How to Trim a Video Online Free (No App or Software)
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Cutting the dead air off the start of a clip should not require installing an editor. Here is how to trim in the browser, plus the exact length limits for every platform.
Trimming is the most common edit there is: chopping the awkward silence off the front, cutting to the good bit, or shortening a clip to fit a platform's limit. And it's wild how many people install a whole video editor just to do it. You don't need to. A browser handles it fine.
How to trim
Open the Video Trimmer, upload your clip, set a start and end time, and process. Download the trimmed version when it's ready. Works on MP4, MOV, AVI, MKV, and WebM.
It doesn't touch your quality
A good trim doesn't re-encode the video. It just keeps the section you marked, so the output matches the original quality exactly. The file size drops in proportion to what you cut: keep 30% of a 500 MB clip and you'll get a file around 150 MB.
The platform length limits worth memorising
Half the reason people trim is to fit a platform's ceiling. Here they are in one place:
| Platform | Max length |
|---|---|
| TikTok | 10 minutes |
| Instagram Reels | 90 seconds |
| Instagram feed video | 60 seconds |
| YouTube Shorts | 60 seconds |
| Facebook Reels | 90 seconds |
| X (Twitter) | 2 min 20 sec |
Two tips for clean cuts
Leave a little breathing room. Trim a beat before the content you want to keep rather than right on top of it. It's easy to tighten later, but you can't get back footage you've cut off. And for platforms that sometimes clip the very start on playback, half a second of padding at each end saves you from a jarring jump-cut open.
Trim, then shrink
If you're trimming a long video mostly to make it shareable, the trim already cut the size down a lot, but if it's still too big for WhatsApp or email, follow up with the Video Compressor. Trim first, compress second: smaller input, less compression needed, better-looking result.