A video that drags is easy to lose people on. Long screen recordings, slow demos, and talks with long pauses all feel better a little faster. This page opens the speed tool already set to 2×, so you can speed up a video with one drop and one button.
Your clip is processed on your own computer, so it is never uploaded. You can keep the sound with its natural pitch, or remove it for a quicker save.
Below: how to choose a speed that still looks natural, how to fast forward further for a time-lapse feel, what happens to the sound, and jobs where a faster video is the right fix.
How to speed up a video in five steps
The tool starts at 2×, which means your video plays twice as fast and finishes in half the time. You can change that before you save.
- Drop your video onto the tool. You can drop several at once.
- Look at the Speed slider. It is already at 2×. Move it to 1.25×, 1.5×, 3× or 4× if you want a different pace, or use the 2× faster and 4× faster chips.
- Read the Length now and New length lines to see the effect on the running time.
- Leave Keep the sound on to keep the audio, or switch it off to remove it.
- Press Change speed, then save the new MP4.
The new file's name ends with the speed, such as _2x.mp4, and your original is left alone.
Choosing the right faster speed
The right speed depends on what is in the picture. A good rule is that a viewer should still be able to see what changed from one moment to the next. Speech has a lower limit than picture, so a talking video needs a gentler speed than a silent screen recording.
| Speed | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| 1.25× | Talks, interviews, lessons | Almost unnoticeable, saves a few minutes |
| 1.5× | Tutorials, lectures, vlogs | Fast speakers become hard to follow |
| 2× | Screen recordings, demos, workouts | Quick movements can look jumpy |
| 3× | Long recordings, build or craft clips | Speech is hard to understand |
| 4× | Very long recordings, time-lapse feel | Short clips become very short |
Speed up a screen recording
Screen recordings are the most common reason to make a video faster. Most of the time nothing much happens: a page loads, a file copies, you think. At 3× or 4× those gaps shrink and the useful parts stand out. If the recording has no voice, switch off Keep the sound and save faster.
Speed up a lesson or a talk
For a spoken video, stay near 1.25× to 1.5×. Past 2× most people start to lose words. Because the pitch is kept, the voice still sounds like the same person, only quicker.
Fast forward a video for a time-lapse feel
4× is the fastest setting. For a stronger time-lapse feel, save the 4× MP4 and run that file through the tool again at 4×, which makes it 16 times faster than the original. In our test, a 20-second clip came out at about 1.3 seconds, with the picture intact. Speech is lost at that pace, so turn Keep the sound off.
What happens to the sound when you speed up a video
If sound simply played faster, voices would turn squeaky. This tool avoids that. With Keep the sound on, the audio is squeezed into the shorter running time without changing its pitch. So to speed up a video without changing the pitch, leave the switch on.
Re-timing the sound makes the job slower, as the panel warns. Without the audio, the picture can often be re-timed directly, which is quicker.
- Want the voice? Keep the sound on.
- Want the quickest save? Turn it off.
- Want a silent clip with new music? Turn it off, then add a track with add audio to video.
If your file has no audio track at all, the switch is off already and the panel tells you the video has no sound.
Jobs where a faster video helps most
People speed up video for different reasons. These are the jobs where it pays to make a video faster, with the speed that usually fits.
- A software demo or tutorial with slow waits: 2× or 3×, with the sound switched off and your own voice-over added later.
- A recorded meeting or lecture you need to skim: 1.5×, with Keep the sound on so you can still follow the words.
- A craft, cooking or building clip where the process is the story: 3× or 4×, for a time-lapse feel.
- A clip that is just over a time limit on a social platform: 1.25×, which trims the length without anyone noticing.
- A sports or workout clip you want to turn into a highlight: 2×, then a short trim to the best part.
Check the new length before you save
The panel shows Length now and New length as you move the slider. Use these to hit a target. A 90-second clip at 1.5× becomes exactly 60 seconds, which is handy if a post or an upload has a one-minute cap.
If you need to speed up video in a whole batch, drop all the files at once. Each one gets the same speed, and you can download the results together as a zip.
What the quality looks like afterwards
Making a video faster keeps the picture at the same size. What changes is how many of its pictures (frames) you see each second. Fast motion can look jumpy at 3× or 4×, because things move further between the frames you see. If that bothers you, step down one speed and compare.
The frame rate can change too. With the sound off, a 30 fps clip at 2× can keep every picture and play at 60 fps; at 4× it stays at 30 fps and skips pictures instead. If a site or an editor needs a set rate, change it afterwards: 60fps to 30fps suits most web video, 60fps to 24fps gives a film look, and the 60fps converter is there when a platform asks for 60.
Other steps that go well with a faster video
If only part of the clip needs to be fast, cut it down first with Trim video, then speed up what is left. If the faster video is still large to share, make it smaller with Compress video.
Want the opposite effect? The slow motion video page uses the same tool set to half speed, and the main change video speed page covers every speed from 0.25× to 4×.
Speed up video online, privately and free
You do not need to install anything or make an account. The tool is free, adds no watermark, and does not count towards the free daily limit, which applies to document conversions only.
It also keeps your video private. The job runs in your browser, the file is never uploaded, and the server does no video work.
It opens MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI, WMV and more. Speed up an MP4 or any of the others, and you get an MP4 back.
Most videos have no size limit. Some files, such as certain AVI or WMV videos, are handled more slowly, and those can be up to 2 GB. The tool works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox.
Speed up your video now
To speed up a video online, drop it in, keep the 2× setting or pick another one, and press Change speed. The new file is shorter, the voice keeps its pitch if you want it, and nothing leaves your device.
Scroll up to the tool and try it on your longest clip. A faster video is often all it takes to make a long one worth watching.
