How to Add a Speed Overlay to Your Ski Videos (2026)

Ski footage has a problem every skier knows: on video, every run looks slower and flatter than it felt. The pitch that scared you reads as a gentle slope, and nobody believes you were doing 70 km/h. Putting your real speed on screen fixes that — and it's the single most convincing thing you can add to a ski clip.

This is a practical guide to doing it in 2026: where to get the data, what goes wrong, and which tools are worth your time. I build one of those tools (SportsSync — it's at the end, and I'll be straight about where it fits and where it doesn't).

What you need

Two things, recorded on the same day:

1. The video. A helmet or chest-mounted action camera, a phone on a pole, or a friend filming you. Any camera works — the overlay comes from the GPS track, not the camera.
2. A GPS track of the day. This is the part people forget. You need a file with your position and time, second by second — usually a GPX file.

Some cameras record GPS themselves (more on that below), but most ski footage doesn't carry usable GPS, so in practice the track comes from your phone or your watch.

Where to get the GPS track

• Slopes — the most popular ski tracker. On iOS you can export any day as a GPX file from the recording in your Logbook (Export As → GPX), with options for runs and lifts only, the whole day as a single track, or raw GPS. The Android app has historically not offered GPX export, so check your version before you rely on it.
• Strava — record an Alpine Ski activity on your phone or watch, then use Export GPX from the activity page on the Strava website (export isn't available in the mobile app). Or connect Strava directly to an overlay tool and skip the export.
• Your watch — Garmin, Coros, Suunto and Apple Watch all record ski days with GPS. Export the activity as GPX from their apps, or sync it to Strava first.

The skiing-specific problem: lifts

On Strava especially, an Alpine Ski activity includes the chairlift. Your distance doubles, your average speed becomes meaningless, and the summary stats look nothing like your actual runs. Plenty of skiers record in Slopes for exactly this reason.

For an overlay, it matters less than you'd think — as long as your tool syncs by time. A good overlay tool only reads the part of the track that lines up with your clip, so the lift ride before your run never appears on screen. What you see is your speed and altitude at each second of the descent you filmed. The thing to avoid is any tool that overlays whole-activity totals (average speed, total distance): on a ski day, those numbers are wrong by design.

What to show on screen

Less is more on snow:

• Speed — the number people actually want to see. Make it big.
• Altitude, or vertical drop — shows the run is real and steep.
• Heart rate — optional, but a heart rate that settles on the lift and spikes through a mogul field tells its own story.

Skip power and cadence (they don't apply) and resist the full dashboard. One or two numbers that change in real time beat eight that nobody can read on a phone screen.

The tools in 2026

GoPro (HERO13, or older models with GPS) — free, if your camera records GPS

GoPro cameras with built-in GPS can show speed and altitude "stickers" through the GoPro Quik phone app — only when the GPS signal was good enough, and only on mobile: Quik for desktop is legacy software without gauges. One trap: the HERO12 Black has no GPS at all, the first flagship in years without it; GPS came back with the HERO13. If you ski with a HERO12, the data has to come from somewhere else.

Insta360 and DJI — free, inside their own apps

Insta360's Stats Dashboard (which now accepts Strava data) and DJI Mimo with the Osmo GPS remote both overlay speed and altitude on footage from their own cameras. If you already own one, start there — it's free and native.

Telemetry Overlay — $199 one-time, desktop

The heavyweight: Windows, Mac and Linux, reads GoPro, DJI and Insta360 telemetry plus GPX and many other formats, and has a dedicated skiing preset among hundreds of gauge styles. $199 (listed down from $299) for a perpetual license with a year of updates; the free trial lasts 3 days and watermarks the output. Best if you edit on a computer and want total control.

Stamptivity — free, in the browser

A free, browser-based tool: drop in your GPX (or FIT) file and your video, place speed, altitude or map gauges, export MP4 in 16:9 or 9:16 with no watermark. It can also export a transparent overlay to drop into your own editor. Hard to argue with free if you're comfortable placing the gauges yourself.

GpxOverlay — web

Another web tool, with ski-oriented widgets: a speed gauge (current, max or average), elevation profile, altitude, slope gradient where the data allows, a map of your tracks and distance. You download the overlay and combine it with your footage in your own editor.

SportsSync — cloud, phone-first

What we build. Connect Strava (or upload the GPX from Slopes or your watch), upload the video, line them up once, and pick the moment: SportsSync renders a short of up to 30 seconds (10 on the free plan) with your live speed, altitude and heart rate on top, in 9:16, 4:5, 1:1 or 16:9, without leaving your phone. Because it syncs by time, the lift rides in your track never show up. Free: 3 activities with 3 clips each, kept for 30 days. Pro: €9/month or €89/year. It also publishes straight to Instagram (that needs an Instagram professional account).

Honest take: if you want a long edit of your whole day with full control of every gauge, a desktop tool like Telemetry Overlay or a free one like Stamptivity is the better fit. SportsSync is built for the other case: you're in the chalet with your phone, and you want the best run of the day on Instagram before dinner.

Side by side

Tool	Where	GPS source	Cost
GoPro Quik app	Phone	Camera GPS (not HERO12)	Free with camera
Insta360 / DJI	Phone	Their cameras / remote, Strava	Free with hardware
Telemetry Overlay	Desktop	Camera telemetry, GPX and more	$199 one-time
Stamptivity	Browser	GPX, FIT	Free
GpxOverlay	Browser	GPX	—
SportsSync	Cloud / phone	Strava or GPX	Free tier, then €9/mo

Quick checklist before your next ski day

• Start your tracker (Slopes, Strava or your watch) before the first run, and don't stop it until you're done filming.
• Check your phone and camera clocks are both on automatic time — syncing relies on them agreeing.
• Film whole runs rather than fragments; it's easier to pick the best few seconds later.
• If your camera is a GoPro HERO12, don't count on camera GPS — the track has to come from your phone or watch.
• Export the GPX the same day, or connect Strava and let the tool fetch it.

The steps are the same as for any sport — if you want the general version, here's how to add GPS telemetry to a video, step by step. And if your clips are heading for Instagram or TikTok, read what breaks with vertical overlays first.