Video tool · Free

Crop a Video for YouTube

Reframe any video to 16:9 at 1920 x 1080, the shape YouTube actually wants. Free, in your browser.

Free to startIn your browserUp to 500 MB
How it works

Crop for YouTube in 3 steps

1

Upload your video

Drag and drop a file, or click to browse. Up to 500 MB, nothing to install.

2

16:9 is already selected

The crop is pre-set to 16:9 for YouTube. Switch ratio in the panel if you need a different placement.

3

Crop and download

We process the crop on our servers. Create a free account to download, or keep editing in REQO.

YouTube video sizes

YouTube is built around 16:9. At 1920 x 1080 your video fills the player on a desktop, a phone held sideways and a TV app with no bars on any side.

Anything that is not 16:9 gets pillarboxed with black bars down the sides. If your source is a vertical phone recording that has to live on the main channel rather than in Shorts, crop or reframe it to 16:9 rather than uploading it tall.

Shorts are the exception: they are 9:16, capped at three minutes, and shown in a separate vertical feed. There is a dedicated Shorts crop page linked below.

PlacementAspect ratioFrame size
Standard video16:91920 x 1080
4K upload16:93840 x 2160
Shorts9:161080 x 1920
720p upload16:91280 x 720

Cropping is not resizing

Cropping changes what is inside the frame by cutting the edges away. Resizing keeps the whole frame and changes how many pixels it is drawn with. Going from a landscape recording to a vertical post is a crop, and something has to leave the picture.

If your video is already 16:9 and you only need it at a different resolution, use the resize tool instead, it is free too and linked below.

FAQ

crop for youtube: questions

What aspect ratio does YouTube use?

16:9. 1920 x 1080 is the standard upload; 3840 x 2160 if you have a 4K source worth keeping.

Why does my YouTube video have black bars?

Because the frame is not 16:9. The player pads whatever does not fit. Cropping to 16:9 before upload removes them.

Is cropping for YouTube free?

Yes. Crop and preview for free, then create a free account to download the result.

Do I need to install anything?

No. It runs in your browser on any machine, so you can crop for YouTube from a phone as easily as from a laptop.

Does cropping reduce quality?

The kept area is cropped at source resolution and re-encoded at high quality, so it stays sharp. Cropping deep into a low-resolution source is what makes video look soft, not the crop itself.

Need more than crop for youtube?

REQO is a full browser video editor: record, edit by transcript, caption and export.