There might come a time when you need to speed up or slow down a YouTube video’s playback. For example, if it’s an instructional video, you might need to slow it down to follow the steps shown in the video. The following section provides steps on how to change the speed of a YouTube video.

Changing video playback speed

  • Click the video where you need to change the speed.

  • In the lower-right corner of the video screen, above the comments, click the Settings icon (the gear icon indicated by the red arrow in the picture).

  • Click Playback speed. The speeds to choose from are: The numbers showing above Normal (0.25, 0.5, & 0.75) slow down the video. The numbers showing below Normal (1.25, 1.5, 1.75, & 2) speed up the video.

  • 0.25 (one quarter speed)

  • 0.5 (half speed)

  • 0.75 (three quarter speed)

  • Normal

  • 1.25 (one and a quarter speed)

  • 1.5 (one and a half speed)

  • 1.75 (one and three quarter speed)

  • 2 (twice the speed)

  • 0.25 (one quarter speed)

  • 0.5 (half speed)

  • 0.75 (three quarter speed)

  • Normal

  • 1.25 (one and a quarter speed)

  • 1.5 (one and a half speed)

  • 1.75 (one and three quarter speed)

  • 2 (twice the speed)

  • Once you’ve finished viewing the video, you need to change the playback speed back to Normal. Otherwise, any video you play going forward runs at the same speed as applied here.

While playing a YouTube video, you can fast forward by pressing the right arrow key and rewind by pressing the left arrow key. To fast forward and rewind on mobile devices, tap the left or right side of the video. For all YouTube keyboard shortcuts, see our YouTube keyboard shortcuts page.

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