How to trim or cut a video on your Mac

To cut the start or end off a video, Control-click it in Finder, choose Quick Actions, then Trim, and drag the yellow handles. QuickTime Player and Photos do the same. To cut a piece out of the middle you need to split the video, which iMovie and Koi's Edit Video both do. Koi's Trim is one drag, with a strip of frames and the arrow keys to move a frame at a time.

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 Mac, QuickTime, Photos and iMovie guides, checked October 21, 2026.

1. Select the video in a Finder window.
2. Control-click it, choose Quick Actions, then Trim.
3. Drag the yellow handles in the trimming bar to the start and end you want.
4. Click Play to check it. Revert starts over.
5. Click Done, then choose whether to replace the original or make a new file.

Pick a new file unless you're sure you'll never want the full video back. Apple's Quick Actions guide has the steps.

1. Open the video in QuickTime Player.
2. Choose Edit, Trim.
3. Drag the yellow handles so they hold the part you want to keep. Click and hold a handle to see single frames.
4. Click Trim.
5. Choose File, Export As to save a copy.

QuickTime can also split a video into clips with View, Show Clips and Edit, Split Clip, so you can rearrange them. Apple's trim guide covers both. Whatever you export is a .mov.

In Photos, double-click the video, click Edit, then drag the handles at either end of the timeline. Photos keeps the footage you trimmed off, so you can drag the handles back later or choose Revert to Original.

To take a piece out of the middle, use iMovie. Put the video in a project, select it in the timeline, move the playhead to where the cut starts and choose Modify, Split Clip. Do the same where it ends, select the piece in between and delete it. Then choose File, Share, File to save it. Apple's iMovie guide has the split steps. For a cut to the exact frame, double-click a clip's edge to open the precision editor. iMovie can also keep just a range: hold R, drag across the frames you want, Control-click and choose Trim Selection.

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 Trim. It plays over a strip of its frames.
4. Drag the strip's ends in. Press ← or → to move a frame at a time. Start, End and Length show on the left.
5. Click Trim. The copy lands beside the original as “Name trimmed” and shows in Finder.

• The picture is copied as it is, not encoded again. A MOV stays a MOV.
• The original is never touched.
• It runs on your Mac with Apple's AVFoundation. Nothing is uploaded.

1. Drag the video, hold Shift and drop it on Edit.
2. Move the playhead to where the unwanted part starts and press C to split. Do the same where it ends.
3. Click the piece in between and press Delete (⌫). Put Clip Back brings it back.
4. Drag the ends of any piece to fine-tune it. ← and → move the playhead a frame at a time.
5. Click Export, pick MP4, a quality and a frame rate, and click Export Video.

Need two separate files instead? Drop the video on More and click Split: it saves two parts, cut at the playhead. Undo and redo work the whole way through Edit Video.

• Cut the ends off once: Finder's Trim. There's nothing to open.
• Frame-exact, with the original kept and nothing encoded again: Koi's Trim.
• Cut out the middle, or several parts: Koi's Edit Video or iMovie.
• The video lives in your Photos library: trim it there. Photos keeps what you cut, so you can change your mind.

• Finder's Trim can replace the original. Pick a new file the first time.
• Photos changes the video in your library. Use Revert to Original to get the full length back.
• Trimming makes the file smaller too, by about the share of the time you cut.
• To make a clip for a chat, trim first, then compress or turn it into a GIF.
• A screen recording usually starts with you reaching for the window and ends with you clicking Stop. Take a second or two off both ends.

Next steps: compress the video, turn it into a GIF, or speed it up. The rest of the wheel is on the Shift wheel page.

Finder, QuickTime, Photos 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.