Guide
Rotate a video online: 90° right, 90° left, 180° or a mirror flip
Drop a video above, pick a turn or a flip, and check the preview before you press Rotate. The picture itself is turned, so the video is upright in every app.
In short
- This free tool rotates a video 90° right, 90° left or 180°, and can mirror it or flip it upside down.
- The preview shows the result before anything runs.
- The picture itself is turned, so the video plays upright in every app, not only on your phone.
- The video is re-encoded once, and the loss in quality is hard to see.
- Your video is never uploaded, and you need no account.
Rotate video
Runs in your browser · files never leave this page
Drop a video here
or
Turn
Flip
A quarter turn swaps the width and the height: 1920×1080 becomes 1080×1920.
Your file never leaves this page. The engine downloads once, the work happens in this tab, and there is no upload, no account and no storage. Close the tab and the file is gone unless you downloaded the result.
More free tools: Video compressor · Video resizer · Video to MP4 · Video to MP3 · Video clipper · Video stitcher · Video to GIF · Video speed changer · Mute video · all tools
- What a 1920×1080 video becomes after a quarter turn
- 1080×1920
- Options: 90° right, 90° left, 180°, mirror and vertical flip
- 5
- The video engine your browser downloads once per visit
- 32 MB
How to rotate a video online
Drop your video in the box above and pick a turn: 90° right, 90° left or 180°. You can also pick a flip. Mirror swaps left and right, and Vertical swaps top and bottom.
The preview turns on screen as you choose, so you can check the result before anything runs. Then press Rotate and download the new file, which is an MP4.
- You can pick one turn and one flip together. The turn runs first, the same way the preview shows it.
- 180° plus Mirror gives the same picture as a vertical flip, so the tool does it in one step.
The five options
| Option | What it does | Pick it when |
|---|---|---|
| 90° right | Turns the picture clockwise | The top of the picture points left |
| 90° left | Turns the picture counter-clockwise | The top of the picture points right |
| 180° | Half a turn | The picture is upside down |
| Mirror | Swaps left and right | Text in a selfie video reads backwards |
| Vertical | Swaps top and bottom | The picture is upside down and mirrored |
Option: 90° right
- What it does
- Turns the picture clockwise
- Pick it when
- The top of the picture points left
Option: 90° left
- What it does
- Turns the picture counter-clockwise
- Pick it when
- The top of the picture points right
Option: 180°
- What it does
- Half a turn
- Pick it when
- The picture is upside down
Option: Mirror
- What it does
- Swaps left and right
- Pick it when
- Text in a selfie video reads backwards
Option: Vertical
- What it does
- Swaps top and bottom
- Pick it when
- The picture is upside down and mirrored
Why a video plays sideways
Most phones store the picture one way and add a note to the file: turn this 90 degrees when playing. Most players read the note, but some players and apps do not.
That is why one video can be upright on your phone and sideways after you send it. A phone that was tilted when recording started causes the same problem everywhere.
- Some older desktop players, upload tools and editing programs ignore the note.
- If the phone was tilted when recording started, the note itself is wrong, and every player follows it.
- Both problems have the same fix, which is to turn the picture itself.
Why it is sideways, and the fix
| Cause | What you see | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| A player ignores the rotation note | Upright on your phone, sideways elsewhere | Turn the picture here |
| The phone was tilted when recording started | Sideways everywhere | Turn the picture here |
Cause: A player ignores the rotation note
- What you see
- Upright on your phone, sideways elsewhere
- Fix
- Turn the picture here
Cause: The phone was tilted when recording started
- What you see
- Sideways everywhere
- Fix
- Turn the picture here
This is the whole editor
Highlight a phrase and a clip lands on those exact words. No timeline, no keyframes, no layers.
Why this tool turns the picture itself
Some tools only rewrite the rotation note. That takes no time and changes nothing in the picture, so a player that ignores the note still shows the video sideways.
This tool applies any note the file already has, turns every frame and writes a new file with no note at all. What you see is what is stored. The cost is one re-encode.
- A quarter turn swaps the width and the height, so 1920×1080 becomes 1080×1920.
- The sound is not changed. An AAC sound track is copied as it is.
- The new file has no rotation note, so every player shows it the same way.
Rewriting the note or turning the picture
This tool does the right-hand column.
Time
- Rewrite the note
- Instant
- Turn the picture
- About as long as the video plays
Quality
- Rewrite the note
- Unchanged
- Turn the picture
- Re-encoded once, the loss is hard to see
Players that ignore the note
- Rewrite the note
- Still sideways
- Turn the picture
- Upright
Stored picture after a quarter turn
- Rewrite the note
- Still 1920×1080
- Turn the picture
- 1080×1920
| Rewrite the note | Turn the picture | |
|---|---|---|
| Time | Instant | About as long as the video plays |
| Quality | Unchanged | Re-encoded once, the loss is hard to see |
| Players that ignore the note | Still sideways | Upright |
| Stored picture after a quarter turn | Still 1920×1080 | 1080×1920 |
Should you rotate or resize the video?
A quarter turn makes a wide video vertical only if it was filmed sideways. If the people in it are already upright and the frame is wide, rotating puts everyone on their side.
What you need then is a crop or black bars, which our free video resizer adds. If a clip was filmed sideways and is also too wide, rotate it here first and resize it second.
Rotate or resize
Your video
- Rotate here
- Filmed sideways
- Resize instead
- Upright, but wide
What changes
- Rotate here
- The picture turns 90° or 180°
- Resize instead
- The frame is cropped or gets bars
Result
- Rotate here
- People stand upright
- Resize instead
- Fits a 9:16 phone screen
| Rotate here | Resize instead | |
|---|---|---|
| Your video | Filmed sideways | Upright, but wide |
| What changes | The picture turns 90° or 180° | The frame is cropped or gets bars |
| Result | People stand upright | Fits a 9:16 phone screen |
Nothing is uploaded, and the limits
The tool runs ffmpeg, a free video program, inside your browser. It downloads once, about 32 MB, and then opens your video in this tab. Nothing is sent to a server or stored.
Turning the picture means every frame is decoded and encoded again. That takes about as long as the video plays on a laptop, and longer on a phone. Keep the tab open while it runs.
- The tool warns above 500 MB. If the tab runs out of memory, cut the part you need with our free video trimmer first, then rotate the short clip.
- The new file is always an MP4 with H.264 video, which every player opens.
The limits at a glance
| Item | Limit |
|---|---|
| Engine download | About 32 MB, once per visit |
| Size warning | Above 500 MB |
| Time | About as long as the video plays, on a laptop |
| File you get | MP4, H.264 |
Item: Engine download
- Limit
- About 32 MB, once per visit
Item: Size warning
- Limit
- Above 500 MB
Item: Time
- Limit
- About as long as the video plays, on a laptop
Item: File you get
- Limit
- MP4, H.264
From an upright clip to a finished video
Holding the phone upright while you film prevents a sideways video before it starts. For a vertical feed, upright is also the shape that fills the whole screen.
Cutroom is made for clips like that. Film one clip of up to three minutes with the phone upright and upload it. It comes back as a finished 9:16 video in about a minute.
- Cutroom cuts the pauses, adds captions timed to your voice, adds b-roll and writes an opening headline.
- Your first video is free, with no card, and you have seven days to make it.
- The free video carries a Cutroom mark. Lite at $19.99 a month removes it.
- The rotate tool above stays free either way.
An upright clip, finished
Filmed upright on a phone, it fills the screen with nothing cropped away.
▸ 0:07 / 0:26 · shot 1 of 5
Questions people ask
- How do I rotate a video that is sideways?
- Drop it in the box above. Pick 90° right if the top of the picture points left, or 90° left if it points right. Check the preview, then press Rotate and download the new file.
- Does rotating a video lose quality?
- A little, once. Turning the picture means it is re-encoded, and the loss is hard to see. A tool that only rewrites the rotation note loses nothing, but it also fixes nothing in a player that ignores the note.
- Why is my video sideways on one device and upright on another?
- Because the file stores the picture one way plus a note that says to turn it, and not every player reads the note. Rotating here turns the picture itself and writes a file with no note, so both devices show the same thing.
- Is my video uploaded to be rotated?
- No. The tool runs in this tab after a one-time download of about 32 MB. The preview is your browser's own player with the turn shown on screen. Nothing is sent and nothing is stored.
- How do I fix a mirrored selfie video?
- Pick Mirror. It swaps left and right, so text on your shirt or on a sign reads the right way again. Check the preview, then press Rotate. You can combine it with a turn in the same run.
- Will rotating a landscape video make it fill a vertical screen?
- Only if it was filmed sideways. If the picture is already upright, a quarter turn puts everyone on their side. To fit an upright landscape video into a vertical feed, crop it or add bars with our free video resizer instead, which also runs in your browser.
- Who should not use this online video rotator?
- Anyone with a file over about 500 MB, because a browser tab may run out of memory re-encoding it. Cut it first or use a desktop editor. And if a video of you talking was filmed sideways by mistake, filming it again upright for Cutroom is often quicker.
Rotate your video above, or film upright and let Cutroom finish the video. Your first video is free.