Abstract The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite provides a groundbreaking view of sea surface height (SSH) across a 120‐km‐wide swath (20‐km nadir gap), opening new opportunities to reconstruct vertical velocities (w) $(w)$. Vertical motions play a central role in redistributing properties, influencing climate and ecosystems. Using the effective surface quasigeostrophic framework in the eddy‐rich Agulhas Current Retroflection region, we reconstruct w $w$ down to 1,000 m. We assess its realism against the 1/60° ${}^{circ}$ (∼2 km) INALT60 ocean model, finding a spatial correlation of 0.6. SWOT‐derived w $w$ reveal pronounced high‐frequency variability, with events lasting several days to one week during which w $w$ variance more than doubles. The Agulhas Retroflection emerges as a hotspot of enhanced w $w$ (∼300 m day−1 ${text{day} }^{-1}$), driven by strong horizontal strain. This work provides the first quantitative reconstruction of w $w$ from SWOT in the region and highlights the mission’s potential to quantify vertical exchanges linking the ocean surface and interior.