How to crop a video on your Mac

To crop a video on a Mac, open it in Photos, click Edit, then Crop, and drag the box or pick a ratio in the sidebar. QuickTime Player has no crop, and iMovie's crop is locked to 16:9, so it can't make a vertical video. Koi's Crop has 9:16 built in, and Edit Video can put a wide video on a 9:16 canvas without cutting anything off.

We make Koi, so read the Koi part with that in mind. Everything about Koi here is what version 1.13 does. Apple's steps come from its Photos, QuickTime and iMovie guides, checked October 21, 2026.

1. Add the video to Photos and double-click it.
2. Click Edit, then Crop in the toolbar.
3. Click a ratio in the sidebar, like Square, 4:5 or 16:9. Custom lets you type your own, such as 9:16.
4. Drag the box round the part you want to keep.
5. Click Done.

Apple's crop guide covers photos and videos alike. The crop changes the video in your library, so export a copy (File, Export) to send it. Photos can straighten a tilted video too, with Auto or the sliders.

1. Select the clip in the timeline.
2. Click the Cropping button above the viewer.
3. Click Crop to Fill. A frame appears over the clip.
4. Move and resize the frame, then click Apply.

Apple's iMovie guide says that frame is constrained to a 16:9 ratio. It's good for zooming into a wide shot, not for a Reel. Fit puts the whole picture back, with black bars if its shape is different.

QuickTime Player can rotate and flip a video, but its editing tools (trim, split, rearrange, rotate and remove audio or video) don't include a crop. To rotate a phone video that shows sideways, choose View, Show Clips, select the clip, pick Rotate Left, Rotate Right or a flip from the Edit menu, then click Done. Apple's rotate guide has it. Finder's Quick Actions also have Rotate Left, with Option for Rotate Right.

1. Start dragging the video in Finder or on your desktop.
2. While you're still holding it, press and hold Shift. The video wheel opens round your pointer.
3. Drop the video on Crop. The crop box sits over its first frame.
4. Pick a ratio under Aspect ratio: Free, 1:1, 16:9, 9:16, 4:3 or 3:4. Or type the width and height in pixels.
5. Drag the box by a corner, an edge or its middle. Everything outside it darkens.
6. Click Crop. The copy lands beside the original and shows in Finder.

• The picture is encoded again in H.264, which plays nearly everywhere.
• The original is never touched.
• It runs on your Mac with Apple's AVFoundation. Nothing is uploaded.

A wide video can become vertical in two ways, and they give very different results.

• Crop to 9:16 when the subject sits in the middle, like one person talking. Koi's Crop at 9:16 keeps a tall slice and cuts the sides off.
• Put it on a 9:16 canvas when everything in the shot matters, like a screen recording or a group. Koi's Edit Video keeps the whole picture and fills the space above and below with a background.

1. Drag the video, hold Shift and drop it on Edit.
2. Under the video, pick 9:16 as the canvas's shape.
3. In Background, pick an image, a video, a colour or a gradient, and soften it with the Blur slider if you like.
4. Use Frame's Padding, Radius and Shadow to size the video and round its corners.
5. Click Export, pick MP4 and a quality, and click Export Video.

The canvas offers Native, 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3 and 4:5, so the same video can go out as a square post or a 4:5 feed video too. Export once for each shape you need: each copy is saved beside the original as its own file, so a wide and a vertical version can sit side by side.

• A quick crop of a phone video already in your library: Photos.
• 9:16, 1:1 or an exact size in pixels, in one drag from Finder: Koi's Crop.
• Vertical without losing anything at the sides: Koi's Edit Video on a 9:16 canvas.
• Zooming into part of a wide shot inside a movie you're making: iMovie's Crop to Fill.

• Cropping throws pixels away. A 1920 by 1080 video cropped to 9:16 is only about 607 pixels wide. Shoot vertical when you can.
• A crop box is the same for the whole video. If the subject walks across the frame, part of it leaves the crop.
• A phone video that shows sideways may only need rotating. QuickTime's Edit menu rotates and flips without cropping.
• Crop the video before you compress it: fewer pixels means a smaller file.
• Koi's Crop shows the box over the first frame. If the subject moves later, check the copy, or crop in Edit Video, where Crop Video sits over the video as it plays.

Next: compress the cropped video, trim it, or, for a screen recording, give it a background and rounded corners. The rest of the wheel is on the Shift wheel page.

Photos, QuickTime and iMovie are free. Koi has no free plan: Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card. Lifetime is paid once, from $59. The Shift wheel uses no AI, so it never counts against Koi's usage. See the plans.