BPM to Frames
How many video frames fall on each beat, and how far a bar drifts off the frame grid.
Beats per minute, 20 to 400.
Match your timeline setting.
Four beats of 4/4, pulsing at the tempo shown.
- Frames per bar
- Frames per 1/8
- Nearest whole
- 12
- Drift per bar
- 0fr
Frames per beat equals your frame rate multiplied by 60 divided by the tempo. At 120 BPM and 24 fps that is exactly 12 frames per beat, so cuts land on the grid. At 100 BPM it is 14.4 frames, which drifts. The tool below shows the drift so you know when to nudge.
Every frame rate at 120 BPM
A bar landing on a whole number of frames lets you cut on the grid through a whole sequence. One that does not will drift, and the drift column shows how fast.
| Frame rate | Frames / beat | Frames / bar | Drift per bar |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23.976 fps | 11.988 | 47.952 | -0.048 |
| 24 fps | 12 | 48 | 0 |
| 25 fps | 12.5 | 50 | 0 |
| 29.97 fps | 14.985 | 59.94 | -0.06 |
| 30 fps | 15 | 60 | 0 |
| 50 fps | 25 | 100 | 0 |
| 59.94 fps | 29.97 | 119.88 | -0.12 |
| 60 fps | 30 | 120 | 0 |
A drift of 0 means bars land exactly on frame boundaries.
The formula
frames per beat = frame rate × (60 ÷ BPM)
One beat lasts 60 divided by BPM seconds. Multiply by the frame rate for the number of frames it occupies. At 120 BPM and 24 fps a beat is exactly 12 frames, which is part of why 120 is a comfortable tempo to cut to.
Why drift matters
Video timelines quantise to whole frames. Music does not. When frames per beat is not a whole number, every cut placed on a beat rounds to the nearest frame and the error accumulates. Eight bars in, a cut that should land on the downbeat can be visibly early or late.
Two ways around it: choose a tempo that divides evenly into your frame rate, or place cuts from the music timeline rather than counting frames.
23.976 and 29.97 are not round numbers. These NTSC rates are 24 and 30 divided by 1.001, so they almost never produce whole frames per beat. Cutting to music at these rates means planning for drift.
Need every value at once?
The main BPM calculator shows milliseconds, delay times, reverb ranges, hertz and bar length together, updating from a single tempo.
Common questions
How many frames are in a beat?
Frame rate multiplied by 60 divided by BPM. At 120 BPM and 24 fps that is exactly 12 frames per beat.
Why do my cuts drift out of sync with the music?
Because the frames-per-beat figure is not a whole number at your tempo and frame rate. The error accumulates across bars. The drift column above shows how far each bar falls from the frame grid.
Related tools and guides
- BPM to Milliseconds Converter Convert any tempo to milliseconds per beat and back again. Covers every note division from whole notes to 1/64, straight, dotted and triplet. Converter
- Bars and Song Length Calculator Convert bars to minutes and seconds at any tempo and time signature, and work backwards from a target duration to the number of bars. Tool
- BPM Calculator Tap a tempo and get every value it drives: milliseconds per beat, delay and reverb times, hertz, frames and bar length. Free, instant, no sign-up.
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