Guide
Crop video online: pick a shape, keep the centre
Drop a video above, pick a shape and press Resize. The centre of your video is kept, and the file never leaves your device.
In short
- You can crop to 9:16, 4:5, 1:1, 2:3 or 16:9 here. Square is set for you.
- The crop comes from the centre of the frame, and your video is never blown up.
- The preview shows the crop window and how much of the picture you keep.
- Nothing is uploaded, there is no watermark and you do not need an account.
Crop video
Runs in your browser · files never leave this page
Drop a video here
or
Shape
How to fit it
Your file never leaves this page. The engine downloads once, the work happens in this tab, and there is no upload, no account and no storage. Close the tab and the file is gone unless you downloaded it.
More free tools: Video compressor · Video resizer · Video to MP4 · Video to MP3 · Video clipper · all tools
What the crop does
The crop cuts your video down to a new shape and keeps the middle of the picture.
- The crop window sits in the middle of the frame, so the same amount comes off both edges.
- The part you keep keeps its own pixels, so nothing is stretched or blown up.
- The picture is written again once at a high quality setting, so the loss is hard to see.
- If nothing may be cut, switch to Pad and keep the whole picture with bars around it.
How much each shape keeps
The further the new shape is from the old one, the more is cut.
What a crop keeps
Crop sizes from a 1080p clip. The crop is taken from the centre and never blown up.
| Shape | From a landscape clip (1920 × 1080) | From a vertical phone clip (1080 × 1920) |
|---|---|---|
| 9:16 | 606 × 1080, keeps 32% | 1080 × 1920, keeps 100% |
| 4:5 | 864 × 1080, keeps 45% | 1080 × 1350, keeps 70% |
| 1:1 | 1080 × 1080, keeps 56% | 1080 × 1080, keeps 56% |
| 2:3 | 720 × 1080, keeps 38% | 1080 × 1620, keeps 84% |
| 16:9 | 1920 × 1080, keeps 100% | 1080 × 606, keeps 32% |
Shape: 9:16
- From a landscape clip (1920 × 1080)
- 606 × 1080, keeps 32%
- From a vertical phone clip (1080 × 1920)
- 1080 × 1920, keeps 100%
Shape: 4:5
- From a landscape clip (1920 × 1080)
- 864 × 1080, keeps 45%
- From a vertical phone clip (1080 × 1920)
- 1080 × 1350, keeps 70%
Shape: 1:1
- From a landscape clip (1920 × 1080)
- 1080 × 1080, keeps 56%
- From a vertical phone clip (1080 × 1920)
- 1080 × 1080, keeps 56%
Shape: 2:3
- From a landscape clip (1920 × 1080)
- 720 × 1080, keeps 38%
- From a vertical phone clip (1080 × 1920)
- 1080 × 1620, keeps 84%
Shape: 16:9
- From a landscape clip (1920 × 1080)
- 1920 × 1080, keeps 100%
- From a vertical phone clip (1080 × 1920)
- 1080 × 606, keeps 32%
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
How to crop a video
Four steps, all in this tab.
Crop a video
Drop your video
In the box at the top
Pick a shape
Square is set for you
Check the preview
The window shows what stays
Press Resize and download
An MP4 on your device
Limits of a browser tool
Everything runs on your own device, so your device sets the limits.
- File size: up to 500 MB runs comfortably. Bigger files may run out of memory.
- Speed: the engine uses one processor core, so a long re-encode takes minutes.
- First run: the engine downloads once, about 32 MB. After that it starts fast.
- Phones: it works, but a laptop is faster and has more memory.
- The crop is always centred, so it cannot follow a person or a product that moves around the frame.
Questions people ask
- Can I choose which part of the video to keep?
- No, the crop is always taken from the centre. Film with the subject in the middle, or use Pad to keep the whole picture.
- How do I crop a video to a square?
- Keep 1:1, which is set for you, and press Resize. From a 1080p landscape clip you get 1080 × 1080.
- Does cropping lower the quality?
- It keeps fewer pixels but does not blur them. The picture is written again once at a high quality setting (CRF 21), so the loss is hard to see.
- Can I crop out a border or a logo in a corner?
- Not precisely. The crop picks a shape from the centre, so it only removes edges evenly on two sides.
- Is my video uploaded anywhere?
- No. The tool runs inside this browser tab, so your video never leaves your device. Only the engine itself is downloaded, about 32 MB, once per visit.
Need the finished video, not just a resized file? Cutroom turns one clip of you talking into a captioned 9:16 video. Your first video is free.