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Premiere Pro keyboard shortcuts

54 shortcuts, grouped into 8 colour-coded categories and searchable below. Every entry says what the shortcut actually does, not just what it's called in the menu.

54 shortcuts

Playback

4 shortcuts

J, K and L. The three keys that get your hand off the mouse.

J

Play Reverse

Play in reverse. Press J multiple times to increase reverse speed. Hold K and tap J to step one frame back.

K

Stop

Stop playback. Hold K while pressing J or L for frame-by-frame stepping or slow-motion playback in either direction.

L

Play Forward

Play forward. Press L multiple times to increase speed. Hold K and tap L to step one frame forward.

Space

Play / Pause

Toggle play and pause. Works in both the Source Monitor and the Program Monitor / timeline.

Editing

10 shortcuts

Trimming, snapping, match frame and audio gain. Q and W — ripple trim to the previous and next edit — are the two keys most editors arriving from other software never discover.

Q

Trim Prev Edit

Ripple trim the previous edit point to the current playhead — trims the tail of the outgoing clip and closes the gap.

W

Trim Next Edit

Ripple trim the next edit point to the current playhead — trims the head of the incoming clip and closes the gap.

E

Extend Edit

Extend the selected edit point to the playhead (rolling edit). Trims one side and extends the other without shifting downstream clips.

[

Clip Vol -

Decrease the selected clip's audio volume by 1dB. Hold Shift for larger increments. Audio gain adjusts the clip's level without using mixer faders.

]

Clip Vol +

Increase the selected clip's audio volume by 1dB. Hold Shift for larger increments. Audio gain adjusts the clip's level without using mixer faders.

A

Track Select

Track Select Forward tool — click a clip to select it and all clips after it on the same track. Shift+A selects backward.

S

Snap

Toggle snapping on or off. When active, clips snap to edit points, markers, and the playhead as you drag them in the timeline.

D

Select at PH

Select the clip directly under the current playhead position — useful for quickly selecting clips during playback review.

F

Match Frame

Match Frame — loads the source clip from the timeline into the Source Monitor at the exact timecode of the playhead.

G

Audio Gain

Open the Audio Gain dialog for the selected clip. Adjust the overall clip volume level or normalise audio to a target loudness.

Stop alt-tabbing to a cheat sheet.

KeyCut puts this whole reference on your iPad, colour-coded the same way — and with the free Mac Helper installed, tapping a key fires the shortcut straight into Premiere Pro.

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Tools

11 shortcuts

Premiere has more single-key tools than any other major NLE. This is where the biggest speed gains are, and where a labelled keyboard helps most.

R

Rate Stretch

Activate the Rate Stretch tool. Drag a clip's edge to change its duration and speed simultaneously — useful for fitting a clip to an exact gap.

T

Type Tool

Activate the Type tool for adding text and captions directly onto the canvas in the Program Monitor.

Y

Slip Tool

Activate the Slip tool. Drag to change which part of the source clip plays without moving the clip in the timeline.

U

Slide Tool

Activate the Slide tool. Move a clip in the timeline while automatically trimming adjacent clips to compensate — overall duration unchanged.

P

Pen Tool

Activate the Pen tool for drawing Bezier paths and adding keyframes directly onto audio/video effect parameters in the timeline.

H

Hand Tool

Activate the Hand tool for scrolling the timeline by clicking and dragging — useful on long timelines without using the scroll bar.

Z

Zoom Tool

Activate the Zoom tool. Click in the timeline to zoom in, Alt/Option-click to zoom out. Drag to zoom into a specific area.

C

Razor Tool

Activate the Razor tool. Click anywhere on a clip in the timeline to cut it at that point. Use Cmd+K to cut at the playhead without switching tools.

V

Select Tool

Return to the standard Selection tool (arrow). The primary tool for selecting, moving, and trimming clips in the timeline.

B

Ripple Edit

Activate the Ripple Edit tool. Trim one edge of a clip and automatically shift all downstream clips to close or open the resulting gap.

N

Rolling Edit

Activate the Rolling Edit tool. Move an edit point — trimming one side and extending the other — without changing the overall sequence duration.

Marking

5 shortcuts

In and out points, markers, and the two different ways of marking a clip.

I

Mark In

Set the In point at the current playhead position in the Source Monitor or the timeline.

O

Mark Out

Set the Out point at the current playhead position in the Source Monitor or the timeline.

X

Mark Clip

Set In and Out points to the full duration of the clip under the playhead — marks the whole clip in one keystroke.

M

Add Marker

Add a marker at the current playhead position. Double-click a marker to name it, add comments, set duration, or change its colour.

/

Mark Sel

Mark Selection — sets In and Out points around the currently selected clip(s). Different from X (Mark Clip), which marks the clip under the playhead.

Timeline

14 shortcuts

Multi-camera switching and the timeline edit commands. Press 0 for multi-cam mode, then 1–9 cut between angles live during playback.

1

Camera 1

Multi-cam: cut to Camera 1 angle in the timeline. Only active when Multi-Camera mode is enabled (press 0).

2

Camera 2

Multi-cam: cut to Camera 2 angle. Only active when Multi-Camera mode is enabled (press 0).

3

Camera 3

Multi-cam: cut to Camera 3 angle. Only active when Multi-Camera mode is enabled (press 0).

4

Camera 4

Multi-cam: cut to Camera 4 angle. Only active when Multi-Camera mode is enabled (press 0).

5

Camera 5

Multi-cam: cut to Camera 5 angle. Only active when Multi-Camera mode is enabled (press 0).

6

Camera 6

Multi-cam: cut to Camera 6 angle. Only active when Multi-Camera mode is enabled (press 0).

7

Camera 7

Multi-cam: cut to Camera 7 angle. Only active when Multi-Camera mode is enabled (press 0).

8

Camera 8

Multi-cam: cut to Camera 8 angle. Only active when Multi-Camera mode is enabled (press 0).

9

Camera 9

Multi-cam: cut to Camera 9 angle. Only active when Multi-Camera mode is enabled (press 0).

0

Multi-cam

Toggle Multi-Camera mode on or off. When enabled, the Program Monitor switches to the multi-cam view and the number keys 1–9 cut between camera angles in real time during playback.

;

Lift

Lift removes the marked range (between In and Out) from the timeline and leaves a gap in its place. The downstream clips stay where they are.

'

Extract

Extract removes the marked range (between In and Out) and closes the gap automatically — a ripple delete on the marked area.

,

Insert

Insert the marked source clip at the playhead, pushing downstream clips forward. Requires In/Out marks in the Source Monitor.

.

Overwrite

Overwrite the marked source clip into the timeline at the playhead, replacing whatever is already there for that duration.

Navigation

4 shortcuts

Frame and edit-point navigation.

↑

Prev Edit

Jump the playhead to the previous edit point in the timeline.

←

Prev Frame

Step the playhead back by exactly one frame.

→

Next Frame

Step the playhead forward by exactly one frame.

↓

Next Edit

Jump the playhead to the next edit point in the timeline.

Workspace

5 shortcuts

Zoom level, panel focus and the maximise toggle.

-

Zoom Out

Zoom out the timeline to see more of your sequence.

=

Zoom In

Zoom in the timeline for frame-level precision.

Tab

Next Column

Move focus to the next column when the Project panel is active. Useful for navigating bin metadata without using the mouse.

\

Zoom to Seq

Zoom the timeline to fit the entire sequence in view. Quick way to get an overview of your whole edit before zooming back in.

~

Max Frame

Maximise or restore the currently focused panel. Toggle between full-screen focus on one panel and your normal workspace layout. Bound to the backtick key (`) on Mac.

Command

1 shortcuts

Clearing and lifting.

Delete

Clear

Lift the selected clip from the timeline (leaves a gap), or clear In/Out points in the Source Monitor.

No shortcuts match that. Try a shorter word — searching matches the name, the keys and the description.

Single-key shortcuts

This reference covers the 54 commands Premiere Pro puts on a single, unmodified keypress. That's a deliberate scope rather than an omission: single-key commands are the ones worth building muscle memory for, because they cost nothing to reach and you'll press them thousands of times. Modifier combinations are better looked up when you need them.

The full command set for your install is always in the Keyboard Shortcuts panel — that's where remapped keys and the combinations not listed here will appear.

How to actually learn these

Nobody memorises a list this long by reading it. Shortcuts stick when a key gets pressed a few hundred times on real footage, and they stick fastest when the reference is somewhere you can glance at without leaving the timeline.

The order that works for most editors: J, K and L for playback, I and O for marking, then V and C for the Selection and Razor tools. That's enough to build a rough assembly without touching a menu, and everything else is refinement on top.

Two things slow people down. The first is drilling shortcuts for tasks you rarely do — there's no point learning multi-cam switching if you cut ninety-second social edits. The second is hiding the reference behind the application window, so checking it breaks concentration. A printed sheet solves that badly; a second screen solves it well.

Your version may differ

Everything here is the default set for Premiere Pro on macOS. If you've remapped anything, or imported a preset from another editor, your keyboard won't match this page. The definitive answer for your install is the Keyboard Shortcuts panel — Option+Cmd+K on Mac.

Related: using an iPad as a control surface for Premiere Pro. Shortcuts for the other editors KeyCut supports: Final Cut Pro DaVinci Resolve.

Frequently asked questions

What are the most useful Premiere Pro keyboard shortcuts?+

J, K and L for shuttle playback, I and O for in and out points, V for the Selection tool and C for the Razor. After those, the two worth learning next are Q and W — ripple trim to the previous and next edit point. They do in one keystroke what most editors do with several mouse drags, and a surprising number of Premiere users have never found them.

How do I change keyboard shortcuts in Premiere Pro?+

Open the Keyboard Shortcuts panel from the Premiere Pro menu, or press Option+Cmd+K on Mac. You can search commands by name, click a key on the visual keyboard to see what it's bound to, and drag commands onto keys. Presets save and move between machines, and Premiere ships with Final Cut Pro and Avid preset layouts if you're switching from either.

What is the difference between Lift and Extract in Premiere Pro?+

Both remove the range between your in and out points. Lift, on the semicolon key, leaves a gap where the material was, so everything downstream stays at the same timecode. Extract, on the apostrophe, closes the gap and pulls everything downstream earlier. Extract is a ripple delete on a marked range.

Can I use an iPad as a control surface for Premiere Pro?+

Yes. KeyCut on your iPad shows the Premiere keyboard colour-coded by category, and with the free Mac Helper installed, tapping a key fires the matching shortcut into Premiere Pro on your Mac. The Helper detects which editor is frontmost, so if you move between Premiere and Resolve during a session, the iPad follows without you changing a setting.

Which Premiere Pro tools have single-key shortcuts?+

Eleven of them: V for Selection, C for Razor, B for Ripple Edit, N for Rolling Edit, Y for Slip, U for Slide, R for Rate Stretch, P for Pen, T for Type, H for Hand and Z for Zoom. Premiere has more single-key tools than any other major NLE, which is why a labelled keyboard pays off faster here than elsewhere.

Put this reference next to your keyboard.

KeyCut is the colour-coded version of this page, on your iPad — and it fires shortcuts straight into Premiere Pro.

Download on the App Store Get Mac Helper App