the trimmed range; export. When possible, the export is a stream copy (no re-encode, byte-exact, completes in seconds). When the trim doesn't land on a keyframe, the tool re-encodes only the affected segment to keep timing accurate.
How It Works
Video is encoded in groups of pictures (GOPs) — chunks of frames that depend on a single keyframe. Cutting between keyframes requires re-encoding the partial GOP; cutting on a keyframe is free. The tool auto-detects which mode applies to your trim points and picks the fastest path that preserves quality.
Use keyboard shortcuts for precision: J/K/L for shuttle, arrow keys for single-frame steps, I and O to set in/out points (DaVinci Resolve convention). Visual scrubber shows keyframes as bright marks — snap your trim points to them for instant export.
Tip: After trimming, shrink the result to a target file size with the Video Compressor. Trim multiple segments separately, then join them with the Video Merger for a multi-cut edit.
Common Use Cases
How We Compare
Honest read on free, paid, and self-hosted options for this kind of job:
See also: Capture footage with the Screen Recorder before trimming, since both run entirely in the browser. After trimming a clip, the Video Reverser flips playback direction for boomerang and reverse-cut effects. Thumbnail grids generated from the Video Thumbnail Grid make scrubbing easier during the trimming step. After trimming the segment you want, the Video Speed Changer time-lapses or slow-motions it without changing audio pitch. After trimming, the Video Frame Extractor grabs single frames at any timestamp as PNG/JPG stills. After trimming to the segment you want subtitled, the Video Auto-Subtitle runs Whisper in-browser to generate timed SRT/VTT. Handheld phone footage often benefits from running through the Video Stabilizer before trimming, smoothing shake via vidstab two-pass analysis. Capture footage with the Screen Recorder before trimming, since both run entirely in the browser. After trimming a clip, the Video Reverser flips playback direction for boomerang and reverse-cut effects. Thumbnail grids generated from the Video Thumbnail Grid make scrubbing easier during the trimming step. After trimming the segment you want, the Video Speed Changer time-lapses or slow-motions it without changing audio pitch. After trimming, the Video Frame Extractor grabs single frames at any timestamp as PNG/JPG stills. After trimming to the segment you want subtitled, the Video Auto-Subtitle runs Whisper in-browser to generate timed SRT/VTT.