Rotate Video
- Free
- No upload
- No watermark
Quick answer
To rotate a video, you turn the picture 90°, 180° or 270° to fix footage shot sideways or upside down — the classic phone-held-wrong problem. This tool does it in your browser with ffmpeg.wasm and uploads nothing. It re-encodes the frames, so the picture is physically upright in every player, editor and upload — not only in the apps that read a rotation flag. A one-time ~10 MB engine loads on first use; short clips work best.
Step by step
How to rotate video
- 01
Load your video
Drop the sideways clip in. On first use the ~10 MB engine downloads and caches; afterwards it is instant.
- 02
Choose the rotation
Pick 90° clockwise, 90° anticlockwise (270°) or 180° to turn the frame the right way up.
- 03
Rotate and download
Export the corrected video. Every frame is re-encoded upright, which takes a while on longer clips because the engine runs on a single thread in your browser.
In depth
Why does phone footage come out sideways?
Phones record the sensor in a fixed orientation and store a rotation flag in the file telling the player how to turn it. Modern apps read that flag and rotate on playback, so the clip looks right. But older players, some editors and many web pipelines ignore the flag — so the exact same file that looks upright on your phone shows up on its side on a laptop. Rotating the video bakes the correction in so it no longer depends on any player reading the flag.
Why re-encode instead of changing the rotation flag?
There are two ways to rotate a video, and they behave very differently. This tool re-encodes, because that is the only way that reaches the players and sites that ignore the flag:
| Metadata rotation | Re-encode | |
|---|---|---|
| How it works | Changes the rotation flag only | Actually turns every pixel |
| Speed | Instant | Slow (single-threaded here) |
| Quality | Untouched | Slight encode loss |
| Plays upright everywhere? | Only where the flag is read | Yes, in every player |
A flag-only change helps exactly the players that already read the flag — which is why the clip looked fine on your phone in the first place. For everywhere else — importing into an editor, uploading to a platform, handing it to someone — the picture has to be genuinely upright, and that is what a re-encode delivers.
Which direction do you need?
- 90° clockwise — for a clip lying on its left side (top of the scene points left).
- 90° anticlockwise (270°) — for a clip lying on its right side.
- 180° — for upside-down footage, common with some mounts and gimbals.
If you are not sure, try one on a short clip and play the result — the wrong direction is obvious immediately, and you can rotate again the other way.
What are the browser limits?
Re-encoding runs at the usual single-threaded WebAssembly pace and is memory-bound on very large inputs, so short clips work best; trim long footage down to the part you need first. The workbench warns you if a file looks too big and always offers cancel.
Is my video uploaded to rotate it?
No. The rotation runs in your browser via ffmpeg.wasm; the file is processed in memory and returned as a download, never uploaded. Confirm it in DevTools → Network — no request is made — and note it works offline once loaded. Your footage stays on your device.
Related video and subtitle tools
Once it is upright, crop it to the right aspect ratio for where it is going, or compress it for upload. Joining several corrected clips? Merge them. And before you publish, add subtitles, converting your caption file first with the subtitle converter if needed.
Your files never leave your device
Processed locally in your browser — nothing is uploaded. You can verify it yourself: open your browser’s developer tools, watch the Network tab, and use the tool — no upload request is ever made.
- No file is ever uploaded to a server
- Works offline after the first visit
- No account, no watermark, no limits
A little more clarity
Frequently asked questions
01How do I fix a video that plays sideways on my computer but not my phone?
Your phone reads the rotation flag and your computer ignores it. Re-encode the rotation so the pixels are physically turned upright — then it plays correctly everywhere, regardless of the flag.
02What is the difference between metadata rotation and re-encoding?
Metadata rotation just changes a flag telling players how to turn the video — instant and lossless, but it only works where the flag is read. Re-encoding actually rotates every pixel, so it plays upright in every player, at the cost of a slower pass with a small encode loss. This tool re-encodes.
03How do I rotate a video 90 degrees?
Choose 90° clockwise or 90° anticlockwise depending on which side the clip is lying on, then export. If you pick the wrong way, just rotate again in the other direction.
04Will rotating reduce the quality?
Re-encoding adds the small loss any encode does. The tool encodes at a high quality setting, so on a normal screen it is usually hard to spot.
05Why does my video still look sideways after rotating?
Most likely it was turned the wrong way: a clip lying on its left side needs 90° clockwise, one lying on its right side needs 90° anticlockwise. Rotate the result again in the other direction (or by 180° if it ended up upside down).
06Can I rotate a large video quickly?
Rotating re-encodes every frame on a single thread in your browser, so large videos take a while and can run out of memory. Short clips work best — trim long footage to the part you need first.
07Is rotation done privately?
Yes. It runs entirely in your browser through ffmpeg.wasm with no upload. Check the Network tab of your developer tools to confirm nothing is sent.
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