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Video Crop

Crop a video to remove 10 percent from the top and bottom using FFmpeg crop filter, useful for removing black bars, letterboxing, or focusing on the central content of a widescreen video

Our free video crop tool trims the top and bottom off your clip in a couple of steps, so the black bars disappear and the picture fills the frame again. Upload your video and the video cropper automatically removes 10 percent from the top and 10 percent from the bottom, keeping the central 80 percent of the height at full width. It is the fastest way to remove black bars from a video, cut off letterboxing, or tighten the focus onto the middle of the shot. The tool runs on the professional FFmpeg engine and hands back a clean MP4 that plays everywhere. It is a fixed, automatic crop, not a drag-a-box editor, which is exactly why it is quick: you do not line anything up by hand. It is free to use, with no watermark on your video.

How to Crop a Video Online

Cropping a video with File Tools Online takes a few quick steps, and you do not need Premiere, iMovie, or any desktop software. Everything runs online in your browser after you create your free account.

  1. 1

    Upload your video

    Drag and drop your clip into the box above, or click to browse and pick the file from your device. MP4, MOV, and AVI files are all accepted.

  2. 2

    Crop the video

    Start the crop and the tool automatically removes 10 percent from the top and 10 percent from the bottom of the frame, keeping the full width and the central content.

  3. 3

    Download your MP4

    Download the cropped MP4 and use it anywhere. Your file is processed securely and deleted automatically within 30 minutes.

Because the crop amount is fixed, there is nothing to line up and no box to drag. Upload, crop, download. The result keeps the same picture quality and the same width as your original, it is simply shorter from top to bottom so the wasted edges are gone and the important part of the shot sits front and centre.

Why Crop Video With File Tools Online

Plenty of "crop a video" sites bury you in ads, add a watermark, or force you to wrestle with a fiddly editor just to trim two edges. Ours uses FFmpeg, the same professional engine trusted inside major video software, to make one clean automatic crop and give you back a proper MP4 that looks right and plays everywhere.

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One-Click Automatic Crop

No timeline, no crop box to align. The tool removes 10 percent off the top and 10 percent off the bottom for you, so cropping a video is genuinely a single action.

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Kills Black Bars

Letterboxed footage with dark bands above and below the picture is exactly what this crop is built to fix, leaving a frame that is filled edge to edge.

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FFmpeg Engine

Powered by FFmpeg, the professional-grade tool behind countless media apps, so the crop is precise and the output is a reliable, standard MP4.

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Free, No Watermark

Crop video online free with no trial and no watermark stamped across your footage. The account you create to use the tool is free.

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Private & Secure

Files are processed securely over an encrypted connection and automatically deleted within 30 minutes of upload.

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Works on Any Device

Runs online on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook, Android, and iPhone. Nothing to download and nothing to install.

How This Video Cropper Works

Every video is a rectangle of pixels with a width and a height. Cropping means keeping part of that rectangle and throwing the rest away. This tool performs one specific, predictable crop: it takes the full width of your video and trims 10 percent off the top edge and 10 percent off the bottom edge. What remains is the central 80 percent of the height at the original width. The left and right sides are never touched, so nothing on the horizontal edges is lost.

That fixed behaviour is deliberate. The most common reason people reach for a video cropper is to get rid of the black bars, also called letterboxing, that sit above and below a widescreen picture. Those bars almost always live at the top and bottom of the frame, which is precisely what a symmetric top and bottom crop removes. The same crop helps when the action is in the middle of the shot and there is dead space padding the edges. The engine applies the same 10 percent trim to every frame using the FFmpeg crop filter, then re-encodes the result as an MP4. There is no manual selection box, no aspect-ratio picker, and no way to crop the sides. If you need to change the dimensions or switch to a square or vertical shape, that is a resizing job rather than a crop, and our Video Resize tool is built for it.

What You Can Use Video Crop For

An automatic top and bottom crop solves a handful of very common headaches. Here are the situations people reach for this tool most often.

  • Remove black barsStrip the letterbox bands from a widescreen clip so the picture fills the frame instead of floating in a dark border.
  • Cut off dead spaceTrim empty sky, ceiling, or foreground padding at the top and bottom so the eye lands on the subject.
  • Tighten a talking-head shotBring the focus closer to the centre of the frame for interviews, tutorials, and to-camera pieces.
  • Clean up a screen recordingShave off a thin toolbar or status strip sitting along the top or bottom edge of a capture.
  • Prep footage for editingDrop a quickly cropped clip straight into an edit without opening a full timeline first.
  • Reframe a downloaded clipRemove baked-in bars from a video you saved so it looks right before you share it on.

Related File Tools

File Tools Online offers more than 100 free tools to convert, edit, and manage your files. These are the ones people use most alongside the video cropper.

Automatic Crop vs Manual Crop: What to Expect

It helps to know exactly what this tool does before you upload, so the result is what you expected. This is an automatic crop with one fixed setting, not a manual editor where you draw a box around the part you want to keep. Here is how that compares to what a full video editor offers.

TaskFile Tools Online Video CropManual video editor
Remove black bars top and bottomYes, in one automatic stepYes, after setting up a crop by hand
Trim a fixed 10% off top and bottomYes, this is exactly what it doesPossible but you position it yourself
Choose a custom crop regionNo, the crop amount is fixedYes
Crop the left and right sidesNo, width is always keptYes
Crop to a square or vertical shapeNo, use Video ResizeYes
Speed and effortUpload and download, nothing to alignSlower, needs manual setup

In short, if your goal is to lose the letterbox bars or tidy the top and bottom of the frame, this is the fastest route. If you need to pick an exact region, crop the sides, or change the aspect ratio to something like 1:1 or 9:16, that is a different job and you will want a resizing tool or a full editor instead.

A Free Alternative to Desktop Video Editors

You do not need Premiere Pro, Final Cut, iMovie, or DaVinci Resolve just to shave the black bars off a clip. Opening a heavyweight editor, importing footage, dragging a crop, and exporting is a lot of work for one small change. This online video cropper replaces all of that with a single upload for the specific job of removing 10 percent from the top and bottom.

Because the crop runs on our servers with FFmpeg, you get the same dependable result whether you are on a fast workstation or a modest laptop, with no software licence to pay for and nothing to install. When your needs grow beyond a fixed crop, for example resizing, rotating, or trimming the length, the related tools above cover those jobs the same way, one clear task at a time.

Which Formats Can I Crop?

The tool accepts the most common video formats and always returns a standard MP4, so the cropped file plays cleanly on any device. Supported inputs are:

  • MP4, the universal video format used by phones, cameras, and most downloads.
  • MOV (QuickTime), the format iPhones and Apple software record in.
  • AVI, a long-standing Windows video format found on older cameras and downloads.

Whatever you upload, the output is always the same dependable MP4, cropped by 10 percent top and bottom and ready to play, share, or drop into an edit. If your video is in a different format, such as MKV or WebM, you can turn it into an MP4 first with our Video Convert tool, then crop the result here.

Tips for Cropping Video

  • Check where the bars are. This crop removes the top and bottom edges. If your black bars sit on the left and right instead, a top and bottom crop will not remove them, and you may want to resize instead.
  • Crop before you compress. Do the crop first, then run the result through our video compressor so the smaller file is based on the final framing.
  • Trim the length separately. Cropping changes the frame, not the duration. To make the clip shorter in time, use Video Trim.
  • Fix the orientation first. If your clip is sideways, rotate it before cropping so the top and bottom edges are the ones you actually want to trim.
  • Need a specific shape? This tool does not crop to square or vertical. For a set width and height, use Video Resize.
  • Keep the original until you have confirmed the cropped MP4 looks right on the device or platform you are targeting.

Crop Video on Windows, Mac, and Mobile

Because this is an online video cropper, it works the same on every device. There is no program to install on Windows, no app to download on Mac, and nothing to add to your phone. You use the exact same page whether you are on a laptop, a Chromebook, an Android device, or an iPhone.

That makes it easy to crop a video on Mac, on a work computer where you cannot install software, or on your phone before you post a clip. The crop runs on our servers with FFmpeg, so even a large video is processed reliably no matter how powerful your own device is. All you need is a browser and an internet connection, and you can crop videos from anywhere.

Is It Safe to Crop Video Online?

Yes. The videos people crop are often personal recordings, work projects, and clips they have not published yet, so security is built in. Files are uploaded over an encrypted HTTPS connection, processed on a secure server, and automatically deleted within 30 minutes. We never share, sell, or reuse your videos.

Video Crop Frequently Asked Questions

How do I crop a video online?

Upload your video to the tool above and start the crop. It automatically removes 10 percent from the top and 10 percent from the bottom of the frame, then lets you download the cropped MP4. The whole process runs online in your browser, with nothing to install.

How much of the video does it crop?

The tool removes a fixed 10 percent from the top and 10 percent from the bottom, so it keeps the central 80 percent of the height at the full original width. The left and right sides are never cropped.

Can I choose my own crop area?

No. This is an automatic crop with one fixed setting, not a drag-a-box editor. It always trims the same 10 percent off the top and bottom, which makes it fast and predictable. If you need to select a custom region, you will need a full video editor.

Does it remove black bars from a video?

Yes, when the black bars sit along the top and bottom of the frame, which is the case for most letterboxed widescreen footage. The 10 percent top and bottom crop is designed to cut exactly those bands so the picture fills the frame.

Can it crop the left and right sides?

No. The width of your video is always preserved. This tool only trims the top and bottom edges. If your bars or the area you want to remove are on the sides, a top and bottom crop will not remove them.

Can I crop a video to a square or 9:16 vertical shape?

No, this tool does not crop to a specific aspect ratio or shape. It only removes 10 percent off the top and bottom. To set a particular width, height, or aspect ratio, use our Video Resize tool instead.

How do I crop a video for free?

The File Tools Online cropper is free to use, with no watermark added to your footage. Create your free account, upload the video, crop it, and download the MP4.

What video formats can I crop?

You can crop MP4, MOV, and AVI files. Whatever you upload, the cropped result is saved as a standard MP4. If your file is in another format, convert it to MP4 first with our Video Convert tool.

Will cropping reduce the quality of my video?

The crop keeps your original picture at full width and re-encodes the result as an MP4. For most videos there is no visible loss in the part of the frame you keep, you simply lose the trimmed top and bottom edges.

Do I need software like Premiere or iMovie?

No. This is a free online alternative to desktop editors for the specific job of a top and bottom crop. It runs the FFmpeg engine on our servers, so there is nothing to buy and nothing to install.

Does cropping change how long the video is?

No. Cropping changes the frame, not the duration. Your clip stays the same length. To make it shorter in time, use our Video Trim tool.

Is my data safe when I crop video online?

Yes. Files are transferred over an encrypted connection, processed securely, and automatically deleted within 30 minutes. We never share or sell your videos.

About Cropping Video

Cropping is one of the oldest ideas in imaging: keep the part of the frame that matters and remove the part that does not. With video, the most frequent version of that job is losing the black bars, the letterbox bands that appear above and below a widescreen picture, or trimming dead space that pads the top and bottom of a shot. Both problems live on the top and bottom edges, which is why a symmetric top and bottom crop fixes them so cleanly.

This free online tool does exactly that using FFmpeg: it takes your MP4, MOV, or AVI, removes 10 percent from the top and 10 percent from the bottom, and hands back a standard MP4 at the same full width. It is a fixed, automatic crop rather than a manual editor, which is what makes it so quick, there is nothing to align and no settings to guess. It is free to use, with no watermark and no software to install. Upload your video, crop the top and bottom, and download a clip that fills the frame and is ready to share, upload, or edit.