--- title: "How to trim a video without re-encoding | ToolSugar" description: "Cut a clip out of a longer video in your browser, and learn when to pick Fast mode for speed or Accurate mode for an exact start." canonical: https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-trim-a-video image: https://toolsugar.com/og.png --- # How to trim a video and keep its quality Updated 2026-11-09 To trim a video, set a start time and an end time and save only the part between them. Trim Video does this in your browser, on your device, for MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI and M4V files. Choose Fast mode to cut in seconds with no quality loss, or Accurate mode to land on an exact moment. This guide shows both. [Open Trim Video](https://toolsugar.com/tools/video-trimmer) ## Trim a video in four steps Fast mode accepts files up to 500 MB on a computer and 250 MB on a phone. Accurate mode accepts up to 120 MB, or 60 MB on a phone. 1. Choose a video file from your device. 2. Type the start and end as minutes and seconds, such as 1:30 and 2:05. 3. Pick Fast to keep the original quality, or Accurate for an exact cut. 4. Press Trim video, check the preview, and download the clip. ## Fast mode or Accurate mode Fast mode copies the existing video stream and does not touch the pictures. The clip keeps the same container and quality as the source, and the job ends in seconds even for a large file. Accurate mode decodes the video and encodes it again as an MP4. That is slower, but the clip begins on the exact time you typed. Choose it when a single frame matters, for example when you cut right after a spoken word. ## Why a cut can begin a few seconds early A video file stores a complete picture only at certain points called keyframes. The frames between two keyframes store changes from the one before. A copy cannot start in the middle of that chain, so Fast mode starts at the nearest keyframe. Cameras and apps place keyframes at different spacing. Some files have one every second, others one every ten seconds or more. If your clip opens with a bit of footage you did not ask for, run the same cut again in Accurate mode. ## How to write the times Separate hours, minutes and seconds with colons, so 1:02:30 means one hour, two minutes and thirty seconds. A plain number such as 95 is read as seconds. A decimal such as 0:12.5 lets you cut between whole seconds. ## How long Accurate mode takes The encode runs inside your browser. One minute of 1080p at 30 frames per second took about 8 seconds on an Apple M4 Pro laptop using its video hardware. If your browser cannot use the hardware, a slower engine takes over, and the same minute took 2 to 4 minutes. Phones and older computers take longer, so keep Accurate clips short on those. ## Questions ### Does trimming a video lower its quality? Not in Fast mode, because the pictures are copied as they are. Accurate mode encodes the clip once more, which costs a small amount of detail. ### How do I make a trimmed clip smaller? Trim first, then run the result through Compress Video. Cutting away footage you do not need is the cheapest way to shrink a file, and compression then works on less material. ### Can I trim a video on my phone? Yes, in a browser on the phone. The limits are lower, at 250 MB for Fast mode and 60 MB for Accurate mode, and Accurate mode takes longer than on a computer. [Open Trim Video](https://toolsugar.com/tools/video-trimmer) ## Related guides - [How to compress a video without losing quality](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-compress-a-video) - [How to make a GIF from a video](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-make-a-gif-from-a-video) - [How to compress a video to a specific size](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-compress-a-video-to-a-specific-size) - [How to remove audio from a video](https://toolsugar.com/blog/how-to-remove-audio-from-a-video) ## Comparisons - [Kapwing alternative](https://toolsugar.com/alternatives/kapwing-alternative) - [VEED alternative](https://toolsugar.com/alternatives/veed-alternative) - [CapCut alternative](https://toolsugar.com/alternatives/capcut-alternative) - [Clideo alternative](https://toolsugar.com/alternatives/clideo-alternative)