Speed up or slow down: change your video speed

How to change video speed in your browser

The tool sits at the top of this page. You do not need an account, and the saved file has no watermark. Video tools are also not counted in the free daily limit, which applies to document conversions only.

1. Drop your video onto the tool, or choose it from your device. You can add several videos at once, and each one is saved at the same speed.
2. Move the Speed slider to the speed you want. It snaps to 0.25×, 0.5×, 0.75×, 1×, 1.25×, 1.5×, 2×, 3× and 4×. The quick chips under it jump straight to 0.5× slow motion, 2× faster or 4× faster.
3. Check the length. The panel shows Length now and New length, so you can see the effect before you start.
4. Decide about the sound with the Keep the sound switch. Leave it on to keep the audio, or turn it off to remove it.
5. Press Change speed. When it finishes, save the new MP4, or download several results together as a zip.

The saved file is named after your original, with the speed added at the end, for example _2x.mp4. Your original file is never changed.

What each speed does to your video

Speed is a multiplier. At 2× the video plays twice as fast, so it takes half as long. At 0.5× it plays at half speed, so it takes twice as long. The New length line in the panel does this sum for you, so you can adjust video speed until the clip fits the time you have.

Slow down a video

Choose a speed below 1× to slow down a video. Half speed is a good place to start for a golf swing, a sports play or a quick gesture. Quarter speed stretches the moment even further.

If you only want slow motion and nothing else, the slow motion video page opens this same tool already set to half speed.

Speed up a video

Choose a speed above 1× to speed up a video. Twice as fast suits a tutorial that is a little slow, and 3× or 4× suits a long screen recording or a time-lapse feel. The speed up video page opens the tool set to 2×.

Keeping the sound at the new speed

Playing sound faster normally makes voices sound higher, like a cartoon. Playing it slower makes them sound low and heavy. When you leave Keep the sound on, the audio is stretched or squeezed to fit the new length without changing its pitch. A voice at 1.5× still sounds like the same person.

There is a trade-off: re-timing the sound makes a job slower. The panel tells you this next to the switch.

• Keep the sound on: the audio follows the picture, and the pitch stays natural. Slower to save.
• Keep the sound off: the saved video is silent. This is the fastest route, because the picture can often be re-timed directly.
• No sound in the file: the switch is turned off for you and the panel says the video has no sound.

Very fast or very slow speech can be hard to follow, whatever the tool does. If you are speeding up an interview, try 1.25× or 1.5× first. If you only need silence removed, the remove silence tool is a better fit than a speed change.

A video speed editor that saves a new file

This video speed editor runs entirely on your own computer. Your video is read from your disk by the browser, processed there, and saved back as a new MP4. It is never uploaded, and the server does no video work.

Most videos have no file size limit. Some files, such as certain AVI or WMV videos, are handled more slowly, and those can be up to 2 GB. The note under the button tells you whether your file is one of them.

The tool works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Keep the tab open while it works, because the processing happens inside it.

Playback speed or a saved file?

A video speed controller in a media player or a browser changes how fast you watch. The file itself stays as it was, so anyone you send it to sees it at normal speed. This tool writes a new MP4 at the speed you pick, ready to share or upload. The preview already plays at your chosen speed, so you can judge it before you save.

Ideas for using a different speed

• Speed up a screen recording or a long walkthrough so viewers stay with it.
• Slow down a trick, a swing or a recipe step so people can see how it is done.
• Match a clip to a music track by making it a little faster or slower.
• Shorten a clip to fit a time limit.

Tools that work well with a speed change

Speed is often one step of several. If the clip is longer than you need, cut it first with trim video and then change the speed, so the tool has less to process. For a short, silent loop to send in a message, change the speed and then turn the result into a GIF with the video to GIF tool. To play a clip backwards instead, use the reverse video tool.

Speed and frame rate are easy to mix up. Speed changes how long a clip lasts. Frame rate is how many pictures it shows each second, and changing it keeps the length the same. If a site asks for 60 fps, the 60fps converter sets it, but it repeats pictures rather than adding detail. To bring smooth footage down, go from 60fps to 24fps for a film look, or 60fps to 30fps for the usual web rate.

Frame rate also affects a speed change. With the sound off, a 30 fps clip at 2× shows 60 pictures a second, which can often be re-timed quickly without re-encoding. At 3× or 4× it would need more than 60, so the job is slower.