These are for the CapCut desktop version. If you’re using the mobile app, shortcuts don’t apply — but if you haven’t tried the desktop version yet, the keyboard support alone is a reason to.

Playback Controls

Space — Play/pause. This one’s obvious but worth including because some people don’t realize CapCut desktop responds to it. You don’t need to click the play button.

J / K / L — This is the classic video editing shortcut set. K pauses. L plays forward, and pressing it repeatedly increases playback speed. J plays backward. Get this into muscle memory and you’ll move through footage much faster.

Left/Right Arrow — Move one frame at a time. Useful when you need to find an exact cut point.

Editing Shortcuts

Ctrl + B (Windows) / Cmd + B (Mac) — Split the clip at the playhead position. This is the one you’ll use constantly. Way faster than right-clicking.

Delete — Removes the selected clip from the timeline. If you’ve split and want to remove a section, this is how.

Ctrl + Z — Undo. CapCut supports multiple undo steps, which is something earlier versions didn’t always handle reliably. It works fine now.

Ctrl + D — Duplicate a selected clip or element. I use this constantly for text layers — duplicate an existing one and change the text rather than rebuilding styling from scratch.

Timeline Navigation

Ctrl + Scroll Wheel — Zoom in and out on the timeline. If you’re working with long footage, you’ll want to zoom in for precise cuts and zoom out to see the full structure. The scroll wheel is much faster than the zoom slider.

Home / End — Jump to the beginning or end of the timeline. More useful than you’d think when a project gets long.

One Shortcut That’s Missing

There’s no built-in shortcut for adding a clip to the timeline from the media panel — you have to drag it. That’s a genuine gap compared to Premiere or DaVinci Resolve. Worth knowing so you don’t waste time hunting for a keyboard option that doesn’t exist.

The shortcuts above cover most of what you’ll do in a normal editing session. Learn the split shortcut first (Ctrl+B), then J/K/L. Those two alone will noticeably change how quickly you work through footage.