Video Cropper

Crop videos to 1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 4:5, or custom sizes with a centered crop, processed entirely in your browser, files never uploaded.

Your video is cropped locally with FFmpeg running in your browser. Nothing is uploaded; the file never leaves your device. First use downloads the ~31 MB engine once. Files up to 200 MB.

The crop is always centered: the window is taken from the middle of the frame and edges are trimmed equally on opposite sides. Nothing is stretched.

About the Video Cropper

Every platform wants a different shape: Instagram feed posts work best as square or 4:5, YouTube is 16:9, and Shorts, Reels, and TikTok are 9:16 vertical. Cropping cuts away the edges of the frame (permanently discarding pixels) until the remaining picture matches the aspect ratio you need. Unlike resizing, which scales the whole frame and keeps everything in shot, cropping changes the composition itself.

This tool always crops from the center of the frame: the crop window is centered automatically and margins are trimmed equally from opposite sides, with no free positioning. The presets use FFmpeg expressions such as crop=min(iw\,ih):min(iw\,ih), which take the largest possible centered window of the target ratio that still fits inside your source: a 16:9 crop of a vertical video keeps the full width and trims the top and bottom. The video is re-encoded to H.264 while the audio track is copied unchanged.

To change resolution without losing any picture area, use the Video Resizer instead. To cut length rather than picture, the Video Trimmer is the right tool, and the Video Converter handles format changes afterward.

How to Crop a Video

  1. Select your video file (MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV, AVI, and more, up to 200 MB).
  2. Choose the target aspect ratio (1:1, 16:9, 9:16, or 4:5), or Custom for exact pixel dimensions.
  3. Click Crop Video. The crop window is centered; edges come off equally from each side.
  4. Watch the progress bar: the video is re-encoded, so length and resolution drive the wait.
  5. Click Download Cropped Video to save the result next to your original.

Video Cropper FAQs

Can I choose which part of the frame to keep?

No, the crop is always centered, so margins come off equally from opposite sides. This keeps results predictable and the tool simple. If you need to position the crop window over an off-center subject, a desktop editor with free crop placement is the right tool.

Why is my 16:9 crop of a vertical video so short?

The presets take the largest centered window of the target ratio that fits inside the source. From a 9:16 vertical clip, a 16:9 crop keeps the entire width and only a horizontal band of the height; that is the most 16:9 content the frame can hold without scaling or adding borders.

What happens to the trimmed edges? Can I get them back?

Cropped-away pixels are permanently gone from the output file; only your original still contains them. Keep that original if you might re-crop later, and always re-crop from it: cropping an already-cropped file re-encodes again and slightly degrades quality each pass.

Why does a custom crop larger than my video fail?

The crop filter cannot create pixels: the width and height you enter must be smaller than or equal to your source dimensions, or FFmpeg aborts with an error. When in doubt, use a ratio preset; its min() expressions can never overshoot your frame.

Crop or resize: which one do I need?

Crop changes the shape of the picture by cutting area away (for platform aspect ratios like 1:1 or 9:16). Resize keeps the whole picture and scales it to new dimensions. Cropping a 16:9 video to 1:1 loses the sides; resizing it to a square would distort it. Both outputs are often slightly smaller than the source since they contain fewer pixels.