Once you've edited a few projects, the mouse starts to feel slow. Reaching for the toolbar to cut a clip, then again to undo, then again to play it back, adds up fast. Learning a handful of CapCut keyboard shortcuts is the single easiest way to edit quicker on desktop, and most of them take seconds to commit to memory.

This is a cheat sheet you can keep open in a second tab. It's organized by what you're actually doing: playback, cutting and trimming, the timeline, undo and copy, and a few extras. Every group lists the capcut shortcuts pc keys alongside the Mac equivalents, so it works whoever you're editing on.

One important note before the lists: these are the defaults in the free CapCut desktop app from capcut.com. You can change almost any of them, and CapCut updates the app regularly, so if a key doesn't match what's on your screen, check the in-app settings (covered near the end).

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Quick answer
  • The shortcuts you'll use most are split, play/pause, undo, and zoom; learning just those four noticeably speeds up editing.
  • Most CapCut keyboard shortcuts are the same on Windows and Mac, with Mac swapping Ctrl for Cmd (and Option for Alt).
  • You can customize almost every hotkey from the keyboard shortcuts settings inside the desktop app, so nothing here is locked in.

Windows vs Mac: the one rule to remember

Here's the good news. You don't need to memorize two separate lists. The vast majority of capcut hotkeys are identical across both platforms, with a simple swap.

  • Wherever Windows uses Ctrl, Mac uses Cmd (the Command key).
  • Wherever Windows uses Alt, Mac uses Option.
  • Single-key shortcuts (like the spacebar for play, or a letter to split) are usually the same on both.

So when you see Ctrl + Z for undo, the capcut shortcuts mac version is just Cmd + Z. We'll show the Windows key first and the Mac key in brackets throughout, so you're never guessing.

If a key does nothing, make sure the right panel is focused. Many shortcuts only fire when your cursor is over the timeline or player, not when you're typing in a text box.

Playback shortcuts

These control the player and how you move through your footage. The spacebar alone will save you a thousand mouse trips.

  • Play / Pause: Space
  • Move one frame back: ← (Left Arrow)
  • Move one frame forward: → (Right Arrow)
  • Jump to start of timeline: Home (on Mac, Fn + ←)
  • Jump to end of timeline: End (on Mac, Fn + →)
  • Toggle full-screen preview: Shift + `

Frame-stepping with the arrow keys is how you land a cut on exactly the right moment. Pause near the spot, then tap left or right one frame at a time until the playhead sits where you want the edit.

Cutting and trimming shortcuts

This is the heart of editing, and where shortcuts pay off the most. The split shortcut alone will change how fast you work.

  • Split clip at the playhead: Ctrl + B (Mac: Cmd + B)
  • Delete selected clip: Delete or Backspace
  • Trim to remove everything before the playhead: Alt + [ (Mac: Option + [)
  • Trim to remove everything after the playhead: Alt + ] (Mac: Option + ])

The workflow is simple: park the playhead, press split, then delete the piece you don't want. Do that a few times and trimming a long clip down to its best moments takes seconds.

Split is the one to learn first. If you only memorize a single shortcut from this page, make it the split key. For the full cutting workflow, see our guide on how to split and trim clips in CapCut on desktop.

Undo, copy, and selection shortcuts

These are the universal ones you already know from other apps, and they work exactly as you'd expect inside CapCut.

  • Undo: Ctrl + Z (Mac: Cmd + Z)
  • Redo: Ctrl + Shift + Z (Mac: Cmd + Shift + Z)
  • Copy: Ctrl + C (Mac: Cmd + C)
  • Paste: Ctrl + V (Mac: Cmd + V)
  • Cut: Ctrl + X (Mac: Cmd + X)
  • Select all clips: Ctrl + A (Mac: Cmd + A)
  • Save project: Ctrl + S (Mac: Cmd + S)

Copy and paste are more useful than they sound. Build one styled text caption or an adjusted clip, then paste duplicates and just change the content. It's a fast way to keep a consistent look across a whole video.

Timeline and zoom shortcuts

When you're doing fine work, you'll constantly zoom in to nudge an edit, then zoom out to see the whole project. Doing that with keys instead of the slider keeps your eyes on the timeline.

  • Zoom in on the timeline: Ctrl + + (Mac: Cmd + +)
  • Zoom out on the timeline: Ctrl + - (Mac: Cmd + -)
  • Fit the whole project to the window: Shift + Z

You can also zoom by holding a modifier while scrolling the mouse wheel over the timeline, which feels natural once it's in your fingers. Zoom in tight to place a cut on the exact frame, then fit-to-window to check the pacing of the edit as a whole.

Pair zoom with frame-stepping. Zoomed in, the arrow keys move the playhead frame by frame, which makes landing a precise cut much easier than dragging with the mouse.

How to customize or view shortcuts in CapCut

Nothing on this page is set in stone. If a default key feels awkward, or it clashes with a habit from another editor, you can remap it. CapCut keeps its own shortcut list inside the app, and that built-in list is always the source of truth for your exact version.

  1. Open the CapCut desktop app and go into the menu or settings (look for a keyboard or shortcuts entry, sometimes under Settings or a keyboard icon).
  2. Find the Keyboard shortcuts panel. It lists every action and its current key.
  3. Click the shortcut next to any action and press the new key combination you'd prefer.
  4. If you've made a mess of it, look for a Reset to default option to put everything back.

Because the app updates often, this panel is also the best way to confirm a shortcut if one here doesn't match. Treat this cheat sheet as a strong starting point, and the in-app list as the final word for your install.

Haven't installed CapCut yet? Download the free desktop editor from the official site, or follow our walkthrough on how to download CapCut on Windows 11 to get set up first.

A few more shortcuts worth knowing

These don't fit neatly into the groups above, but they're handy once your edits get more involved.

  • Add a keyframe: in the player, the diamond keyframe button has a shortcut you can check (and set) in the shortcuts panel; keyframes are how you animate position, scale, and opacity over time.
  • Detach audio from a clip: separating a clip's audio onto its own track lets you trim or replace sound independently of the video.
  • Group / ungroup clips: useful when you want to move several clips together without them drifting out of sync.

Workflows like subtitling lean on these heavily too. If you're captioning a video, learning the split and playback keys makes scrubbing through dialogue far less tedious, which pairs well with our guide on how to add subtitles from an SRT file in CapCut.

The realistic goal: you don't need all of these. Get split, play/pause, undo, and zoom into muscle memory first. Add one or two more whenever you catch yourself repeating the same mouse move, and your editing speed climbs without any effort.