Crop Video to 9:16 Without Losing Quality
Turn horizontal footage into a full-screen vertical video for TikTok, Reels, and Shorts. Position the frame yourself, keep original resolution, and skip the black bars — on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
You have a 16:9 recording and three platforms that want 9:16. The Photos app crops dead centre, which is rarely where you were standing. Web converters re-encode at 720p and add a watermark. Timeline editors make you rebuild the project at a new canvas size.
BlitzCut crops to 9:16 by taking a vertical slice out of your horizontal frame — no stretching, no letterboxing, no upscaling. You drag the crop window to wherever the subject is, check the safe-zone preview, and export at up to the original resolution.
Everything you need, in one app
True 9:16 crop
A vertical slice out of the horizontal frame, so the video fills the screen edge to edge.
Manual framing
Move the crop anywhere in the source frame instead of accepting a centre crop.
Safe-zone preview
See what TikTok, Reels, and Shorts UI will cover before you commit to the framing.
Other ratios too
4:5 and 1:1 for feed posts, 16:9 for YouTube — from the same source file.
How it works
Three steps from raw footage to finished video.
Import the horizontal clip
Camera roll, screen recording, Zoom export, or a YouTube upload on iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
Set 9:16 and place the frame
Switch the project to 9:16 and drag the crop window so your face stays centred.
Export at full resolution
Preview the safe zone, then export up to original quality with HDR intact.
Export at original resolution — a 4K source cropped to 9:16 still has more pixels than 1080x1920 needs.
Why this beats a centre crop or a web converter
- Drag the crop window — the subject stays in frame, not the middle of the shot
- Exports up to original resolution, never upscaled from 720p
- No black bars, no stretching, no watermark
- Captions, silence removal, and jump cuts in the same app
Built for creators like you
Repurposing YouTube to Shorts
Cut a horizontal upload into vertical clips without reshooting or re-editing from scratch.
Zoom and webinar recordings
Pull a 9:16 talking-head clip out of a 16:9 call recording.
iPhone footage filmed sideways
Recover a horizontal take that needs to go out vertical today.
Try every feature free
Free 3-day trial, then plans from $6.99/week. Cancel anytime — no commitment.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I crop a video to 9:16 on iPhone without losing quality?
- Start from 1080p or higher and export at original resolution rather than a preset. A 4K horizontal clip cropped to 9:16 leaves 1215x2160 real pixels — more than the 1080x1920 TikTok, Reels, and Shorts display. Quality is lost when an app re-encodes at a lower bitrate or upscales a small crop, which is what most free web converters do.
- What size is 9:16 video?
- 1080x1920 pixels is the standard. TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts all display at that size, and all three accept higher — 1440x2560 or 2160x3840 — without penalty.
- How do I convert horizontal video to vertical without black bars?
- Crop rather than fit. Fitting scales the whole 16:9 frame down inside a 9:16 canvas, which leaves bars above and below. Cropping keeps full height and discards the sides, so the video fills the screen. The trade-off is losing the edges of the shot, which is why positioning the crop window matters more than the ratio itself.
- Is there a free way to crop video to 9:16?
- The iPhone Photos app can crop to a vertical shape but always from the centre and without a safe-zone preview. Free web converters usually cap output at 720p and add a watermark. BlitzCut is free to download with a 3-day trial, then $6.99/week or $69.99/year in the US.
Crop to 9:16 and keep the quality
Reframe horizontal footage for vertical in seconds. Free 3-day trial.
Free to download · 3-day free trial · Cancel anytime