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Change Video Speed

Speed up or slow down a video (with pitch-corrected audio) locally in your browser.

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Changing the speed of a video lets you stretch a moment out for a slow-motion look or compress a long take into a quick, watchable clip. Slowing footage down (to 0.75x or 0.5x) is great for reviewing technique, savouring detail, or adding a dramatic feel, while speeding it up (1.25x, 1.5x, 2x, or even 4x) turns lengthy walkthroughs, screen recordings, and time-lapse style shots into something far shorter without cutting anything out. This tool changes both the picture and the sound together, so the audio still matches the action at the new pace.

Frequently asked questions

Is my video uploaded to a server?
No. The speed change happens entirely in your browser using a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg. Your file is processed locally on your own device and the result is returned as a download, never sent over the network.
Does the audio stay at a normal pitch?
Yes. Rather than simply playing the sound faster or slower (which would raise or lower the pitch), the tool uses a tempo filter that changes the speed while keeping the pitch natural, so voices and music still sound right at the new pace.
What happens to a video that has no sound?
The tool detects when there is no audio track and retimes just the video. You do not need to do anything special: silent clips, screen recordings without audio, and animations all work the same way.
Why is 4x done in stages?
The audio tempo filter only accepts factors between 0.5 and 2.0 in a single pass. To reach 4x, the tool chains two 2x stages together, and the same idea applies to other large changes. This keeps the audio clean instead of distorting it with one extreme adjustment.
Does changing speed affect the frame rate?
The tool retimes the existing frames rather than generating new ones, so a sped-up clip simply plays the same frames sooner and a slowed clip plays them later. True slow motion with extra smoothness requires footage that was originally shot at a high frame rate.
What format does it output?
MP4 with H.264 video, the most compatible combination across phones, browsers, and editors. If you need a different container or codec, run the result through the Video Converter afterwards.
Will speeding up a video make the file smaller?
Usually yes, because a faster clip is shorter and therefore contains fewer total frames to store. Slowing a clip down makes it longer and tends to increase the file size. The result shows the exact size either way.
Does it work offline?
Yes, once the page and engine have loaded. The first run downloads the FFmpeg core (about 30 MB), after which it is cached and the tool works without an internet connection.

About Change Video Speed

It all runs inside your browser using a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg. Your file is read locally, the video frames are retimed and the audio is resampled to follow, then the result is re-encoded as MP4 and returned as a download. Nothing is uploaded to any server, which makes the tool safe for private recordings, confidential screen captures, or any footage you would prefer to keep on your own device.

The audio gets special handling. Naively retiming sound would change its pitch (slowing it down turns voices into a low drone, speeding it up creates a chipmunk effect), so this tool uses tempo adjustment that keeps the pitch natural while changing the speed. For large jumps such as 4x, the tempo change is applied in stages to stay within the safe range of the audio filter, which preserves clarity. If a clip has no audio track at all, the tool detects that and simply retimes the video on its own.

Why fast audio used to sound like chipmunks

For most of recording history, changing a sound's speed and changing its pitch were the same operation, because both came from one physical control: how fast the medium moved. Spin a record faster or run a tape at a higher speed and everything rises in pitch as well as tempo, which is exactly how the famous high-voiced novelty recordings of the 1950s were made. Slow it down and voices drop into a slow, syrupy growl. Speed and pitch were chained together by physics, and there was no easy way to separate them.

Digital audio broke that link with a technique often called time stretching. Instead of simply playing samples faster, the software analyses the sound in short overlapping windows and intelligently repeats or skips tiny segments, so the tempo changes while the frequencies (and therefore the perceived pitch) stay put. Done well, a voice can be sped up to fit a shorter clip and still sound like the same person talking quickly, rather than a cartoon character. This is the same family of algorithms that lets podcast apps offer 1.5x playback without turning the host into a chipmunk.

The filter behind this tool works within a safe range for each pass to keep that illusion convincing, which is why large speed changes are applied in steps. Push any single time-stretch too far and the artefacts become audible: echoes, warbling, or a metallic edge. By chaining moderate adjustments instead of one extreme one, the audio stays clear even at 4x, and the picture and sound arrive at the new speed perfectly together.

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