Premiere Pro how-to
How to speed up or slow down video in Premiere Pro
Short answer
Select the clip and choose Clip > Speed/Duration (or right-click > Speed/Duration). Type a percentage: 100% is normal, 50% is half speed, 200% is double. Tick Maintain Audio Pitch to avoid chipmunk voices, Ripple Edit to close gaps, and pick Optical Flow under Time Interpolation for the smoothest slow motion. For speed ramps, use Time Remapping.
Checked against: Adobe Premiere (formerly Premiere Pro), 2026 releases, Windows and Mac.
Method 1: Speed/Duration (constant speed)
Select clips
Select one or more clips in the Timeline panel.
Open Speed/Duration
Choose Clip > Speed/Duration from the menu bar, or right-click the clip and choose Speed/Duration.
ClipSpeed/Duration
Set the speed
Enter a percentage in Speed. Lower values slow down, higher speed up. Unlink the chain icon to change duration without changing speed, or the other way round.
Choose options
Reverse Speed plays the clip backwards. Maintain Audio Pitch keeps the voice natural. Ripple Edit shifts trailing clips. Time Interpolation: Frame Sampling (fastest), Frame Blending, or Optical Flow (highest quality for slow motion).
Method 2: Speed ramps
Use Time Remapping
Premiere offers three ways to change speed: Speed/Duration, the Rate Stretch tool, and Time Remapping. Time Remapping changes speed inside a clip with keyframes, which is how speed ramps are made.
Rate Stretch to fit a gap
The Rate Stretch tool changes speed by dragging a clip's edge until it fills the space you need.
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How much slow motion your footage allows
| Recorded at | Played in a 30 fps sequence | Speed for smooth slow motion |
|---|---|---|
| 60 fps | Each recorded frame shown once | 50% |
| 120 fps | Each recorded frame shown once | 25% |
| 240 fps | Each recorded frame shown once | 12.5% |
| 30 fps | Frames must be invented | Use Optical Flow below 100% |
If it doesn't work
| What you see | Fix |
|---|---|
| Slow motion looks choppy | Footage was shot at the sequence frame rate. Use Optical Flow, or shoot at 60 fps or higher. |
| Optical Flow creates warping | Fast crossing objects confuse it; try Frame Blending for that clip. |
| Voice sounds high or low | Tick Maintain Audio Pitch. |
| Gap appears after slowing a clip | Tick Ripple Edit, shifting trailing clips. |
Questions people ask
What is the shortcut for speed in Premiere Pro?
Ctrl-R on Windows or Cmd-R on Mac opens Speed/Duration for the selected clip.
How do I make smooth slow motion in Premiere Pro?
Shoot at 60 fps or higher and slow it to the matching percentage, or choose Optical Flow in Speed/Duration.
Can I reverse a clip in Premiere Pro?
Yes. Tick Reverse Speed in Speed/Duration.
More Premiere Pro guides
Sources and how we checked
- Adobe Help: Change clip speed and duration using the Speed/Duration command (checked 2026-10-05; Adobe blocks automated readers; text read from the Internet Archive copy of 24 Sep 2026)
- Adobe Help: Different ways to change clip speed and duration (checked 2026-10-05; Adobe blocks automated readers; text read from the Internet Archive copy of 21 Sep 2026)
Reviewed October 5, 2026 by the Koldflux team. Each step is compared with Premiere Pro's own documentation (linked above) and with the top search results for this task; where they disagree, the maker's documentation wins. Steps without a source link follow the menu names that several current guides agree on.