Video editor overview

The Bitgrain video editor at /video is a multi-track timeline that runs entirely in your browser. You bring in clips, stills and music, stack text and effects on top, and export an MP4 or WebM without uploading anything.

It uses the same deterministic effects engine as the image editor, applied frame by frame. There is no generation of any kind here: every frame is your footage, processed by math you can repeat.

The video home

Open /video to reach the video home. This is where every video project lives.

Start a new video. When you have fewer than three projects you see a welcome card that says "Pick a format to start". Once you have more, it shrinks to a compact "New video" row at the top.
Your projects. Each project appears as a card with its thumbnail. Click a card to open it.
Search and sort. A "Search projects" box appears once you have six or more projects. Sort by "Recently edited", "Oldest first" or "Name (A-Z)".
Delete. Deleting asks "Delete this video?" first. It cannot be undone and removes the project from this device.

Note: The video editor needs a desktop or laptop screen. On a phone, /video shows "Video editor needs a bigger screen" instead of the timeline. The image editor works fine on a phone.

Creating a project

A new project starts from one of three format chips. Pick the one that matches where the video is going, because the format sets the canvas size of the whole project.

Chip	Canvas size	Good for
`16:9`	1920 x 1080	YouTube, desktop players, landscape edits
`9:16`	1080 x 1920	Reels, Shorts, TikTok, stories
`1:1`	1080 x 1080	Square feed posts

Every new project runs at 30 fps and is called "Untitled video". You land straight in the editor, and the project already has four empty tracks ready to use:

Track	Kind	What goes on it
V1	Video	Video clips (and stills you want to process with effects)
FX	Effect	Effect clips that process the video underneath
Aa	Text	Titles and captions
A1	Audio	Music, voice, sound

To rename the project, click its title in the top bar, type, and press Enter (or Esc to cancel). You can also rename it from the export dialog.

The editor layout

The editor is split into five areas. The three panels around the preview can be resized by dragging the thin handles between them, and Bitgrain remembers the sizes you pick.

Top bar

From left to right:

The Bitgrain logo and a back arrow ("Back to projects") that returns you to /video.
The project title (click to rename), followed by the canvas size and frame rate.
Undo and Redo.
A light and dark theme switch.
A bug icon to report a bug or request a feature.
Export, which opens the export dialog.

Media panel (left)

Everything you import lands here first. Use the plus button next to "Media" or drop files onto the panel. Once you have media, a "Search media" box filters it by name. Clicking a tile adds it to the timeline at the playhead. See adding media for the details.

Preview (center)

The preview shows the frame under the playhead with every effect, overlay and title applied. Under it sits the transport bar:

A thin progress bar you can click or drag to seek.
The current frame and total frame count.
Skip to start (Home), Previous frame (,), Play / Pause (Space), Next frame (.), Skip to end (End).
A loop toggle. With loop on, playback jumps back to the start when it reaches the end.
The timecode, shown as hours, minutes, seconds and frames.
Fullscreen, which fills your screen with the preview (press F to toggle it too).

Inspector (right)

Select a clip and its settings show up here: timing, transform, text styling, effect parameters, volume and so on. With nothing selected, the inspector says "Nothing selected" and lists a few quick keys.

Timeline and action bar (bottom)

The timeline holds your tracks. Its header row has the snapping magnet, zoom out, a pixels-per-second readout and zoom in.

Below it, the action bar gives you one-click tools:

Button	What it does
Split	Cuts the selected clip at the playhead
Duplicate	Places a copy right after the selected clip
Delete	Removes the selected clips
Text	Adds a text clip at the playhead
Templates	Opens reels, titles, overlays, project templates, transitions and beat sync
Effect	Opens the "Add effect" menu, then adds your pick as a clip on the first effect track
Transform	Adds a zoom and transform clip to the first effect track
Tracking	Adds a motion tracking overlay
Audio	Opens a file picker for audio and drops it at the playhead
Info	Shows the project size, frame rate, duration and clip counts

Tip: Split is B on the keyboard, and S toggles snapping. See keyboard shortcuts.

Autosave and undo

You never need to press save. About one second after you stop changing something, the project is saved automatically. When you leave the editor, Bitgrain also grabs a fresh thumbnail for the project card.

Undo and redo work across every edit in the session and keep up to 60 steps. The history starts fresh each time you open a project, so you cannot undo changes made in an earlier visit.

Where projects are stored

Video projects are saved locally in your browser's storage (IndexedDB) on the device you are using.

Signed out, or signed in on the free plan: projects stay on this device. The project list shows a small note that says so.
Pro: the project itself (tracks, clips, settings) is also saved to your account, so it shows up in your project list on other devices.

Note: The media you import (video, audio, images and uploaded fonts) is always kept in this browser's storage, on every plan. Nothing is uploaded. If you open a synced project on a different device, the edit is there, but the footage has to be imported again on that device. Clearing your browser's site data removes local projects and media.

For more on accounts and plans, see accounts and saving and plans and pricing.

Browser requirements

The editor runs in any current desktop browser, but the best export path depends on WebCodecs, the browser feature that encodes video frame by frame.

Feature	Needs
Editing and preview	Any modern desktop browser
MP4 (H.264 + AAC) export	WebCodecs support (`VideoEncoder`, `AudioEncoder`) and `OfflineAudioContext`
WebM export	`MediaRecorder`, available almost everywhere

Recent versions of Chrome, Edge and other Chromium browsers support WebCodecs. If your browser does not, the MP4 option in the export dialog is greyed out and you can still export WebM. See exporting for how the two differ.

What you can import

Type	Extensions
Video	`.mp4`, `.webm`, `.mov`, `.m4v`, `.mkv`
Audio	`.mp3`, `.wav`, `.m4a`, `.ogg`, `.aac`, `.flac`
Image	`.jpg`, `.jpeg`, `.png`, `.gif`, `.webp`, `.svg`, `.avif`

The file also has to be something your browser can decode. A .mov or .mkv with an unusual codec may import without a picture or sound. If that happens, convert it to an H.264 .mp4 first. See supported files for the full list across Bitgrain.