Crop video frames precisely, on any device
Cropping a video cuts away the edges of the picture for the whole length of the clip — a distracting background, black bars burned into an old recording, a webcam overlay, or simply the wrong shape for the platform. This video cropper puts a draggable box over a frame of your video, keeps it at the ratio you choose and saves only what is inside.
The box works with a mouse or a finger: eight large handles resize it, dragging inside moves it, and dragging on the picture outside the box draws a new one. Below the preview, the X, Y, width and height fields show the crop in the video’s real pixels, so you can type exact numbers too. The result is re-encoded in your browser with WebCodecs and Mediabunny, an MPL-2.0 media library; the video stays on your device.
How to use the Crop Video
- Drop an MP4, MOV, WebM or MKV video on the upload area. A frame from 15% of the way into the clip appears under the crop box.
- Pick an aspect ratio — Free, 1:1, 4:5, 9:16, 16:9 or 21:9. A fixed ratio places the largest box of that shape in the centre.
- Drag the box or its corner and edge handles, or type X, Y, Width and Height in pixels. Move the “Preview frame at” slider to make sure the subject stays inside the box throughout the clip.
- Choose the output format, quality and whether to keep the sound, then press “Crop video”.
- When the bar reaches 100%, compare the Before and After players and press Download.
Crop Video features
Touch-friendly crop box
Large handles on every corner and edge, rule-of-thirds guides and a shaded outside area that behave the same with a mouse, pen or finger.
Social and cinema ratios
Free, 1:1, 4:5, 9:16, 16:9 and 21:9 — square posts, portrait feed posts, Reels and Shorts, YouTube, and ultra-wide cinema framing.
Pixel-exact fields
X, Y, width and height follow the box in both directions and are measured in the source video’s pixels, not the shrunken preview.
Scrub before you crop
Check the box against any moment of the clip with the frame slider, so a subject who walks across the frame is not cut off.
Full resolution, even sizes
The pixels inside the box keep their original resolution; width and height snap to even numbers because H.264 needs them.
No upload, no watermark
Everything runs locally in the browser, and the saved video carries no watermark or branding.
Common reasons to crop a video
- Remove black bars. Old TV recordings and screen captures often have letterbox or pillarbox bars baked into the picture; draw the box tight around the real image.
- Make a square or vertical clip. Choose 1:1, 4:5 or 9:16 to turn landscape footage into a feed post or a Reel without bars. To keep the whole picture instead, use the video aspect ratio converter with a blurred background.
- Hide what should not be seen. Cut off a cluttered desk, a notification bar in a screen recording, a name badge or a passer-by at the edge of the frame.
- Zoom in on the action. A tighter crop of a 4K clip can still be sharp at 1080p — crop first, then use the video resizer if a platform needs an exact size.
How much resolution does a crop leave?
Cropping never adds pixels. A 1:1 crop from a 1920 × 1080 video is at most 1080 × 1080, and a 9:16 crop is 608 × 1080 — fine on a phone, soft on a television. The badge under the crop fields always shows the final size, so you can judge before you encode.
| Source | Largest 1:1 crop | Largest 9:16 crop | Largest 4:5 crop |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3840 × 2160 (4K) | 2160 × 2160 | 1214 × 2160 | 1728 × 2160 |
| 1920 × 1080 (1080p) | 1080 × 1080 | 608 × 1080 | 864 × 1080 |
| 1280 × 720 (720p) | 720 × 720 | 404 × 720 | 576 × 720 |
Cropping vs resizing vs changing the aspect ratio
Cropping removes part of the picture and leaves the remaining pixels as they were. Resizing keeps the whole picture but changes how many pixels describe it. Changing the aspect ratio can do either — trim the edges or add bars around the picture.
If your video is sideways rather than badly framed, rotate it first; mirrored selfie footage is fixed with Flip Video. Cropping a single still instead of a clip? Crop Image does the same job for photos.
Crop Video FAQ
How do I crop a video to a square?
Choose 1:1 in the aspect ratio row. The largest square that fits appears in the centre; drag it over your subject, check a few moments with the frame slider and press “Crop video”.
Does cropping a video reduce its quality?
The pixels inside the box keep their original resolution, but the video is re-encoded, which costs a little detail. At “High” quality the difference is very hard to see. What you lose is the area outside the box.
Can I crop a video on my phone?
Yes. The crop box is sized for fingers, and dragging on the video moves the box instead of scrolling the page. Long or 4K videos take longer on phones, so keep the screen on while it works.
Why are the crop width and height always even?
H.264, HEVC and VP9 store colour at half resolution in both directions, so frame sizes must be even. The fields snap to even values automatically.
Can I crop only part of the video’s length?
This video cropper crops the picture for the whole clip. To make the clip shorter in time, cut it with the video trimmer first and then crop the shorter file.
Is my video uploaded?
No. The crop happens inside your browser with WebCodecs; the video is never sent anywhere, and there is no account or watermark.