In this tutorial, we will show you how to change the playback speed of YouTube videos so you can speed up or slow down the clip to a pace that’s suitable to you. The steps here apply to iPhone, iPad, Android phone, and computer browsers.
When I watch a short informative YouTube video, I tend to watch it at the normal 1x speed. However, when I’m listening to podcasts, I tend to up the speed to 1.25x or 1.5x. Sometimes, when I’m in a hurry, or they talk very slowly, I even go all the way to 2x.
On the other hand, there are times when I slow down the YouTube video because I have difficulty making out what the person says and captions are unavailable or incorrect.
Note that you cannot change the speed of YouTube Shorts videos, but only regular videos (even if they are in vertical orientation).
Adjust video playback speed on YouTube
You can change the speed in the mobile app as well as the website. The steps are almost identical for other platforms like Apple TV and Smart TVs.
In the app
- Open the YouTube app on your iOS or Android phone and play a video.
- Tap the gear icon from the top of the video player.
- Select Playback speed.
- Choose from 0.25x (slowest), 0.5x (slower), 0.75x (slow), 1x (normal), 1.25x (fast), 1.50x (faster), 1.75x (even faster), or 2x (fastest).
I think it’s implied that when you play a 10-minute video at 2x speed, it will only take you 5 minutes to finish watching the clip.
Pro tip: You can simply touch and hold anywhere on the YouTube video player, and the video will start playing at 2x speed for as long as you don’t lift your finger. This is super helpful if you want to quickly go through boring or repetitive parts of a video clip without fast-forwarding or changing the entire clip’s playback speed. I love it and use it very frequently.
On website
- Visit YouTube.com and start playing a video.
- Click the gear icon and select Playback speed.
- Pick from 0.25x, 0.5x, 0.75x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.50x, 1.75x, or 2x.
- Unlike the mobile app, you can also click the Custom option and pick a precise playback speed like 1.15x or 1.45x. The slider here jumps in multiples of 0.05x.
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