The short answer
Open the video in the tool below; 9:16 is already selected as the aspect ratio. Under Method, choose Crop and drag the frame over the part you want to keep, or choose Fit with background and pick Blurred video, Black, White or Color. The line under the preview shows the size of the result. Press Crop video, and when it is done a player with the result appears with a Download button.
The video keeps its format (an MP4 stays MP4) and its sound. Everything is processed on your device, so the video is never uploaded and no watermark is added.
Try it here: Convert video to 9:16
Open the full tool pageCrop or fit with background
Crop cuts a tall slice out of the wide picture. From a 1920×1080 Full HD video, a 9:16 slice is 606×1080 pixels. It fills the whole phone screen, but everything to the left and right of the frame is gone. This works well when the action stays in one place: a person talking to the camera, a cooking demo on one part of the counter, a product on a table.
Fit with background keeps the whole wide picture and places it in the middle of a vertical frame. The long side of the original becomes the long side of the result, so 1920×1080 becomes 1080×1920. Blurred video fills the space above and below with an enlarged, blurred copy of the same video, which looks calmer than black bars because the colors match. Black, White and Color give a plain background; Color lets you pick any color, for example your brand color. This is the safer choice for landscapes, sports, group shots and screen recordings, where cutting the sides would lose something important.
A simple rule: if the important part of the picture fits in about a third of its width, crop. If it does not, fit.
Aspect ratios and typical sizes
The same tool has other ratios too, in case you need a version for the feed as well. The table shows what each ratio is for and the size you get from a 1920×1080 video. With Crop the size is the size of the frame, so a smaller frame gives a smaller result; the numbers below are for the largest frame. Free lets you crop any shape, for example to remove a black border or a logo at the edge.
| Ratio | Typical use | Crop from 1920×1080 | Fit with background from 1920×1080 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:16 | Reels, Shorts, TikTok, stories | 606×1080 | 1080×1920 |
| 4:5 | Instagram and Facebook feed posts | 864×1080 | 1536×1920 |
| 1:1 | Square feed posts, product pages | 1080×1080 | 1920×1920 |
| 16:9 | YouTube, TV, laptops | 1920×1080 (unchanged) | 1920×1080 |
| 4:3 | Older cameras, presentations | 1440×1080 | 1920×1440 |
| Free | Removing edges, bars or a logo | Any size you drag | Not available |
Placing the frame when you crop
Drag the frame to move it, or drag a corner or an edge to make it smaller; with 9:16 selected it keeps its shape. You can also use the arrow keys, and Alt with the arrows changes the size. The frame stays in the same place for the whole video. It does not follow a person or an object that moves around, so a speaker who walks across a stage can leave the frame.
That is what the Preview frame slider is for. Move it to the start, the middle and the end of the clip and check that faces, hands and text stay inside the frame each time. If the subject moves too much, either cut the video into shorter parts and crop each one separately, or use Fit with background instead.
Apps also put buttons, captions and the account name over the lower part and the right side of a vertical video. Keep faces and on screen text in the middle and upper part of the frame.
- Talking head or interview: crop around the face, leave some room above the head
- Two people side by side: fit with background, a crop will cut one of them
- Screen recording or slides: fit with background, text stays readable
- Landscape or wide scenery: fit with Blurred video, or crop the most interesting part
Quality, formats and sound
Changing the shape changes every frame, so the picture is encoded again at high quality: H.264 for MP4 and MOV, VP9 for WebM and MKV. The difference to the original is hard to see at normal viewing. Cropping cannot add detail, though: a 606×1080 slice shown full screen on a phone is the same sharpness as that part of the original, no more. If you start from 4K, a crop gives a much sharper vertical video.
The sound is copied unchanged, or converted to AAC when the MP4 or MOV result needs it, so the file plays on every phone. Re-encoding takes time in proportion to the length of the video and the speed of your device; a long 4K video can take a few minutes on an older computer.
Built in options on phones and computers
Most phone gallery apps can crop a video, but they usually only cut the picture and do not offer a blurred background. The apps of the platforms themselves, such as Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, may also let you zoom or place a horizontal video when you post it, with fewer controls and only inside that app. Full video editors on Windows and Mac can do both, with more steps.
The tool on this page is handy when you want one clean 9:16 file you can post anywhere, when you are on a computer without an editor, or when you want the blurred background look in a few clicks.
Common problems and fixes
- The person walks out of the frame: the crop does not follow movement. Check several moments with the Preview frame slider, cut the clip into parts, or use Fit with background.
- The vertical video looks soft: a crop from Full HD is only 606 pixels wide. Start from a higher resolution recording if you have one, or use Fit with background.
- Captions or faces are hidden behind app buttons: move the frame so the important part sits higher and more to the middle.
- Your browser cannot read the video inside this file: some codecs, such as HEVC from iPhones, cannot be decoded in every browser. Try Chrome, Edge or Safari, or convert the file to MP4 first.
- The sound is missing: a note under the result says when the original sound could not be converted and was left out.
- The video is too long for a Reel or a Short: trim it to the part you need before or after making it vertical.