How to Shorten a Video

Shortening a video sounds like a job for editing software, but for the most common case — cutting the start and end down to the good part — a browser tab is enough. This guide shows how to shorten a video in three steps using ShortenVideo, with the file processed locally so nothing is uploaded.

Step 1: add the video

Open the home page and drag your file onto the drop area, or click to pick one. MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV and 40+ combinations are supported, up to 4K. The tool reads the video's duration, resolution and codec locally and shows a preview — this takes a second even for large files, because only metadata is read, never the whole picture.

Step 2: set the start and end

Drag the two handles on the timeline until the preview shows exactly the part you want to keep. Play the selection to check the boundaries. In lossless mode the start snaps to the nearest keyframe (typically every 1–2 seconds), which keeps the export lossless; if you must cut at a precise moment, switch the cutting mode to precise.

Step 3: export and save

Press export. The selected range is copied into a new file at original quality — no watermark, no resolution drop — and your browser saves it to your device. A cut of a 500 MB file usually finishes in seconds because the data is streamed, not re-encoded.

Two tips make the result better. First, trim conservatively: leaving half a second of margin at each end avoids chopping the first syllable of speech. Second, remember that cutting shortens the file too — if your goal is to fit an attachment limit, removing even 30% of the duration typically cuts the file size by a similar share. Files up to 2 GB are free with no account; the guide above works the same for larger files after signing in.