Cut MP4

How to Cut MP4 Video Online

1. Upload Your MP4 File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to select an .mp4 or .m4v clip from your computer. Files stay in your browser session — no account, no email, no install.
2. Set Start time and Duration: Under "Trim" pick "Time Range", then enter values in seconds or HH:MM:SS.sss (millisecond precision). For a clean keyframe-aligned cut, leave Video Codec and Audio Codec on "Unchanged" — XConvert stream-copies the segment without re-encoding. For a frame-exact start, pick an explicit codec (e.g. H.264) and the segment will be re-encoded from your chosen timestamp.
3. Optional — Resize or Re-encode: Use Video resolution to downscale (e.g. 1080p → 720p), File Compression to shrink the output, or change container by uploading to the right tool. Skip all of these to keep the source bitrate, resolution, and codec intact.
4. Cut and Download: Click the action button. Files process in your browser session and the output downloads directly — no watermark, no sign-up, no queue.

Why Cut MP4?

MP4 (formally ISO/IEC 14496-14, an MPEG-4 Part 14 container) is the de-facto delivery format for the modern web: H.264 or H.265 video plus AAC audio in a file that streams on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, iOS, Android, smart TVs, and every social platform. "Cutting" an MP4 means extracting a sub-range of the timeline — often to keep a highlight, remove dead air, or split a long recording into shareable pieces.

• Social platform clips — Instagram Reels and TikTok feed posts cap at 90 seconds, YouTube Shorts at 60 seconds, and X (formerly Twitter) free accounts at 2 minutes 20 seconds. Cut a longer recording down to fit without re-uploading the full source.
• Trim screen recordings and meetings — Pull a single 90-second decision out of an hour-long Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Teams MP4. The exported clip plays in every chat tool without re-rendering.
• Highlight reels from gameplay or sports — OBS, Nvidia ShadowPlay, and AMD ReLive all save in MP4 with H.264. Extract the goal, the kill, or the win without spinning up a full NLE.
• Lecture and tutorial extracts — Pull the 4-minute explanation of one concept out of a 90-minute lecture recording — useful for study notes, training decks, or sharing to Slack/Discord.
• Court, podcast, and interview pulls — Isolate a single answer or exhibit from a long-form recording without re-encoding the audio, which preserves voice clarity for evidence and editorial use.
• Pre-edit prep — Trim a long camcorder MP4 down to the segment you actually need before importing into DaVinci Resolve, Premiere, or CapCut. Smaller proxies, faster edits.

Cut vs Trim vs Split — Which Tool Do You Want?

Editing vocabulary overlaps, and most online tools blur the distinction. Here's what each verb usually means and which xconvert tool maps to it.

Verb	What It Does	xconvert Tool
Trim	Shorten by removing the head, the tail, or both — keeps one continuous middle section	Trim MP4 or Video Trimmer
Cut	Extract a sub-range by start time + duration (or remove a middle section)	This page / Video Cutter
Split	Divide a long file into multiple independent output clips	Video Cutter (re-run per segment)
Merge	Join multiple clips end-to-end into a single MP4	Upload multiple files to the relevant convert tool

For a single-segment extract using start time + duration this page is correct. For multi-segment workflows (e.g. extracting three highlights from one source) re-run the cut once per segment — each run produces an independent MP4 you can later combine.

Lossless Stream-Copy vs Re-encode — The Keyframe Tradeoff

MP4 video is compressed as a sequence of keyframes (I-frames, fully self-contained) and predicted frames (P/B-frames, which reference earlier frames). A cut can only start on a keyframe without decoding, so the cutting mode you pick decides whether the output is bit-perfect or frame-accurate — you generally can't have both.

Mode	Output Start	Quality	Speed	When To Use
Stream-copy (codec "Unchanged")	Snaps to nearest preceding keyframe (commonly 1-10 s before your timestamp)	Identical to source — no recompression	Very fast (seconds, even for GB-sized files)	Default — preserves H.264/H.265 quality and avoids generation loss
Re-encode (explicit codec)	Frame-accurate to your chosen timestamp	Small quality loss from one re-encode cycle	Slower (CPU work proportional to clip length)	Frame-perfect start required (e.g. removing a 0.3 s blooper, or aligning to subtitle cues)

Modern social-media recorders (OBS, ShadowPlay, iPhone screen capture, GoPro) typically place keyframes every 1-2 seconds, so stream-copy lands close to your mark in most consumer footage. Long-GOP broadcast captures and older AVCHD camcorder files can have 5-10 second keyframe intervals — there a re-encode may be the only way to hit an exact frame.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does cutting reduce MP4 quality?

In stream-copy mode (the default when codecs are left "Unchanged"), no — the original H.264/H.265 video and AAC audio packets are copied bit-for-bit into the new container. The output is mathematically identical to the source for the selected range. Re-encode mode applies one lossy compression pass, which is visually negligible at high bitrates but does add a generation-loss step.

Why does my cut start a few seconds before the time I entered?

Stream-copy mode can only begin output on a keyframe. If you ask for a cut at 00:01:13 but the nearest preceding keyframe is at 00:01:11, the file starts at 00:01:11 so the first visible frame is fully decodable. Switch to re-encode mode (set Video Codec explicitly) if you need the output to start at exactly the timestamp you typed.

Can I cut multiple segments from the same MP4?

Yes — re-run the cut once per segment, varying Start time and Duration. Each run downloads as an independent MP4. To stitch the resulting clips back together into one continuous file, drop them into a video-merge workflow. There's no "multi-range" export in a single pass on this page.

What's the maximum MP4 file size I can cut?

Cuts run in your browser session, so the practical ceiling depends on your device's RAM and the source bitrate. Multi-GB 4K H.265 files generally work on desktops with 8 GB+ free memory; phones and Chromebooks should stick to smaller clips. There is no hard server-side cap.

Does the output keep the original MP4 codec and resolution?

Yes — when Video Codec and Audio Codec are left on "Unchanged" the output retains the source codec (H.264, H.265, AV1, etc.), resolution, frame rate, color profile, and bitrate. Only the time range changes. Override any of those by selecting a different codec or by changing Video resolution before cutting.

Will the cut MP4 play on iPhone, Android, and social platforms?

If the source plays everywhere, the cut will too — the container, codec, and audio track are preserved. Stream-copied MP4s written by this tool include a faststart-friendly atom layout, so they begin playing on the web before the full file downloads. For older devices that struggle with H.265, convert the cut output to H.264 with MP4 to MP4 compression.

How does this differ from the Trim MP4 tool?

The trim tool is structured around "remove head and/or tail" — you mark in/out points on a continuous segment. This cut tool is structured around "extract a segment of length N starting at time T". Functionally they overlap for the simple case (one middle segment kept). Pick whichever workflow matches how you think about the edit.

Can I cut just the audio out of an MP4?

This page outputs an MP4 with both streams. To strip the audio into its own file, use MP4 to MP3 or the standalone audio cutter. Both run client-side with no upload.

What if my "MP4" is really MOV, MKV, or WebM under a different extension?

The accepted file types here are .mp4 and .m4v only. For other containers use the format-specific cutters: Cut MOV, Cut MKV, or Cut WebM. The processing model is identical — only the container changes.