# Trim and split a clip

Change where a clip starts and ends, by a step, a sentence or a time you type, shorten its long pauses, and split it into two clips at the playhead.

- Page: https://www.snipri.com/docs/trim-and-split-a-clip
- By [Cihan Düzgören](https://www.snipri.com/about) · November 2, 2026 · 3 min read
- Section: Editor, in [the Snipri docs](https://www.snipri.com/docs)

A clip's length is set on the timeline under the video. Every change here cuts the clip's own footage, so nothing is transcribed or selected again, and **Undo** steps back through each one.

## Drag the edges

The simplest trim is on the timeline: drag the clip's start or its end. Each edge also moves with the arrow keys once it has the keyboard focus. The part you trim away stays on the timeline, dimmed, so you can drag it back.

## Set the length exactly

Press **Trim**, beside the timeline, to open **Clip length**. Its heading shows how long the clip is after every cut. For **Start** and for **End**:

- The step buttons move the edge by a fixed step, in or out.
- The sentence buttons add a whole sentence at that edge, or take one away, so a clip can start or end on a full thought.
- The time field takes the exact second you type.

A clip can also grow by up to 10 seconds at either end, where that footage is in the part of the video Snipri read.

**Original edges** puts both edges back where the clip was made, and on a clip with no extra footage the same button is **Full clip**. The panel's times follow the timeline.

## Shorten pauses

**Pauses**, in the same panel, counts the long silences inside the clip. **Shorten pauses** cuts each one down to a short beat, which tightens a slow speaker without cutting a word, and **Restore pauses** puts them back.

To take out a word or a stumble, cut it from the transcript instead. [Edit a clip's transcript](https://www.snipri.com/docs/edit-the-transcript) covers it.

## Split a clip into two clips

1. Put the playhead where the second clip should start.
2. Open **Timeline & layers** under the video.
3. Press **Split into two clips**.

The editor saves your edits with the split, so both halves keep them, and says **Rendering both halves…** while they render. The first half stays open in the editor, and the second appears in My clips beside it as a clip of its own. Both come from the clip's own footage, so neither goes back to the source video, and a split is free.

The button explains itself when a split cannot happen yet: the playhead sits too close to an edge or in a part you cut, a caption word is empty, or the clip has an intro or an outro, which has to come off first.

In My clips, each half keeps the scores of the moment it came from, marked **Scored as one moment, before it was split**.

## Save your edits

A trim waits until you press **Save changes**, and the clip renders again at its new length at no cost. [Edit a clip](https://www.snipri.com/docs/edit-a-clip) shows where every other tool is.

Previous guide: [Add music to a clip](https://www.snipri.com/docs/add-music)

Next guide: [Reframe a clip](https://www.snipri.com/docs/reframe-a-clip)

Still stuck? Write to [hello@snipri.com](mailto:hello@snipri.com) with the name of the video and what the screen said.