Reverse a video — play any clip backwards

How to use the video reverser

1. Drop a video onto the box or click to choose one. Short clips work best.
2. Leave Reverse the audio too ticked for backwards sound, or untick it for a silent result.
3. Choose an Output format: MP4 (default), WebM, MOV or MKV.
4. Press Reverse and wait for the progress bar. Use Cancel if it takes too long.
5. Watch the result in the player and download it. Its name ends in -reversed.

What it does and when to use it

Reversing is an old film trick that still works on social media: water flowing back into a glass, a jump that lands on a wall, a mess that tidies itself, or a loop that ends where it began. It also helps with real work, such as checking a sports movement or a machine part from a different angle of time.

Trim the moment you want first with the video trimmer; a three-second reverse is quicker and usually more striking than a minute of footage. To repeat the effect, use the video looper, and to turn the result into a GIF for chat, use video to GIF.

How it works

Video files are stored so they play forwards: most frames only record what changed since an earlier frame. That is why a simple player cannot jump backwards one frame at a time. The reverser works around it in your browser:

1. It reads the clip’s length and frame rate with Mediabunny.
2. Starting at the end, it decodes one second of frames, puts them in reverse order and sends them to the encoder.
3. It steps back one second at a time until it reaches the start.
4. The audio is decoded in full, its samples are flipped end to start, and it is encoded alongside the picture.

Encoding uses your browser’s WebCodecs encoder, preferring H.264 for MP4 and VP9 for WebM, with AAC or Opus audio. The work runs in a background worker and the video stays on your device.

Worked examples

• A 10-second splash clip, audio ticked: the summary reads “Reversed 0:10.00 with reversed audio”. The splash rises back out of the water while the sound plays backwards.
• The same clip, audio unticked: “Reversed 0:10.00 (silent)”, with no audio track.
• A 45-second clip: the result comes with a note that the clip is 0:45.00 long and that reversing long clips is slow and memory-hungry. Trimming first is the fix.

Limits and tips

• Frame rate: the output uses the clip’s average frame rate.
• If your browser has no audio encoder for the chosen format, the result is silent and a note says so. Try WebM.
• AVI, WMV and FLV are not read by this tool; convert first with the video converter.