To flip a video horizontally is to mirror it: you get the same picture with left and right swapped, as if seen in a mirror. People want it for a few reasons. A selfie camera may have saved the clip the wrong way round, a dance video may need to be learned from the other side, or two clips may need people walking in the same direction. One small change fixes all of these.
This page opens the Rotate and flip tool with Mirror left to right already switched on. Drop a clip and press Rotate. The picture is re-drawn in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
Some people say flip and mean top to bottom. Here it means left to right, and the top and the bottom stay where they are. Read on for what mirroring changes, when to use it, and the one thing to watch out for: writing in the picture.
How to flip a video horizontally
You do not need an account to mirror a video online here, and no watermark is added. The mirror is already set when the page opens, so there is very little to do.
- Drop your video onto the page, or choose it from your device. You can add several clips.
- Check that the Mirror left to right switch is on. It is on by default on this page.
- Look at the stage preview. It shows the mirrored picture, and the letter F on the Turn control appears flipped.
- Press Rotate. The button carries the tool's name, but it will apply the mirror you chose.
- Save the new MP4, or download several as a zip.
If you drop in several clips, every one is mirrored the same way. That is useful for a set of clips from the same camera, since you only choose the setting once, and the zip download keeps them together.
The saved file has _rotated at the end of its name, which is how this tool labels all its output, so it will not replace your original.
What mirroring does to your video
Mirror left to right swaps the two sides of the picture along a line down the middle. What was on the left is now on the right. The top and the bottom stay where they are, and the size of the video does not change. Nor does the order of time, so to make a clip play backwards, use reverse video instead.
| In the picture | After the mirror |
|---|---|
| A person walking from left to right | Walking from right to left |
| A watch on the left wrist | The watch appears on the right wrist |
| Text, signs and logos | Read backwards |
| Top and bottom of the frame | Unchanged |
| Width and height | Unchanged |
One more thing to know: faces are not perfectly even. Most people have a side they prefer and small differences between the left and the right of their face, so a mirrored version of a person can look slightly off to those who know them well. This is normal, and worth a glance in the preview before you share.
The tool shows this note next to the switch: writing in the picture will read backwards. It is worth remembering before you press the button.
When to mirror a video
Mirroring is a quiet fix for a handful of common problems. Here are the ones people most often have.
Mirror a selfie video that looks the wrong way round
Some front cameras save the picture the way a mirror would show it, and some save it the way other people see you. If your selfie clip has backwards writing on a shirt or a sign, mirroring it puts the writing right. That is the one case where a mirror helps with text.
Learning a dance or an exercise
If you watch a routine to learn it, a mirrored copy lets you follow along as if you were looking in a mirror, so your left arm matches the arm on the same side of the screen. Make a copy once and keep it.
Matching the direction of movement
If two clips will be played one after the other and the person walks left in one and right in the other, mirroring one of them can make the cut feel smoother. Use it with care, since the mirrored clip shows a different side of the person and of anything they carry.
A creative effect
Mirroring also gets used to hide small things. A distinctive sign, a number plate or a logo on a building is easier to leave out of a shot than to blur, but remember that it will read backwards, which may be just as noticeable. Check anything you want to hide in the preview.
A mirrored shot of a landscape or a building can look different enough to feel fresh. As long as there is no text in view, nothing is lost.
Flip horizontally, flip upside down or rotate?
These three are easy to mix up. Flip horizontally swaps left and right, which is what this page does. Flip upside down swaps the top and the bottom. Rotate turns the whole picture in quarter steps, so a phone clip that plays on its side stands upright again.
When you flip a video on this page, it is not turned. If your clip is also on its side, you can fix that on the same screen: use Turn left or Turn right until the picture on the stage stands upright, then keep the mirror on. The tool turns the picture first and mirrors after, and the stage shows the result in that order.
For the top and the bottom swapped instead, see flip video upside down. If your whole video simply needs turning, use the general rotate video page. Switch on both Mirror left to right and Flip upside down and you get the same picture as a half turn.
Once the picture faces the right way, the last step is often the size. If the clip is going to YouTube, resize it to the YouTube video size of 1920×1080. For a Reel or a TikTok, use the tall Instagram Reels size of 1080×1920, and for a feed post, the Instagram video size page makes a 1080×1080 square or a 1080×1350 portrait.
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. That suits personal clips, such as a selfie or a family video you would rather keep off other people's servers.
- 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.
Mirror your video now
To mirror your video, keep Mirror left to right switched on and press Rotate. Left and right swap, the size stays the same, and any writing in the picture will read backwards, so check the preview first.
It is free, has no watermark, and nothing leaves your device. Drop your video in the tool above and press Rotate.
