How to Trim Audio or Video Online Without Losing Quality

Removing dead air from the start and end of a recording, cutting out a piece of a song for a ringtone, or shortening a video before sending it — all of these call for trimming by time, with no video-editing software to install.

How to trim audio online

The audio trim tool cuts a segment between two points in time that you specify yourself. Upload an audio file (MP3, WAV, AAC, M4A, OGG, FLAC), set the start and end time — in seconds (say, 90) or in HH:MM:SS format (say, 00:01:30) — and download the result. The file format stays the same: MP3 stays MP3, WAV stays WAV.

How to trim video online

The video trim tool works the same way for video files (MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, WebM): set the start and end time of the segment, and download the result in the same format as the source file.

Why trimming doesn't hurt quality

Both tools cut a segment without re-encoding — this technique is called stream copy. Instead of re-compressing the audio or video stream, the tool simply copies the relevant portion of the original data. That's faster than a regular conversion and doesn't introduce any new quality loss, unlike changing the format or resolution.

How to enter the time correctly

Both formats — seconds and HH:MM:SS — work the same way; pick whichever is easier to count. For example, to cut a segment from 1:30 to 2:00, you can enter either 90 and 120 seconds, or 00:01:30 and 00:02:00.

What to do with the result next

If you also need to change the file format after trimming, that's a separate step: for audio, use the audio converter; for video, the video converter. And if you need to turn the trimmed video segment into an animation for a chat, the video to GIF tool comes in handy.

Bottom line

Trimming by time is the fastest thing you can do to audio or video, because it doesn't require re-encoding: the file is simply cut down to the segment you need, with no quality loss. Both tools accept time in seconds or HH:MM:SS format and preserve the original file format.