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Almost every edit starts the same way: you've got raw footage that's too long, and you need to cut it down to the good parts. Learning to split and trim in CapCut is the foundation everything else builds on. Once you can chop a clip in two, shave off the boring edges, and close up the gaps you leave behind, you can edit just about anything.

This guide keeps it simple and concrete. We'll cover the split tool, trimming a clip's edges by dragging, deleting clips you don't want, and the very handy ripple delete that closes gaps for you. No jargon, no fluff — just the core cutting workflow you'll use in every single project.

If you haven't installed the editor yet, it's free from the official site at capcut.com. Our Windows 11 download walkthrough covers that step, and then you can open a project and follow along.

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Quick answer
  • To split a clip, move the playhead to the cut point, select the clip, and press the split button (or Ctrl+B) — the clip becomes two pieces you can move or delete separately.
  • To trim, grab the left or right edge of a clip and drag inward; this shortens the clip without affecting anything else on the timeline.
  • Use ripple delete (delete a clip and close the gap) so the clips after it slide left automatically, keeping your video gap-free.

Split vs. trim: what's the difference?

People mix these two up all the time, so let's be clear from the start. They do related things, but they're not the same.

  • Splitting cuts one clip into two separate pieces at a point you choose. Nothing gets deleted — you just turn one block into two, and now you can move, delete, or edit each half on its own.
  • Trimming shortens a clip from one of its ends without breaking it apart. You grab an edge and drag inward to hide the footage you don't want at the start or finish.

A simple way to picture it: split is a cut made through the middle of a clip, while trim shaves footage off the edges. Most editing is some mix of the two — split to isolate a section, then trim the ends until it's just right.

The mental model: split to break a clip into chunks, trim to fine-tune where each chunk starts and ends. Master those two moves and the rest of editing gets a lot easier.

Getting your clip onto the timeline

Before you can cut anything, your footage needs to be on the timeline — the strip of tracks along the bottom of the CapCut window. If you've just opened a fresh project, here's the quick version:

  1. Click Import in the top-left media panel and pick your video file, or drag it straight from a folder into CapCut.
  2. Drag the imported clip down onto the timeline, or hover over it and click the + button to add it.

Now you'll see your clip as a horizontal bar on the timeline. The tall vertical line you can move left and right is the playhead — it marks exactly where you are in the video, and the preview window shows that frame. The playhead is the key to splitting, because that's the spot where every cut happens.

Tip: Use the zoom slider (usually near the bottom-right of the timeline) to stretch the timeline out. A zoomed-in view makes it far easier to land your cuts on the exact frame you want.

How to split a clip with the split tool

The split tool is the heart of cutting clips in CapCut. Here's the full workflow:

  1. Position the playhead. Drag the playhead to the exact spot where you want the cut, or play the video and pause at the right moment. Watch the preview to confirm you're on the right frame.
  2. Select the clip. Click the clip on the timeline so it's highlighted. The split only applies to the selected clip.
  3. Make the cut. Click the split button on the toolbar above the timeline — it looks like a small scissors or a divided icon. The default keyboard shortcut is Ctrl + B (Cmd + B on Mac), which is much faster once you get used to it.

The instant you split, your one clip becomes two. There's now a seam where the cut landed, and each side is its own independent clip. You can click either piece, drag it somewhere else, change its settings, or delete it — all without touching the other half.

This is how you isolate the parts you care about. Want to remove a ten-second stretch from the middle of a clip? Split at the start of that stretch, split again at the end, then delete the middle piece. Two cuts and a delete, and the unwanted section is gone.

The split happens at the playhead, not where your mouse is. If a cut lands in the wrong place, it's almost always because the playhead wasn't where you thought. Drag it to the right frame first, then split.

How to trim the edges of a clip

Trimming is even simpler than splitting, and it's how you tidy up the start and end of a clip. There's no button to press — you do it by dragging.

  1. Hover over a clip edge. Move your mouse to the very left or right end of a clip on the timeline. The cursor changes to a trim handle (often a double-arrow or bracket shape).
  2. Drag inward. Click and drag that edge toward the center of the clip. As you drag, the clip gets shorter and the preview shows you the new start or end frame.
  3. Release where it looks right. Let go, and the clip is trimmed. The footage you dragged past is hidden, not deleted — you can always drag the edge back out to recover it later.

This is the cleanest way to do a CapCut trim on PC. Trimming the left edge changes where the clip begins; trimming the right edge changes where it ends. Because the original media is still there behind the scenes, trimming is completely non-destructive — your source file never changes.

Trimming the right edge inward leaves an empty gap after the clip if there's anything sitting further down the track. Trimming the left edge usually leaves a gap before it. That's normal, and the next section is all about closing those gaps.

Deleting clips and closing the gaps

When you delete a clip — or trim one shorter — you're often left with a blank space on the timeline. CapCut gives you two ways to handle a clip you don't want, and the difference matters.

Plain delete (leaves a gap)

Select a clip and press Delete on your keyboard, or right-click and choose Delete. The clip vanishes, but everything else stays exactly where it was — so you're left with an empty gap where the clip used to be. During playback, that gap shows up as a stretch of black with no video. Sometimes you want this (to leave room for something else), but usually you don't.

Ripple delete (closes the gap automatically)

This is the one you'll reach for most. A ripple delete removes the clip and slides every clip after it to the left to fill the space — no gap left behind. In CapCut you can do this by right-clicking the clip and choosing the option that deletes and closes the gap, or by deleting the clip and then deleting the empty space that's left.

Why ripple delete saves time: on a video with twenty clips, manually dragging everything left to fill one gap is tedious and error-prone. Ripple delete does it in a single action and keeps your whole timeline tight and gap-free.

If you ever end up with a gap you didn't mean to leave, you can usually right-click the empty space itself and choose Delete, which pulls the following clips left to close it. Same result, reached from the gap instead of the clip.

Putting it together: a clean basic edit

Here's how these moves combine into a real, start-to-finish trim of a longer recording. Say you filmed a three-minute take and only the middle minute is any good.

  1. Trim the dead start. Drag the clip's left edge inward to where the good part begins. The rambling intro is gone.
  2. Trim the dead end. Drag the right edge inward to where the good part stops. Now the clip is just the keeper section.
  3. Split out a mistake. If there's a flubbed line in the middle, split just before it and just after it, then ripple delete the bad piece so the surrounding footage closes up seamlessly.
  4. Watch it back. Move the playhead to the start and press the spacebar to play. If a cut feels abrupt, nudge the trim or split a frame or two until it flows.

That's the entire cutting workflow. Everything fancier — transitions, effects, captions — gets layered on top of clips you've already split and trimmed into shape. Speaking of which, once your cuts are clean you might want to remove the background from a clip for a cleaner look, and when the edit's done, our guide to exporting in 1080p and 4K walks through the best settings for sharing it.

Beyond cutting: reverse, freeze and reframe

Once a section is split out, the same toolbar above the timeline offers more ways to shape it. Three are worth learning next:

All three work best on short, clean sections, which is one more reason to get comfortable with splitting first.

Handy shortcuts and common mistakes

A few keyboard shortcuts and good habits will speed up your cutting more than anything else. Keep these close while you learn, and check the shortcut list inside the app if a key does not respond, because CapCut lets you remap them. Our CapCut keyboard shortcuts for desktop page has the full list.

  • Split: Ctrl + B (Cmd + B on Mac) splits the selected clip at the playhead — the single most useful shortcut for cutting clips.
  • Play / pause: the Spacebar starts and stops playback so you can find your cut points by ear and eye.
  • Undo: Ctrl + Z (or Cmd + Z on Mac) reverses your last action. Cut something by accident? One keystroke brings it back.
  • Delete: the Delete key removes the selected clip; use ripple delete when you want the gap closed too.

And the mistakes that catch beginners most often:

  • Splitting the wrong clip. If your project has clips on several tracks, make sure the one you intend to cut is selected before you press split.
  • Forgetting to position the playhead. The cut lands at the playhead, full stop. Move it first, every time.
  • Leaving accidental gaps. After deleting, glance at the timeline for black gaps and close them with a ripple delete or by deleting the empty space.
  • Over-trimming. If you trim a clip too short, just drag its edge back outward — the hidden footage is still there to recover.
The best way to get fast at splitting and trimming is simply to do it. Load a clip you don't care about, cut it to pieces, and undo your way back. Ten minutes of practice and the moves become muscle memory.