How to Slow Down a Video in Premiere Pro (2026 Guide)

Part 1. How to Slow Down a Video in Premiere Pro

The simplest method comes first, since it handles most jobs.

Use Speed/Duration to Slow Down the Entire Clip

Select the clip and press Ctrl+R (Cmd+R on a Mac), or right-click it and choose Speed/Duration. Either way, a small box pops up with the speed sitting at 100%.

Enter a smaller number and click OK. 50% is a good middle ground: slow enough to notice, but still natural. 25% feels far more dramatic, though the footage has to work harder to hold up. Watch the clip back before moving on.

Two checkboxes in that dialog are worth a look. Ripple Edit, Shifting Trailing Clips moves everything after the clip so nothing overlaps. Maintaining Audio Pitch stops voices from sounding low and muddy once the audio slows.

Slow Down a Specific Part of a Video Clip

Often only one moment needs slow motion. Press C for the Razor tool and cut the clip at the start and end of that moment. You'll end up with three pieces. Select the middle one, open Speed/Duration, and lower its speed. The other two stay at normal speed.

It's quick and easy to follow, but the cuts are hard. The speed jumps the instant the slow section begins. If that feels jarring, Time Remapping (Part 3) handles it better.

Use the Rate Stretch Tool for Quick Speed Changes

The Rate Stretch tool is the fastest option when you don't want to open a dialog. Press R, grab the edge of a clip on the timeline, and drag it longer. Premiere lowers the speed to fit the new length. Drag it shorter and the clip speeds up.

It works well when a clip needs to fill a gap. You're setting the duration instead of typing a percentage, so it's less exact, but it's very quick.

Part 2. How to Create Smooth Slow Motion in Premiere Pro

Slowing a clip is easy. Keeping it smooth is where the real work starts.

Choose the Right Time Interpolation Method

Premiere offers three ways to fill in the frames it doesn't have. You'll find them in the Speed/Duration dialog, or by right-clicking the clip and choosing Time Interpolation.

• Frame Sampling repeats existing frames. It's fast, and it's the one most likely to look jerky.
• Frame Blending melts neighboring frames into each other. Motion looks softer, but quick movement can smear into a ghost trail.
• Optical Flow tracks how pixels travel from one frame to the next and creates new frames from that. It often looks the smoothest, but rendering takes longer.

For a big slowdown, Optical Flow is normally the best place to start.

Match the Slow-Motion Speed to Your Source Frame Rate

Your footage sets the limit. Shoot at 60 fps and you're capturing twice as many frames every second as you would at 30. That means a 50% slowdown on a 30 fps timeline still runs on real frames the whole way through. At 120 fps or higher, you've got even more room to work with.

Footage at 24 or 30 fps has far less to work with. Slowing it to 50% works fine. Going to 25% or lower forces Premiere to invent most of what you see.

Why Slow Motion Looks Choppy in Premiere Pro

Slowing a clip doesn't add frames. It only stretches the ones already there. Say you slow 30 fps footage to 25%. To play smoothly, the clip would need four times more frames than it actually has.

So Premiere has to fill the gaps somehow. It might copy frames, blend them, or estimate new ones, and every option can lead to stutter, ghosting, or warped edges. That's not a bug. The software is guessing at frames that were never recorded.

Part 3. How to Slow Down Part of a Video With Time Remapping

If you want the speed to change inside a single clip without cutting it, Time Remapping is the tool.

Enable Time Remapping and Add Speed Keyframes

Make the video track taller so you can see the clip clearly. Right-click the small fx badge on the clip, choose Time Remapping, then Speed. A thin line appears across the clip. That's the speed control.

Hold Ctrl (Cmd on a Mac) and click the line where you want the slow motion to start. Click again where it should stop. Pull the line down between those two points. That section slows down while everything else plays at normal speed.

Create a Smooth Transition Into Slow Motion

By default, the speed changes right at the keyframe, which looks abrupt. Each speed keyframe is actually split into two halves. Drag those halves apart to open up a ramp. Now the clip eases from normal speed into slow motion instead of snapping into it.

The small handle in the middle of the ramp lets you reshape the curve. Drag it to make the slowdown gentle or sharp, then adjust until the motion looks right.

When to Use Time Remapping Instead of Speed/Duration

Use Speed/Duration when the whole clip needs the same speed. It's faster and more precise. Use Time Remapping when the speed should shift within a clip or ramp up and down. A jump, a punch, a splash, a swing: those are Time Remapping jobs.

Part 4. How to Make a Low-FPS Video Smoother in Slow Motion

Now for the limit behind most slow-motion complaints.

Why 24fps or 30fps Footage Can Stutter When Slowed Down

A low-frame-rate clip has fewer motion samples. Each second only records 24 or 30 moments, so there's a gap between one position and the next. Slow the clip down and those gaps get stretched out, and movement starts to look like a series of jumps. Turning on interpolation helps, but it can't put back what the camera never recorded.

Use Optical Flow for Better Motion Estimation

Optical Flow does help. On a simple shot, like a person walking across a clean background, it can make 50% slow motion look surprisingly smooth.

It struggles when things get busy. Overlapping subjects, fast action, waving hair, water, or a moving person in front of a detailed background can all produce warping, smearing, or wobbly edges. Check the result closely before you export.

Generate New Frames With AI When More Smoothness Is Needed

AI frame interpolation takes a different approach. Instead of repeating frames or estimating motion with a fixed method, an AI model studies neighboring frames and generates new ones in between. That raises the number of frames in the clip, so slow motion has more real-looking material to play with.

Part 5. Pro Tip: Create Smoother Slow Motion With HitPaw VikPea

HitPaw VikPea doesn't replace Premiere Pro. Think of it as a fix for one specific problem: footage that doesn't have enough frames for the slowdown you want.

Generate Intermediate Frames With AI

VikPea's Frame Interpolation Model creates new frames between the existing ones, so ordinary footage can be turned into smoother 2x or 4x slow motion. It's most useful on clips where slowing things in Premiere Pro causes visible stutter:

• Sports footage
• Action shots
• Handheld clips
• Any video where a big speed reduction looks choppy

How to Create AI Slow Motion Video With HitPaw VikPea AI Frame Interpolation

Step 1. Open HitPaw VikPea

Launch HitPaw VikPea on your computer and open the main interface. From the left-side panel, select AI Toolbox, then choose Video Frame Interpolation to access the slow-motion tools.

Step 2. Import Your Video

Click the import option and select the video you want to slow down. You can use footage from smartphones, cameras, sports recordings, travel videos, dance clips, gameplay, and other sources.

Step 3. Select the Slow Motion Model

After importing your video, select the Slow Motion Model. This model uses AI frame interpolation to analyze the original frames and create additional frames for smoother movement during slow playback.

Step 4. Choose the Slow Motion Speed

Choose the slow-motion level that matches your project. VikPea supports 2x and 4x slow motion. Use 2x for a moderate slowdown or 4x when you want a more noticeable slow-motion effect.

Step 5. Adjust Output Settings

Configure the output settings based on your needs. You can adjust the resolution, FPS, format, and output path in the basic settings. Advanced options may also let you adjust settings such as bitrate, video encoding, crop, and color space.

Step 6. Preview the Result

Use the Preview option to check the processed video before exporting. Watch moving subjects carefully and check the motion smoothness, details, and any unwanted artifacts created during frame interpolation.

Step 7. Export the Slow Motion Video

Once you are satisfied with the result, select your preferred output settings and click Export. VikPea will process the footage and save the finished slow-motion video to your selected output location.

Premiere Pro vs. VikPea for Slow Motion

The two tools work well together. Premiere Pro handles editing, timing, and creative speed changes. VikPea steps in when the clip needs extra generated frames to look smooth.

FAQs About Slowing Down Video in Premiere Pro

Conclusion

Speed/Duration is the quickest way to slow a whole clip, and Rate Stretch does the same job by dragging on the timeline. Time Remapping is the better pick when only one section needs slowing or you want a smooth ramp in. Optical Flow helps with motion estimation when the footage needs it, and VikPea Frame Interpolation makes sense when the clip runs out of frames and heavy slow motion turns choppy. Which one to use comes down to your source frame rate and how far you want to slow things down.

Slow motion still choppy?

Run the clip through HitPaw VikPea, pick 2x or 4x Frame Interpolation, and compare the result with what Resolve gave you.