LosslessCut for PC: How to Download and Install on Windows (2026 Guide)

You have a two-hour recording and only need a three-minute piece of it — but your video editor wants to import, render, and re-encode the whole thing, taking twenty minutes and softening the quality. For simply cutting pieces out of a video, full editors are slow overkill.

This guide shows you how to download LosslessCut for PC from its official project page, get it running on Windows in minutes (it is portable — no installer), and make your first lossless trim. Requirements, features, and cost are covered.

What Is LosslessCut?

LosslessCut is a free, open-source video and audio editor built for one job done extremely well: cutting. Developed by Mikael Finstad and built around FFmpeg, the industry-standard media engine, it skips the decode-and-re-encode process of a normal editor — slow, and quality-reducing — and simply copies the parts of the file you keep. Trimming an hour-long video takes seconds, bit-for-bit identical to the original.

That speed makes it the perfect first step in any workflow: chop dead air off recordings, extract goals from a match, split streams into highlights, or cut family videos to the good parts. It handles MP4, MKV, MOV, WebM and more, and can merge clips or extract audio tracks.

Key Features of LosslessCut

True lossless cutting: Keeps the segments you select by copying the data — no re-encoding, no quality loss, finished in seconds.
Keyframe-cut mode: A mode that snaps cuts to keyframes for near-instant results.
Multi-segment editing: Mark many keep-sections in one file; export merged or as separate clips.
Merge and concatenate: Join several files of the same format into one, losslessly.
Track tools: Extract, remove, or keep individual audio, video, and subtitle tracks.
Snapshots and thumbnails: Pull full-resolution still frames from any point with one click.
Rotation, labels, and batch work: Fix sideways phone videos, label segments, and edit many files at once.

System Requirements

Operating System: Windows 11 or Windows 10 (64-bit)
Processor: Any modern CPU — lossless cutting barely uses it
RAM: 2 GB minimum; 4 GB recommended for very large 4K files
Storage: Around 300 MB for the program, plus free space equal to the clips you export
Internet: Only needed for the initial download
Account: None — no sign-up, no activation
Graphics: Any GPU that can play your video files

How to Download LosslessCut (Official Method)

LosslessCut lives on GitHub, its official project home — search results leading to “download portals” confuse beginners. Those portals are unnecessary and sometimes bundle unwanted software. Always get it from the official GitHub project below (the app is also sold in app stores to support the developer — see the cost section).

Official Website: Download LosslessCut from the official website

Step-by-Step Installation

Open the official LosslessCut project page above.
Click the “Releases” link on the project page.
In the latest release, scroll to Assets and download the Windows ZIP, named like LosslessCut-win-x64.zip.
Right-click the downloaded ZIP and choose “Extract All”, picking a permanent home such as C:\LosslessCut.
Open the extracted folder and find LosslessCut.exe.
Double-click LosslessCut.exe to run it — there is no installer; the program simply starts.
Right-click the EXE and choose Send to → Desktop (shortcut), so you can launch it like a normal app.

Important note: Because LosslessCut is portable, do not run it from inside the ZIP or move the folder’s other files — the EXE needs them beside it. Keep the extracted folder together.

How to Trim a Video Losslessly with LosslessCut

Drag your video file into the LosslessCut window (or use File → Open).
Play or scrub to where the part you want begins, and press “Set start” (or I) to mark the segment’s start.
Move to where the part should end and press “Set end” (or O). The kept segment highlights on the timeline.
To keep several pieces, click the plus button to add segments and mark each the same way.
In the export settings at the bottom, choose whether segments export merged or as separate files, and leave the cut mode on “Keyframe cut” for speed.
Click “Export” — within seconds your trimmed file appears next to the original, with quality identical to the source.

Is LosslessCut Really Free?

Yes. LosslessCut is free and open-source software under the GPL, and the GitHub download is the complete program — every feature, no trial, no watermark, no export limits. The one confusion: the same app is also sold in app stores such as the Microsoft Store, purely as a way for happy users to support the developer (and get automatic updates). Buying there is optional — the GitHub version is not cut down.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is LosslessCut safe to download and use?
Yes, from the official GitHub project page above. LosslessCut is an established open-source project whose code is public, and the releases there are the developer’s genuine builds. Portals offering their own “LosslessCut installer” are the thing to avoid — the real program needs no installer.

What does “lossless” actually mean here? Will my video really keep its quality?
Yes, literally. Normal editors decode every frame and encode again, which always loses some quality and takes time. LosslessCut copies the existing audio and video data for the parts you keep, untouched. The exported quality is identical — the data itself never changed.

Why did my cut start a second or two before the point I picked?
That is the keyframe trade-off. Lossless streams can only be cut cleanly at keyframes, which may sit a second or so from your exact frame, so Keyframe-cut mode snaps to the nearest one. For frame-exact cuts, switch to “Normal cut” — LosslessCut then re-encodes only the tiny portion around the cut and stays lossless elsewhere, for a little more time.

Which formats does LosslessCut work with?
Almost anything FFmpeg understands: MP4, MKV, MOV, WebM, AVI, MP3, WAV, and more, including camera formats.

Conclusion

LosslessCut is the tool you will reach for more than your big editor: five seconds to open, five seconds to trim, zero quality lost. Download it free from the official GitHub project, extract the folder, and cut your first clip — afterwards, waiting twenty minutes for a re-encode will feel old-fashioned.

Download LosslessCut from the Official Website

LosslessCut for PC: How to Download and Install on Windows (2026 Guide)