Recursive algorithms have been found very effective for realization using software and very large scale integrated circuit (VLSI) techniques. Recently, some recursive algorithms have been proposed for the realization of the inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT). In this paper, an efficient recursive algorithm for the IDCT with arbitrary length is presented. By using some appropriate iterative techniques, the formulation of the IDCT can be implemented effectively using recursive equations, and the hardware complexity is further reduced as compared with the approaches in the literature.