How to crop a video for TikTok, Reels and Shorts (9:16 done right)

What 9:16 actually means

9:16 is a portrait shape: nine units wide for every sixteen tall. On a phone it fills the screen edge to edge, which is why TikTok, Reels and Shorts all use it.

Cropping to 9:16 does not stretch your video. It keeps a tall slice of the original frame and throws the sides away, so the pixels you keep look exactly as sharp as before.

Step by step

Open VidCrops, drop your clip, and the whole page becomes the preview of your crop.

• Tap the 9:16 preset — the frame snaps to vertical immediately.
• Drag the video inside the frame until your subject sits in the middle third.
• Zoom in if the subject is small; the rule-of-thirds grid helps you keep eyes near the top line.
• Trim the dead air off the start and end with the trim sliders.
• Press Crop & Download and save the MP4.

Framing tips that survive the feed

Leave headroom at the top and bottom: platforms overlay usernames, captions and buttons over roughly the first and last 15% of the screen.

If two people are talking side by side, a single 9:16 crop will cut one out. Export two crops of the same clip and cut between them instead.

Why crop in the browser

VidCrops processes the video on your own device, so nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and there is no watermark or sign-up wall at the export step. On mobile data that also means no upload wait — the crop starts the second you press the button.