How to Cut Videos on TikTok

Trimming your videos is one of the most powerful and simple editing skills you can master on TikTok. This guide will walk you through exactly how to cut your footage, from basic trims to more advanced splits, so you can create tighter, faster-paced content that grabs and holds your audience's attention.

Why Flawless Editing is a Game-Changer on TikTok

On a platform where every second counts, the way you edit your videos can be the difference between a swipe and a share. Properly cutting your clips isn't just about making your video shorter, it's about shaping the viewer's experience. Great editing controls the pace, refines your story, and makes your content feel professional and polished, even if it was shot on your phone in your living room.

Here's why taking a few moments to trim your clips is fundamental for TikTok success:

• Hook Them Immediately: The first three seconds of your video are everything. If you have a slow, shaky start, viewers are gone. Trimming allows you to cut straight to the action, the funniest moment, or the most intriguing part of your video right from the beginning.
• Control the Pace and Rhythm: A great TikTok has a palpable rhythm. Cutting out filler, long pauses, or awkward silences creates a faster, more energetic pace that keeps viewers engaged. It makes your content feel dynamic and intentional, not like a raw, unedited camera roll file.
• Sync Perfectly with Audio: TikTok is built on sound. Whether it's a trending song, a funny audio clip, or your own voiceover, timing your visual cuts perfectly to the beat or dialogue is transformative. Precise trimming is how you make a transition land perfectly on a beat drop or a punchline match a facial expression.
• Remove Mistakes and Bloopers: Even the best creators don't get it right in one take. Maybe you fumbled a line, the camera slipped, or your cat wandered into the shot. Trimming and splitting let you surgically remove these moments, leaving only the best parts of your performance for the final cut.

The Basics: How to Trim a Single Video Clip (Step-by-Step)

Let's start with the most common editing task you'll perform: trimming the beginning and end of a single video clip. This is perfect for when you've recorded a video and want to tighten up the start and finish, removing the moments where you're reaching for the camera or catching your breath.

Step 1: Get Your Video into the Editor

First, open the TikTok app and tap the plus icon (+) at the bottom of the screen to open the camera. You have two options here:

• Record a New Video: Use the red record button to capture your clip directly in the app.
• Upload an Existing Video: Tap the "Upload" button to the right of the record button to open your phone's gallery and select a video you've already recorded.

Once you've recorded or selected your video, tap the red checkmark or "Next" to move to the main editing screen.

Step 2: Find the "Adjust Clips" Tool

On the right-hand side of the editing screen, you'll see a menu with various icons for adding text, stickers, effects, and more. Look for an icon that looks like a pair of scissors or a film strip, labeled "Adjust clips." This is your gateway to TikTok's video editor. Tap on it.

Step 3: Trim Your Video Timeline

After tapping "Adjust clips," you'll be taken to a new screen showing your video as a visual timeline at the bottom. This is a powerful and intuitive interface that lets you make precise cuts.

The timeline is framed by a thick red border with white handles on either end. This is your canvas.

• To trim the beginning of the video: Press and hold the white handle at the left end of the red border. As you hold it, drag it to the right. The video player above will show you exactly where the new starting point will be. Drag it until you pass any unwanted footage at the beginning.
• To trim the end of the video: Press and hold the white handle at the right end of the red border. Drag this handle to the left to cut off the end of the clip. Again, the preview screen will update in real-time, so you know exactly where your video will now finish.

You can go back and forth, adjusting the start and endpoints as many times as you need to get them just right. The parts of the timeline that are "grayed out" are the parts you've removed.

Step 4: Save Your Trimmed Clip

Once you are happy with your new, tighter clip, tap the "Save" button in the top right corner. This will take you back to the main editing screen, where your video will now automatically play with your trims applied. From here, you can continue adding sounds, text, or effects before moving on to the posting screen.

Advanced Editing: How to Split and Rearrange Multiple Clips

Sometimes, simply trimming the start and end isn't enough. You might need to remove a mistake from the middle of a clip, cut a long video into several shorter sections, or rearrange the order of multiple shots. This is where the Split function comes into play. It's one of the most powerful tools in TikTok's editor.

When to Use the Split Tool

• When you need to cut out a mistake, a long pause, or a boring moment from the middle of a single clip.
• When you want to break a long scene into smaller, quicker cuts to create a faster pace.
• When you want to insert a different clip or an image into the middle of an existing video.

Step 1: Open the Multi-Clip Editor

The process starts the same way. Record or upload one or more clips and navigate to the "Adjust clips" screen. If you've uploaded multiple clips, you'll already see them laid out side-by-side in the timeline. If you have one long clip, that's what you'll see.

Step 2: Select a Clip and Find Your Splitting Point

Tap on the clip in the timeline that you want to split. It will be highlighted with a white border to show that it's selected. Now, use your finger to slide the video timeline left or right until the white vertical line (often called the playhead) is positioned exactly where you want to make the cut.

For example, if you flubbed a sentence in the middle of your voiceover, position the playhead right before the mistake starts.

Step 3: Use the "Split" Function

With the playhead in the desired position and the clip selected, look at the menu at the very bottom of the screen. You will see several options, including "Split." Tap "Split."

Instantly, your single video clip will be divided into two separate clips right at the point where you placed the playhead. You now have two independent segments in your timeline that you can edit, trim, or move separately.

Step 4: Remove the Unwanted Section

Now that you've split the clip, you can isolate and remove the part you don't want. Let's continue our example of removing a mistake from the middle.

1. You've already made one split right before the mistake. Now, move the playhead to the very end of the mistake and tap "Split" again.
2. This will create a small, isolated clip of just the mistake, neatly sandwiched between the two good parts of your video.
3. Tap on this small unwanted clip to select it.
4. Look for the "Delete" button (usually a trash can icon) in the bottom menu and tap it. The unwanted section is now gone, and the two good clips will snap together seamlessly.

Step 5: Rearrange Your Clips (Optional)

The multi-clip timeline also lets you change the order of your shots. To move a clip, simply long-press on it in the timeline. It will "lift up" slightly, and you can then drag it to a new position. Drop it between two other clips, move it to the end, or drag it to the beginning. This is perfect for storytelling or creating montages where the order of footage is very important.

Once you're finished with splitting, deleting, and rearranging, remember to hit "Save" to return to the main editor.

Pro-Tips for Sharper, More Engaging Cuts

Knowing how to cut is the first step. Knowing why and when to cut is what will elevate your content.

1. Master the Jump Cut

A "jump cut" is an edit where you cut out a small section from a single, continuous shot. On TikTok, it's used to remove pauses, "ums," or breaths in a talking-head video. This creates a punchy, fast-paced delivery that keeps the viewer locked in. Don't be afraid to have your video "jump" slightly, it's a completely accepted and expected part of the platform's visual language.

2. Cut on the Beat

This is arguably the most important editing principle on TikTok. When using a song with a strong beat, try to time your cuts or transitions to land exactly on the kick, snare, or beat drop. It creates a satisfying, cohesive feel that makes the video more immersive. Use the audio waveform in the editor as a visual guide to see where the rhythmic peaks are in your chosen sound.

3. Use Quick Cuts for Momentum

Short attention spans are real. Instead of letting a single shot linger for ten seconds, consider splitting it into three or four shorter clips of quick-hitting visuals. This technique works perfectly for montages, tutorials, and "get ready with me" videos. A rapid succession of images creates a sense of energy and progress that is hard for the viewer to look away from.

4. Leave Yourself "Handles"

This is an old-school editing tip that translates perfectly to TikTok. When you first record your clips, try to leave a second or two of extra footage at the beginning and end of the action. These are called "handles." They give you more flexibility when you get to the editor. It's much easier to trim a clip to be shorter than it is to realize you cut off the action too early and don't have enough footage to extend it.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to cut your videos on TikTok is a fundamental skill that gives you complete creative control over your content. It's what transforms raw footage into a polished, engaging story with rhythm and purpose. By mastering these simple trimming and splitting techniques, you'll be able to create videos that feel professional, capture attention from the first frame, and keep viewers watching right to the very end.

Once you perfect those lightning-fast edits, the real challenge becomes keeping your content pipeline full and consistently published. At Postbase, we built our platform specifically for the modern age of short-form video. After meticulously cutting your clips in TikTok, we make it seamless to schedule that perfectly edited video across all your platforms at once. Because we believe your social media tool should support your video-first strategy, not fight against it, making it easy to plan your entire content calendar in one place with a tool that just works. Postbase keeps everything simple, so you can focus on creating more great content.