Reverse Video Online - Free
Play a clip backwards, picture and sound, and download it as an MP4.
- Free to start
- Nothing to install
- Up to 1GB
Reverse Video in 3 steps
Upload your video
Drag and drop a video file, or click to browse. Anything under 1GB.
Choose the sound
Keep the sound, which is reversed along with the picture, or switch it off for a silent rewind.
Reverse & download
Sign up free to download the reversed video.
Why a video cannot simply be played from the end
A video file is written to be read forwards. Only an occasional frame, the keyframe, is a complete picture; every frame after it stores what changed since the one before. To show the last frame, a player first has to rebuild all the frames leading up to it, which is why dragging a player backwards stutters instead of playing smoothly.
So a reversed video is a new file. REQO rebuilds every frame of your clip on its own servers, writes them out in the opposite order and turns the sound round by the same amount, so the picture and the sound still meet where they did. Nothing happens in your browser tab, and the file on your device is not changed.
Because every frame is rebuilt, a long clip takes noticeably longer to come back than a short one. The panel shows the result as soon as it is ready.
Shots that are worth reversing
Reversal only reads as a trick when the forward motion could never happen backwards. Something falling, pouring, breaking or splashing is the classic case, because everybody knows which way gravity runs. A person walking is the weak case: backwards, it mostly looks like somebody walking oddly.
Keep the camera still if you can. A locked-off shot makes the impossible movement the only thing that changes, and a clip of two to five seconds is usually enough to land it.
Pouring a drink
Jumping into a pool
Dropping or breaking something
Tearing paper or wiping a board
Throwing a ball away
| Filmed forwards | Backwards it becomes |
|---|---|
| Pouring a drink | The drink climbs back into the bottle |
| Jumping into a pool | A leap out of the water, landing dry |
| Dropping or breaking something | The pieces gather and rise into your hand |
| Tearing paper or wiping a board | The page mends, the writing appears |
| Throwing a ball away | A catch that comes from nowhere |
What to do with backwards sound
Reversed speech is not words any more, and most music loses its beat: every note swells up to its start instead of fading away from it. That eerie swell is sometimes exactly the effect you want, on a cymbal or a held note for example.
When it is not, choose Off in the panel and the rewind exports silent. A silent clip can then take a soundtrack of its own in the add music tool, which lays a track under the reversed picture.
Questions about reverse video
Does the sound play backwards too?
Yes, unless you switch it off. The sound is reversed together with the picture, so the two stay in step from the last frame to the first. Speech turns into nonsense when it runs backwards, so the panel has a Sound choice: Backwards keeps it, Off gives you the picture alone.
Is the reversed video the same length and quality?
The same length and the same shape: a vertical clip stays vertical. The picture is re-encoded at a high quality target, at the size it arrived, up to 1080p and 30 frames a second on the free plan.
Can I reverse only part of a video?
This tool reverses the whole clip. To reverse one moment, cut it out first with the trim tool, then reverse that file.
How do I make a boomerang?
Reverse the clip here and download it. Then open the merge tool and add the original followed by the reversed copy: the action runs forwards, then straight back to where it began. Run that through the loop tool if you want it to repeat.
What formats can I reverse?
MP4, MOV and WebM, with or without sound, landscape or vertical. The reversed video downloads as an MP4.
Is it free?
Yes. Reverse a video and preview free, and a free account downloads the result. Free exports and share pages include a small REQO badge. Go Pro to remove it.
Keep exploring
Everything else you can do here.
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Need to do more than reverse video?
REQO is a full browser video editor: record, edit by transcript, and export.