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Cut Video Online

Upload an MP4, MOV or MKV, drag two handles on the filmstrip and download the part between them. The part is copied as is, so the quality is the original's, though the start can land a second or two early.

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Drag video here or pick from your device

MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM, AVI, M4V, 3GP, FLV, WMV · up to 500 MB

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How to

How to cut a video online

You cut one clip at a time: the preview and the filmstrip run in your browser, while the cut itself runs on our server and comes back as the same kind of file you uploaded.

  1. 1

    Upload the video

    Drag a video onto the upload box, or click Browse video and pick one from your device. At this point the file is still only in your browser, so the preview and the filmstrip of 12 thumbnails appear right away, even for a 500 MB file. When it loads, the two handles sit at 20% and 80% of the length to begin with.

  2. 2

    Set the start and end

    Drag the blue handles along the filmstrip, or type times into the Cut from and to boxes as hh:mm:ss.mmm (plain seconds like 7.5 work too). Click anywhere on the bar to move the red playhead, and press Play section to watch just the part you've chosen, which has to be at least a tenth of a second long.

  3. 3

    Cut and download

    Click Cut and download: the file uploads first, with a percentage, then the server cuts it, and each of our four test clips was back about 5 seconds after the click. When Cut video ready appears, click Download; the new file has the original name with _cut added, and the link stops working after 30 minutes.

The three steps: drop the video on the upload box, drag the two handles on the filmstrip to 7.5 and 12 seconds, then download sunset_cut.mp4

Guide

Cutting MP4, MOV and MKV without re-encoding: where the cut really lands

The tool copies the part you selected into a new file on our server, without processing the video again. The picture and sound are exactly what was in the original, the file keeps its format, and the job takes seconds however big the file is. The trade-off is where the cut can start. A video only stores a full picture every so often, and each frame in between stores just what changed since the frame before it, so a copied clip has to begin on one of those full pictures. The cut therefore starts at the last full picture before the time you chose and runs from there to your end point.

Timeline of an 18 second MP4 that can only start at 0, 3, 6, 9 seconds and so on: a cut set from 7.5 to 12 seconds comes back starting at 6 seconds and ending at 12.2

We measured this on 21 October 2026 with four cuts on the live tool, listed at the bottom of this page. On a stock MP4 with a full picture every 3 seconds, a cut set to start at 7.5 seconds came back starting at 6.0. On an phone-style MOV with one every second, the start was half a second early. The end landed within a few frames of the time we set in every run. The sections below cover what that means for your file.

The clip starts a little early, and how early depends on the file

How far back the start moves depends on how often your file stores a full picture, and that's set by whatever made the file, not by this tool. Our phone-style test clip had one every second and the stock clips one every 3 seconds, while video exported from some editing apps can go about 8 seconds between them, which is where a cut can feel badly off. If the extra seconds matter, set the start a little later than the moment you want and check the result with Play section first. You can trust the end point, since it lands within a few frames.

A cut from the very start begins exactly there; one from the middle doesn't

Every video begins with a full picture, so a cut that starts at 00:00:00.000 begins exactly where the file does. In our test, a 10 second cut from the start of an 18 second MP4 came back 10.15 seconds long, with the end 5 frames past the time we set. The early start only shows up when the start handle sits between two full pictures, as it does when you lift a moment out of the middle of a recording.

An iPhone MOV stays a MOV

The result keeps the format of the upload, so a .mov in gives a .mov out, and the space-saving format an iPhone records in by default is copied as it is: our portrait phone-style MOV came back as a 5.3 second MOV in 5 seconds. That format plays on Apple devices and in most current players, but an older Windows PC may need an add-on from the Microsoft Store. If the cut has to play everywhere, run it through MOV to MP4 afterwards, which turns it into a standard MP4.

MKV, WebM, AVI and the rest

The same copy applies to every format the upload box accepts, and the result keeps the extension: we cut an 18 second MKV with no sound track to 10 seconds and got a 6.7 MB .mkv back. A cut MKV plays in VLC and most desktop players but not in every browser or phone app, and MKV to MP4 turns it into a file that does. We ran MP4, MOV and MKV through the live tool. WebM, AVI, WMV, FLV and 3GP go through the same steps on the server but weren't part of the test, so check the result before you rely on one.

One piece per cut: removing a section from the middle

A cut has a single start and a single end, so the tool can't drop a part out of the middle in one go. Cut the part before the gap, then upload the same file again and cut the part after it, and join the two pieces with Merge Video. Since both pieces come from one file, they match, and Merge Video usually joins them as they are, with no quality loss.

Size limit, time limit and what gets deleted

One file up to 500 MB goes from your browser straight to our cloud storage over an upload link that's good for 10 minutes, and the server pulls it from there and removes the storage copy at once. The cut has a 5 minute limit, which a copy never gets near: our 11 to 13 MB clips took 4 to 5 seconds of server time each. The server deletes its copy of the original as soon as the cut finishes, keeps the cut file for the 30 minute download window, and a nightly cleanup removes everything left from the day.

If the cut fails

The page keeps both handles inside the video, so a bad time range is caught before anything uploads. A file that isn't really a video, say a document renamed to .mp4, fails when the server reads it, with a "Could not read input video" message. If the upload stalls on a slow connection, press Cancel and try again with a smaller file, or shrink it first with Compress Video. Files from a failed job are removed by the nightly cleanup.

Last updated: 21 October 2026 · ChangeMyFile

Tested: 21 October 2026, four cuts on the live tool with short pieces of Pixabay stock clips. An 18 second H.264 MP4, 1920 x 1080 at 29.97 fps with a keyframe every 3 seconds, cut from 7.5 to 12 seconds: back in 5 seconds as a 4.6 MB MP4 of 6.2 seconds, starting on the keyframe at 6.0 seconds and ending at 12.2. A 15 second portrait HEVC MOV, 1080 x 1920 at 30 fps with a keyframe every second, cut from 4.5 to 9.25 seconds: back in 5 seconds as a 4.0 MB HEVC MOV of 5.3 seconds, starting at 4.0. An 18 second H.264 MKV at 24 fps with no sound, cut from 5 to 13 seconds: back in 5 seconds as a 6.7 MB MKV of 10.2 seconds, starting at the keyframe at 3.04. The same MP4 cut from 0 to 10 seconds: back in 6 seconds as a 7.8 MB MP4 of 10.15 seconds, 303 frames, start exact. Picture and sound were untouched in all four, and in the three cuts from the middle the first frame of the output was the same pixels as the source keyframe.

FAQ

Video cutting questions

At a glance

Formats you can upload
MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI, M4V, 3GP, FLV, WMV
Upload limit
500 MB, one file
Result
Same format as the upload, name ends in _cut
Method
Copied as is, no quality loss
Start point
Nearest earlier full picture, 0.5 to 2 s early in our tests
End point
Within a few frames, about 0.2 s
Time
About 5 seconds in our tests
Where it runs
Our server
Download link
Expires after 30 minutes
Files deleted
Upload when the job ends, the rest nightly
Account
Not needed
Watermark
None

Can't find your answer? Visit our Help center.

Is this MP4 cutter free, and does it add a watermark?
It's free, with no account and no watermark, and the only limits are one file at a time and 500 MB per file. The cut file has the original name with _cut added; the only other change is that spaces in the name become underscores.
How do I cut an MP4 online without losing quality?
Upload it here and set the start and end. The tool copies the selected part of the file without processing it again, so the picture and sound in the result are exactly what was in the original. The one thing to know is that the start moves back to the nearest earlier full picture stored in the video, which added 1.5 seconds on our test clip that had one every 3 seconds.
Why does my cut start a second or two before the time I set?
Because the tool copies the video instead of rebuilding it, the clip has to begin on a full picture, and it uses the last one before your start time. How often a file stores a full picture is set by whatever made it: about once a second on our phone-style clip, every 3 seconds on the stock clips we tested, and up to 8 seconds apart in some exported video. The end point is accurate to a few frames, so if the early start bothers you, drag the start handle a little later and check with Play section.
Can I trim a MOV file from my iPhone?
Yes: upload the .mov, set the two handles and download, and the result is still a MOV with the picture and sound copied as they were. Our test MOV, a portrait 1080 x 1920 clip, came back in 5 seconds with the start half a second early. If you need an MP4 instead, cut first, then run the small cut file through MOV to MP4.
Can I cut an MKV online?
Yes, and the output stays an MKV; we cut an 18 second MKV to 10 seconds in about 5 seconds. One thing to check: an MKV with several audio tracks, such as two languages, comes back with only one of them. The copy keeps one picture track and one sound track, which we confirmed on a two-track test file.
Does it work with M4V?
An ordinary M4V, which is an MP4 with a different extension, cuts like any MP4 and comes back as .m4v. A film or episode bought from the iTunes Store is a copy-protected M4V; we haven't tested one, but expect the cut to fail or the result not to play, since nothing here can unlock it.
How do I cut a part out of the middle of a video?
In two passes: cut from the beginning to where the unwanted part starts and download that, then upload the original again and cut from where the unwanted part ends to the finish. Join the two downloads with Merge Video, which usually joins them as they are, since they come from the same file.
Can I type exact timestamps instead of dragging?
Yes: the Cut from and to boxes take hh:mm:ss.mmm, mm:ss or plain seconds, and the value is applied when you press Enter or click away. Typing is the most precise way to set the end, which is honoured to a few frames, while the start still snaps back to the nearest full picture whichever way you set it.
Does it work on a phone?
The page works in a phone browser: tap Browse video to pick a clip from your camera roll, and the handles respond to touch, though on a small screen it's easier to type the times into the two boxes than to drag. Keep the tab in front while it uploads, since switching apps can pause the upload.
What happens to my video after I upload it?
It goes from your browser to our cloud storage, our server fetches it and deletes that storage copy straight away, and the server's own copy of the original is deleted the moment the cut is done. The cut file stays for the 30 minute download window, and a nightly cleanup clears what's left, so nothing is kept for more than about a day.
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