How to Speed Up a Video or Slow It Down (2026): Clipchamp, Premiere Pro and CapCut

On Windows 11, Clipchamp can speed up or slow down a video: select the clip, open the Speed tab in the property panel, and move the slider anywhere from 0.1x to 16x. If you need different speeds inside one clip, you need a variable-speed method such as Time Remapping in Premiere Pro or Curve in CapCut. This guide follows only the procedures in each tool's official documentation, checked on October 6, 2026. If editing in general is new to you, start with the beginner guide to editing gaming videos; this page covers changing speed and nothing else.

The short answer: even speed or variable speed

If you only need to make a whole clip faster or slower by one factor, the Clipchamp Speed tab or CapCut Standard is enough. If you want one moment in slow motion while the rest plays normally, pick a method that sets speed per section, such as Time Remapping in Premiere Pro or Curve in CapCut. No tool can be called better across the board; choose by the editor you already use and how fine the control needs to be. For a broader look at free editors beyond speed changes, see the free video editor roundup for gaming clips. Per Clipchamp's documentation, raising the speed shortens the clip on the timeline and lowering it lengthens the clip.

Speed change steps by tool (Windows PC)

1. 1Trim the clip down before you change speed — Clipchamp's documentation says raising the speed shortens the clip on the timeline and lowering it lengthens the clip, so the final duration depends on how much footage you start with. Bring in only the scene you need and keep the original file untouched; doing the work inside the editor also makes it easy to undo later. Adobe's pages keep two terms apart that are worth reading carefully: speed is the playback rate relative to the recorded rate, and duration is the playback time from In to Out.
2. 2Open Clipchamp and import the video — On Windows 11, type Clipchamp into the taskbar search box or choose it from Start > All apps. In the editor, use My media > the import media button, or the drop-down arrow > browse files, or drag a file from your device into the import panel. The old Video Editor is no longer included in Windows Photos; Microsoft recommends Clipchamp, and the new Photos app offers Settings > Open Clipchamp. For that reason this guide does not describe changing speed inside Photos.
3. 3Change the speed in the Speed tab — Click the video on the timeline, then click the Speed tab in the property panel. Drag the slider anywhere from 0.1x to 16x, or type a number. A higher value shortens the clip, while a lower value lengthens it and produces slow motion automatically. If the audio is embedded in the video asset, the change applies to both; if the audio sits apart from the video, select the audio clip and adjust it the same way. To undo, set the slider back to 1x, use the undo button, or delete the clip and drag the original asset from the media library onto the timeline again.
4. 4Export from Clipchamp — Select the Export button at the top right of the editor and pick an option; the documentation lists 480p, 720p, 1080p, 4K UHD, GIF (15 seconds or shorter) and audio-only M4A. The finished file usually lands in your Downloads folder. When a premium feature has been used, a diamond icon appears next to the export options. Resolution limits are not covered in this guide, so read Microsoft's article on exporting and saving a video in Clipchamp before relying on a specific option (checked October 6, 2026).
5. 5Premiere Pro: type an exact value with Speed/Duration — Select one or more clips in the Timeline panel, then choose Clip > Speed/Duration from the menu bar, or right-click the clip and pick it there. In the Clip speed/duration dialog, enter a percentage in the Speed field, where 100% is normal speed, lower is slower and higher is faster. Reverse speed plays the clip backward, Maintain audio pitch keeps the original pitch, and Ripple Edit (shift trailing clips) repositions the clips that follow. Switching the link icon to the broken state lets speed and duration change independently. Click OK and play it back in the Program Monitor. Adobe's page was last updated on January 7, 2026.
6. 6Premiere Pro: drag a clip edge with the Rate Stretch Tool — Pick the Rate Stretch Tool in the Tools panel (shortcut R) and drag a clip edge on the timeline. Dragging outward slows the clip and makes it longer; dragging inward speeds it up and makes it shorter. A tooltip shows the speed as a percentage of the original while you drag. The documentation notes that the audio portion remains unchanged, and it points to the Clip speed/duration dialog when you need more options.
7. 7Premiere Pro: vary speed inside one clip with Time Remapping — Right-click the clip and choose Show Clip Keyframes > Time Remapping > Speed, and a white rubber band appears across the clip. Drag it up to go faster or down to go slower while a tooltip shows the percentage. On Windows, Ctrl-click the rubber band to add speed keyframes, then drag between keyframes to set each section. Select a keyframe to use the Bezier handles for a smoother transition, and press Delete to remove it. Adobe adds that clips with extreme speed changes may need more processing power to play back, so use proxies or a lower-resolution preview.
8. 8CapCut desktop: choose Standard or Curve — Import the video into CapCut on your PC, place it on the timeline, select the clip and choose Speed. Standard uses one slider for the whole clip, Curve gives variable speed ramps, and Export finishes the job. CapCut's guide gives multiples such as 1.25x, 1.5x and 2x as examples and says the range runs from 0.1x (super slow motion) to 100x (extreme fast forward), which is the guide's own wording, so confirm the current range in the app. The Curve tab lists Montage, Hero, Bullet, Jump Cut, Flash in, Flash out and Custom. For slow motion, lower the slider below 1x and optionally use Smooth slo-mo; split the scene first if only one section should slow down.

Method comparison (official documentation, checked October 6, 2026)

Common mistakes to check before exporting

• Play the sound back. In Clipchamp, embedded audio changes together with the video while separate audio must be adjusted on its own. CapCut says a speed change affects the audio too, and distorted sound may mean separating and replacing it.
• Clipchamp's documentation does not say what happens to pitch when speed changes, so listen and judge for yourself. Premiere Pro has a separate Maintain audio pitch option.
• If slow motion looks choppy in Premiere Pro, try another Time Interpolation setting. Frame Sampling (fastest) repeats or drops frames, Frame Blending mixes neighboring frames, and Optical Flow analyzes motion to build new frames and is described as the highest quality for slow motion. Optical Flow can only be applied in the timeline or the Export Settings dialog, not in the Project panel.
• Decide whether Ripple Edit (shift trailing clips) should be on. Changing speed changes clip length, so the option decides whether the clips that follow are repositioned automatically.
• If a clip with extreme speed changes stutters during playback, follow Adobe's advice and use proxies or a lower-resolution preview.
• Slowing low-frame-rate footage too much can look choppy, so lower the speed gradually as CapCut's guide suggests. Keep one way back in mind: return to 1x, undo, or drag the original asset in again.

Before the speed change: recording and trimming with DOR

Whatever speed you pick, the raw material is still your recording. DOR is a Windows desktop app for recording games: it detects supported games automatically and saves full matches as mp4, and in seven games, including VALORANT and League of Legends, it also creates highlight clips such as kills automatically. When you record on an NVIDIA graphics card, DOR encodes with NVENC and captures game sound and microphone together, so you can listen first to see which audio a speed change will touch. In the app library, Trim Section lets you set a start and an end and choose a 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1 output ratio, so you can keep only the scene you need, and the process is laid out in how to trim game clips. DOR Studio runs in the browser with no installation and handles length adjustment, joining several videos, text, background music and volume, then offers an mp4 download or a share link. The speed steps in this article come from the Clipchamp, Premiere Pro and CapCut documentation, and the DOR part is limited to the recording and trimming stage before them.

Official documentation (checked October 6, 2026)

The procedures and menu names above follow the official pages opened on October 6, 2026. Clipchamp's speed guide covers the Speed tab and the 0.1x to 16x range, Adobe's Speed/Duration page covers the dialog options, and CapCut's speed guide covers Standard and Curve. The Rate Stretch, Time Remapping, Time Interpolation, Clipchamp export and Photos app changes pages were also checked the same day, and menu names may change with app updates. CapCut's speed range follows the resource page linked above, while the Curve preset names and the slow-motion tips follow CapCut's official Speed Curve tool page and slow-motion guide, so verify them in the app.