How to Speed Up a Video on iPhone, No App Needed

You want a ten-second clip of you cleaning the kitchen to play back in two seconds, or a slow-motion shot to speed back up to normal. You open Photos, tap Edit on the video, and there’s a crop tool and a trim bar but nothing that touches speed.

That’s because Photos genuinely doesn’t do it — the tool for this is iMovie, Apple’s own video editor, and it’s a free download if it’s not already on your phone.

Get the right app open

If you don’t see iMovie’s icon (a starburst on a dark background), it’s a free download from the App Store — no purchase, no subscription. Open it, tap the + to start a new project, choose Movie, and select the video you want to speed up.

Where the speed control actually lives

Tap the clip in the timeline at the bottom — this opens the inspector, a row of tool icons. Tap the Speed button (it looks like a speedometer).

A yellow bar appears under the clip with a handle at each end. Drag the slider in the inspector to the right to speed the clip up, or left to slow it down — iMovie shows you the exact multiplier as you drag (2x is double speed, 1/2x is half).

There’s no need to do any math or guess a percentage; you just watch the number update live.

Speeding up only part of a clip

You don’t have to apply one speed to the whole thing. Drag either yellow range handle to mark out a section, or tap Add in the inspector to split off a new range at the playhead.

Each range gets its own speed, so you could have a clip that plays normally, jumps to 4x through a boring stretch, then drops back to normal — useful for cutting a long process down without losing the parts that matter.

Tap Reset in the inspector if you want to undo all of it and go back to original speed.

The pitch problem nobody warns you about

By default, iMovie keeps the pitch of any audio in the clip the same even as the video speeds up or slows down — so a voice speeding up doesn’t turn into a chipmunk, and slowing down doesn’t turn it into a monster growl.

If you actually want that classic sped-up-audio effect, go to Project Settings and turn on Speed changes pitch. Most people want pitch preserved and never touch this, which is exactly why it’s worth knowing it’s there and off by default.

Exporting when you’re done

Tap Done to leave the timeline, then the share icon, then Save Video to send the finished clip to your camera roll at whatever resolution you shot it in.

If speed isn’t actually the problem

Sometimes what you actually want is a shorter clip, not a faster one — trimming out the parts you don’t need instead of squeezing them. If the file itself is also too big to send once you’re done editing, the same kind of size-reduction trick that works for photos applies conceptually to exporting a smaller video from iMovie’s share menu.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an internet connection to speed up a video in iMovie?

No, all the editing happens on-device. You only need a connection if you’re downloading iMovie itself for the first time or fetching an optional soundtrack.

Can I speed up a video without installing anything?

Not with Apple’s own tools — Photos’ built-in editor doesn’t include a speed control, only trim and crop. iMovie is the free app that adds it.

Will speeding up a video ruin the quality?

No, iMovie doesn’t re-encode at a lower resolution just because you changed speed. Quality loss, if any, comes from the export settings, not the speed change itself.

What’s the fastest speed iMovie allows?

The slider goes well past normal speed on the fast end and well below it on the slow end, letting you dial in anything from a near-freeze to a very fast playback within one clip.

Can I apply different speeds to different parts of the same clip?

Yes, using the range handles or the Add button in the Speed inspector, each marked section can have its own independent speed.

Does changing speed affect the audio pitch?

By default no — iMovie preserves pitch automatically. You can turn that off in Project Settings if you specifically want the pitch to shift with speed.