Sometimes a video needs to be turned on its head. Maybe you filmed with a camera mounted upside down, or you want a quirky effect, or you need the top and the bottom of a shot swapped for a project. To flip video upside down is to swap the top of the picture with the bottom.
This page opens the Rotate and flip tool with Flip upside down already switched on. Drop a clip and press Rotate. The picture is re-drawn in your browser and your file is never uploaded.
One thing trips people up: flipping a video top to bottom is not the same as turning it upside down. Below is the difference, and how to get the one you want.
How to flip a video upside down, step by step
You do not need to sign up, and nothing is added to your video. The flip is already set when the page opens.
- Drop your video onto the page, or choose it from your device. Several clips are fine.
- Check that the Flip upside down switch is on. It is on by default here.
- Look at the stage preview. The picture, and the letter F on the Turn control, will be upside down.
- Press Rotate. The tool uses that name for all of its jobs, flips included.
- Save the new MP4, or download several as a zip.
If you drop in more than one clip, the same settings are applied to every one, which is handy when a whole batch came off the same camera. Each saved video keeps its own name.
The result is named with _rotated at the end, which is how the tool names all its files, and it will not overwrite your original.
Flip or turn upside down: they are not the same
This is the point that confuses most people. There are two ways to end up with a picture that has its top at the bottom, and they give different results.
| Setting | Top and bottom | Left and right | Writing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flip upside down | Swapped | Unchanged | Upside down and mirrored |
| Turn: Upside down (half turn) | Swapped | Swapped | Upside down but readable |
A flip is a reflection. Imagine the picture lying on a table with a mirror along its middle: the top becomes the bottom, but the left stays on the left. A half turn is a spin. Everything goes round, so top and bottom swap and so do left and right.
If your camera was mounted upside down and the video looks as if you spun it round, you want the half turn. In the tool, press Turn right twice until the label reads Upside down, and switch the flip off. If you want a true top-to-bottom reflection, keep Flip upside down on, which is what this page does.
A quick test helps if you are unsure. Imagine a clip with a sign on the left of the frame. After a flip, the sign is still on the left, but upside down. After a half turn, the sign has moved to the right as well. Whichever matches what you need is the setting to use, and the stage preview will confirm it before you save.
For a plain left-to-right reflection, use mirror video. For all the turn options, including quarter turns for sideways phone clips, see rotate video.
When to flip a video top to bottom
A vertical flip is a less common change than a mirror, but it has real uses.
A reflection or water effect
If you are making a reflection, such as a building mirrored in a lake, a flipped copy of the clip is what you place underneath the original. A half turn would put the reflection on the wrong side.
A creative or odd-looking shot
An upside-down version of a clip can make an everyday scene look strange, which suits a title sequence, a music video or a short joke. Flipping it, rather than turning it, keeps the action moving in the same left and right direction.
A clip that is the wrong way up
If a clip you were given looks like a reflection of the right one, with the top and bottom swapped but left and right correct, the vertical flip puts it right. Check the stage preview to be sure before you save.
Combine a flip with a turn or a mirror
The page starts with only the flip on, but you can change anything. Use the Turn buttons to spin the picture a quarter at a time, and switch on Mirror left to right as well if you want.
The tool always turns first and flips after, and the stage preview follows the same order. If you switch on both Mirror left to right and Flip upside down together, the result is the same as a half turn, and the saved file matches the preview.
This is useful when a clip needs more than one fix. A phone video that is sideways and also a reflection of what you wanted can be sorted in one pass, rather than saving a file and processing it a second time.
The Result line shows the size of the finished video. A flip does not change it, but a quarter turn swaps the width and height. After flipping, you may want to crop video to remove an edge, or change the size, for example to the YouTube video size of 1920×1080 or the Instagram Reels size of 1080×1920. For a feed post, the square Instagram video size is 1080×1080.
If nothing is changed yet, the Rotate button stays blocked with the hint "Turn or mirror it first". That protects you from saving an identical copy.
Free and private, in your browser
The video is re-drawn on your own computer, inside the browser tab. It is never uploaded, and the server does no video work.
- Free, with no account and no watermark.
- Video tools are not counted in the free daily limit, which applies to document conversions only.
- Works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox.
- Most videos have no size limit. A few files, such as certain AVI or WMV videos, take longer and can be up to 2 GB.
For other jobs on the same clip, the Video Tools link at the top of this page lists every video tool.
Flip your video now
To flip video upside down, keep Flip upside down switched on and press Rotate. Top and bottom swap while left and right stay put, which is different from a half turn. Use Turn if a half turn is what you want.
It is free, has no watermark, and nothing leaves your device. Drop your video in the tool above and press Rotate.
