Crop Video

How Crop Video works

Choose a shape and the video is cropped to the largest area of that shape that fits, taken from the centre of the frame. A 1920 by 1080 widescreen clip cropped to square keeps the middle 1080 by 1080; cropped to 9:16 it keeps a 606 by 1080 vertical slice from the middle, ready for Stories, Reels, TikTok and Shorts.

The picture is re-encoded with H.264 at high quality (CRF 20), because cropping changes every frame. The sound is copied across unchanged, and the video keeps its original container, so an MP4 stays an MP4 and a MOV stays a MOV.

Cropping runs on your device with ffmpeg compiled to WebAssembly. The engine, about 32 MB, downloads the first time and is cached. Because every frame is re-encoded, allow several times the length of an HD clip on a laptop; short clips are quick.

The cropped file keeps its name with -cropped added, so the original is never overwritten. Cropping keeps fewer pixels than the original, so the file is usually smaller even at high quality, and a vertical crop of a 1080p video is exactly the 1080 pixel height that phones display. If the clip also needs trimming, trim it first with the video trimmer: the fast trim copies without re-encoding, and cropping the shorter clip then takes less time.

Crop Video options explained

When to use it

Crop videos to fit a social platform's shape without black bars, to turn a landscape recording into a vertical clip, to cut distracting edges out of the frame, or to square a clip for a profile or thumbnail.

The crop is taken from the centre. Keep the subject in the middle of the frame when you record, and the crop will keep them.

About these video tools

The video tools use ffmpeg, the program behind most video software, compiled to WebAssembly so it runs in your browser. The engine is downloaded once, about 32 MB, and cached, so later visits start straight away. Some operations only copy streams, which is fast and lossless; others must re-encode every frame, which is slower because it runs on your own processor rather than a server farm. Each tool says which it does. Keep the tab in front while it works, because browsers slow down background tabs. For very long 4K recordings, a desktop editor will be quicker, but for the everyday clips people trim, mute and rotate, the browser is enough and the video stays private.

Crop Video troubleshooting

The subject is cut off

The crop is centred. If the subject is off to one side, a centred crop cannot keep them; a video editor can move the crop area.

It is taking a long time

Every frame is re-encoded on your own processor. Keep the tab open and in front, or trim the video first so there is less to crop.

Nothing seems to change

The video is already that shape, so the largest area of that shape is the whole frame.

How to use Crop Video, step by step

1. Press "Choose a video" or drag files onto the box.
2. Set the options if you need to; the defaults suit most uses.
3. Press "Crop video". The work happens on your device.
4. Save the result with its download button.

Is it safe to do this online?

With most online tools, "online" means your file is uploaded to a company's server, processed there and kept for a while before it is deleted. Here it is not. The page downloads the tool's code to your browser, and your file is read and processed inside the tab on your own device. It is never sent to TapToConvert or anyone else.

You can check this yourself: once the page and its engine have loaded, turn off Wi-Fi and the tool still works. That also means there is no queue, no daily limit and no file size cap set by a server; the only limit is the memory your browser gives a single tab.