The mode-splitting phenomenon within finite-size, mini-scale high-index-contrast gratings (HCGs) has been investigated theoretically and experimentally. The high-Q resonance splits into a series of in-plane modes due to the confinement of boundaries but can still survive even on a mini-scale footprint. Q factors up to ∼3300 and ∼2200 have been observed for the HCGs with footprints that are only 55 μm×300 μm and 27.5 μm×300 μm, which would be promising for realizing optical communication and sensing applications with compact footprint.