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.