Video Speed Controller
Free MES Video Speed Controller browser extension for Chrome, Brave and Edge: speed up or slow down any HTML5 video from 0.1x to 16x with keyboard shortcuts or an on-video control. Private, no tracking, with install steps.
Play any video faster or slower
A free browser extension by MES for Chrome, Brave, Edge and other Chromium browsers. Speed up lectures and slow down tutorials on YouTube, Rumble, Odysee, 3Speak, course sites and almost any other page with an HTML5 video, from 0.1x to 16x, using keyboard shortcuts or a small control on the video.
Private by design: no accounts, no tracking, no network requests. It only changes the speed of the video you are watching. The code is plain JavaScript you can read.
Install it (about a minute)
- Download the zip above and unzip it. You get a folder called
mes-video-speed-controller. Keep it somewhere permanent (Documents is fine): the browser reads the extension from that folder. - Open the extensions page:
chrome://extensionsin Chrome,brave://extensionsin Brave,edge://extensionsin Edge. - Turn on Developer mode (a switch at the top right, or on the left in Edge).
- Click Load unpacked and choose the unzipped
mes-video-speed-controllerfolder. - Click the puzzle-piece icon in the toolbar and pin MES Video Speed Controller so its icon is always visible.
Chrome may show a "disable developer mode extensions" notice when it starts: choose Cancel / Keep. Brave and Edge usually do not. Until the extension is listed in the Chrome Web Store, updates are manual: download the new zip, replace the folder and press the reload arrow on the extensions page. Firefox is not supported yet.
Keyboard shortcuts (the Default setup)
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| D | Faster by 0.1x |
| S | Slower by 0.1x |
| R | Back to normal (1.0x). Press again to return to the speed you had. |
| G | Jump to your preferred speed (1.8x to start with) and back |
| Z / X | Rewind / advance 10 seconds |
| M / J | Set a marker at the current time / jump back to it |
| V | Show or hide the on-video control |
Every key and every amount can be changed in the extension's settings, and you can keep several setups (below). The shortcuts act on the video you last played or moved the mouse over. If a video is inside another frame (some embedded players), click it once so the keys reach it.
What you get
- Setups. Save different sets of shortcuts and preferences for different people or purposes (lectures, music, a fast review mode), switch between them in the settings or the toolbar popup, pin one to a site, and export or import them as text. It ships with two: Default and MES's setup ([ and ] change the speed by 0.05, Y resets, P jumps to 2x, Z / X move 1 second, and the site keeps the keys it uses).
- On-video control. A small pill on the top-left of the video with minus, the current speed and plus. It appears when you move the mouse over the video and fades away (or stays, or hides: your choice).
- Press and hold for fast. Hold the speed label on the video for a temporary 2x, drag left or right to change it (0.1x steps up to 4x, then whole steps up to 10x), let go to get your speed back. The same gesture as the MES 3Speak players.
- Remembers your speed on all sites, per site, or not at all, including when a site loads the next video.
- Works everywhere HTML5 video does, including full screen and videos inside shadow DOM, and optionally audio players (podcasts).
- Popup with presets (0.5x to 3x), a slider, a setup switcher and a one-click switch to turn it off on a site.
- Keep my speed option for sites that keep resetting it, an option to also control audio players, and exclusive keys that stop a website from also reacting to your shortcuts.
Privacy and permissions
The extension never sends anything anywhere. Your settings and last speed are stored in your browser only (storage). It asks to run on all websites because it has to look for a video on whatever page you open, and the browser words that as "read and change your data on all websites": it does not read page content, only finds video and audio players and sets their speed. activeTab lets the toolbar popup know which site you are on, for the "turn off on this site" switch.
Prefer another one? The third-party Video Speed Controller from the Chrome Web Store does much the same.
Questions
- Why is the key not working on some page?
- The shortcuts are ignored while you are typing in a text box. On pages with several frames, click the video once. If a site already uses the same key, change it in the settings (the extension takes the key first when a video is on the page).
- Why does a site keep going back to 1.0x?
- Some players reset the speed on every video. Remember speed is on by default, and the "put my speed back" option in the settings forces it.
- Does it work on Netflix, Disney+ and other streaming sites?
- It works on most of them, but a few services restrict the speed or fight it. Turn it off for that site in the popup if it gets in the way.
- Can I use it on my phone?
- Mobile Chrome does not support extensions. Firefox for Android and some Chromium-based mobile browsers do, but this version is built and tested for desktop Chromium browsers.
- Is it open source?
- The whole extension is plain, readable JavaScript served from this site: content.js, shared.js, manifest.json.
More free add-ons are listed on Browser Extensions. Reading instead of watching? Try the Speed Reader and Read Aloud.