How to Trim and Cut a TikTok Video: 3 Easy Ways & Bonus AI TikTok Clip Maker

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How to Trim and Cut a TikTok Video: 3 Easy Ways & Bonus AI TikTok Clip Maker

Last Updated: 2026. 05. 26

Do some parts of your video feel unnecessary for TikTok? Or maybe you want to trim or shorten a long-form video into bite-sized clips for repurposing on TikTok?

If so, you're probably wondering how to trim and cut videos for TikTok. You're in the right place!

TikTok comes with a built-in video trimmer that lets you easily cut or shorten videos you upload or record directly in the app. You can also use third-party editing tools—especially AI-powered long-video clippers—to trim content faster and create engaging TikTok-ready clips. In this guide, we'll walk you through several easy ways to trim and cut TikTok videos. Let's dive in.

Content:

How to Trim TikTok Videos Directly in the App: 3 Options

1.1 How to Trim a Recorded TikTok Video 1.2 How to Trim a Uploaded TikTok Video 1.3 How to Trim a Stitched TikTok Video

Bonus: AI TikTok Clip Maker for Trimming Any Long Videos for TikTok

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How to Trim TikTok Videos Directly in the App: 3 Options

Try to trim and cut your TikTok video? The good news is that the TikTok app includes built-in editing tools that allow you to trim and cut videos before publishing. You can trim and cut your TikTok videos in a variety of ways in this app, regardless of whether you record a video within the app or upload a pre-recorded video. Try these methods below to get started right now!

Below are three common ways to trim TikTok videos directly in the app. Let's check out.

1.1 How to Trim a Recorded TikTok Video

If you recorded a video using TikTok's built-in camera and you want to trim and cut to shorten it, you can do it with the "Adjust Clips" feature. Simply follow these steps:

Step 1

Open TikTok and press the "+" icon at the bottom of the screen to start recording as usual.

Step 2

When you've done recording, click on the red check button at the bottom of the screen.

Step 3

Then, you'll see the "Adjust Clips" option on the top right of the screen, just click it.

Step 4

Now, you can use the red slider at the bottom to adjust and trim your video clip.

Trim a Recorded TikTok Video

1.2 How to Trim a Uploaded TikTok Video

Already captured a video for sharing on TikTok but need to make it shorter? Trimming an uploaded video and shorten the clip using the in-built trimmer in TikTok is also pretty easy! Follow the simple steps below to trim an uploaded video on TikTok:

Step 1

Launch TikTok on your phone and tap the "Upload" option to the right of the record button.

Step 2

Select the video you want to upload to TikTok and click "Next".

Step 3

Use the slider at the bottom of the screen to trim the video to the length you're comfortable with.

Trim a Uploaded TikTok Video

1.3 How to Trim a Stitched TikTok Video

Step 1

Launch the TikTok app, and find the video you want to stitch.

Step 2

Tap the video and click the share icon on the right-hand side, then select "Stitch" from the popup menu.

Step 3

Then you’ll be in the edit screen, click and drag the red slider at the bottom of your screen to trim the video.

Step 4

When you've trimmed the video and shorten it to the length you want, tap on Next at the top to add your own content.

Bonus: AI TikTok Clip Maker for Trimming Long Videos for TikTok

While TikTok itself offers great options for in-app video trimming, manually cutting long videos can take time—especially if you're repurposing webinars, podcasts, interviews, livestreams, or YouTube videos. That's where an AI-powered tool like FlexClip Long to Short Video comes in handy.

FlexClip AI Clip Maker helps you automatically turn long videos into short, engaging TikTok-ready clips in just a few clicks. Instead of searching through hours of footage manually, the AI identifies highlight moments and creates shorter clips optimized for social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

Clip Long Videos for TikTok with AI

AI TikTok Clip Maker - FlexClip

Beyond clipping, FlexClip also provides powerful video editing features that help you customize your content—helping your videos stand out on TikTok. Let's check some of the best features of FlexClip:

Clip & Highlight Key Moments to Repurpose on TikTok: Transform any existing long videos into a large volume of new content in minutes. FlexClip AI clipper analyzes any long-form video, detects the key moments and produces several short-form clips for TikTok and more in a few clicks.

Advanced Speaker Detection and Smart AI Reframing: FlexClip uses advanced subject detection technology to automatically identify the faces or speakers in your video, keeping your subject perfectly centered every time. The result is polished, professional-looking clips that highlight the key subjects, saving you time and delivering a better viewing experience for your audience.

Auto-generated Dynamic Captions That Are Eye-Catching: Clipping and cropping are not all about FlexClip AI clipper. It also generates captions that are synced perfectly with speech. Additionally, you can choose among 20 dynamic subtitle styles to emphasize key information for improved readability and retention. You are also able to render among different text fonts, size, color.

Manual Editing Tools to Polish Your AI TikTok Clips: FlexClip also offers a timeline-based editor that lets you add your personal touch to AI-clipped TikTok videos—easily trim and merge clips, add transitions and overlays, refine captions, and include background music. Enjoy full flexibility to perfect every detail before sharing or repurposing your video.

How to Trim Long Video into Clips for TikTok with FlexClip AI

As you can see above, FlexClip AI Clipping tool makes it easy to turn raw livestream footage into optimized, platform-ready short-form videos for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels by automating highlight detection, editing, and formatting. Let's check the steps below to learn how to turn long streams into a steady pipeline of short-form content with FlexClip AI Clipper.

Step 1 Open FlexClip's AI Clipper

Trim Long Videos for TikTok

Click the Trim Long Videos for TikTok button above to access FlexClip's AI Clipping tool, then upload the video you want to trim for TikTok. Here, you can directly convert a YouTube video by pasting its link, upload a downloaded or recorded video from your local file or even import a video from your Google Drive.

Long Videos into Short Clip for TikTok with FlexClip AI - Access FlexClip's AI Clipper

Step 2 Adjust the Setting for Short Clips

Once your video is loaded, FlexClip will automatically take you to the settings page, where you can customize how the AI trim the video for TikTok. Choose the aspect ratio as 9:16 tofit TikTok format, then adjust additional options such as language, clip type, subtitle style, and more to create the perfect TikTok video.

Long Videos into Short Clip for TikTok with FlexClip AI - Adjust Setting

Step 3 Auto-clip Video for TikTok with One Click

After that, click the Generate button to start the conversion. FlexClip's AI will analyze your video, reframe it, highlight key moments, add automatic subtitles, and create multiple short clips that are perfectly sized for TikTok.

Long Videos into Short Clip for TikTok with FlexClip AI - Generate Viral Clips with One Click

Step 4 Preview and Download the AI-Generated Clips

Once your clips are generated, you can preview all the AI-generated clips. If you need any adjustments for the AI-generated clips, you can click the trim button to access the full video transcript and select any portion from the transcript text to pick the clips that showcase the most impactful moments of your content and generate a new clip for TikTok.

Long Videos into Short Clip for TikTok with FlexClip AI - Select and Trim Clip

Once satisfied, you can choose the clips to download and share it to TikTok. Need more precise edits to prefect your video? Just click the Open in Editor button and take your video clips into the built-in editor and make edits freely.

Long Videos into Short Clip for TikTok with FlexClip AI - Download Clip

While you're in the editor , you can use its powerful features to make more edits to perfect your clips with background music, text animation, funny stickers, filters, transitions, overlays, various shapes, etc. Feel free to try them out! Once you have done the editing, you can preview the video and finally click the Export button to save and then directly share your video to TikTok within clicks on your computer.

Long Videos into Short Clip for TikTok with FlexClip AI - Edit Video

Pro Tip:Have no ideas on how to edit your video? Just check out FlexClip's professionally designed templates for some inspiration.

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Final Words

That's all about how to trim a TikTok video and shorten a clip as you wish. We hope the tools and method above can give you a better experience to trim a Tik Tok video.

Sandy /

Has year of professional photographing experience. Very much into recording every detail of life. She is passionate about all things related to video production, and loves to exploring tips and tricks about it.