A video that is too big is a small daily annoyance. It will not attach to an email, it eats your phone storage, and it takes forever to send. The fix is to compress an MP4 or MOV so the file is smaller while the picture still looks good.
This video compressor does that inside your browser. You drop in a file, choose a quality level or a size in MB, and press Compress. The video is never uploaded, so there is no waiting for a transfer and nobody else sees your footage.
Read on for how the two modes work, where the size slider stops, and how to reduce video file size without ruining the picture.
How to compress a video in your browser
The tool is built around one decision: do you want to pick a quality, or do you need a file of a certain size? Either way the steps are short.
- Drop a video onto the tool, or choose one from your device. You can compress an MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV or M4V file, and add several files to compress them as a batch.
- Next to Compress by, pick Quality or Target size.
- Check the before and after bars. They show your original size and the size you can expect.
- Leave Keep the sound switched on, or switch it off to save a little more.
- Press Compress. When it finishes, save the result, or download a batch as a zip.
The result is saved as an MP4 with _compressed added to the file name, so your original is never overwritten. When you compress a MOV, WebM or MKV, you get an MP4 back too.
Quality or Target size: which mode to use
The two modes suit two different situations. Think about what you are trying to achieve and pick the one that matches.
Quality: when you just want it smaller
Quality shows three tiles: Smallest, Balanced and Best. Each tile has an approximate size under it, marked with a tilde-style "about" sign, because the real file lands close to the estimate rather than exactly on it.
Balanced is a good starting point for most clips. Choose Smallest when size matters more than sharpness, and Best when you want to keep as much detail as possible while still shrinking the file.
Under the hood, Quality works by aiming at the size shown on the tile. This matters because a file that is already well compressed would otherwise be copied unchanged instead of made smaller.
Target size: when a limit decides for you
Target size gives you a slider in MB. Drag it to the size you need and the tool aims for it. This is the mode to use when a service says "no files over a certain size" and you want to reduce video file size to fit. To compress a video to 50 MB, for example, drag the slider to 50.
Below the slider you may see quick chips for common limits, each named after the place it suits: Discord, WhatsApp or Email. A chip appears only when your video can reach that size, so you will never be offered a target that is impossible.
Why the size is approximate
The tool does not guarantee the exact byte count. The result lands close to the target, which is how video encoding works: the amount of data depends on what is happening in each scene. If you must be safely under a limit, aim a little below it.
The slider floor: the smallest a video can go
In Target size mode the left part of the slider is shaded. That is the floor, and you cannot drag below it. A longer video needs more data than a short one, so a long clip has a higher floor.
The floor is worked out from the length of your video. The tool reserves a minimum amount of data for the picture and, if the sound is kept, a minimum for the audio. The help text under the slider tells you the number, for example "At least 3.7 MB for a video this long" for a clip two minutes long with its sound.
| What you change | Effect on the floor |
|---|---|
| A longer video | The floor goes up, because there is more time to fill with data. |
| A shorter video | The floor goes down, so smaller targets become possible. |
| Keep the sound switched off | The floor goes down, because no audio data is needed. |
| Keep the sound switched on | The floor is a little higher, as the audio takes its share. |
In Quality mode, if your file is already about as small as the tool can make it, Compress says so ("This video is already about as small as compressing can make it") instead of producing a larger file. In that case, try cutting the video shorter with Trim video, or lowering the picture size with Resize video, and then compress again.
Small targets also shrink the picture so that the video stays clean rather than turning into blocks. That is a trade you can see before you start: the bars show the new size straight away.
Reduce video file size without ruining it
No video size reducer can shrink a file without losing something: compressing re-encodes the picture, so some fine detail always goes. Best keeps the most. These habits help you land in a good place.
- Trim first. Removing the dead air at the start and end is the one change that costs no quality at all.
- Switch off Keep the sound if the clip is silent anyway, such as a screen recording or a muted product demo.
- Compress once. Each pass loses a little detail, so choose your setting carefully and keep the original.
- Start from your original file, not from a copy that has already been squeezed by a chat app.
- For a set of files, add them all at once. Each file is compressed with the same settings, and you can download the results together as a zip.
If you need a file for a specific app, try the shortcut pages. Compress video for WhatsApp opens this same tool with the size already set.
If the next step is changing the format, use Convert video. To see everything else you can do to a clip, browse the video tools.
A free video compressor that never uploads your file
You compress video online here, but the work runs entirely in your browser: your video is not uploaded, and our servers do no video work. That makes it a sensible choice for personal clips, work footage and anything you would rather not send to a stranger. You can read more on the privacy page.
You can use this video compressor online free of charge. There is no sign-up and no watermark on the result, and video tools do not use up the daily limit that applies to document conversions.
Most videos have no size limit, so you can compress a large video too. Files in some older formats take longer, and those can be up to 2 GB.
The tool works in current versions of Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Very large videos use a lot of memory and processing power, so a recent computer will finish them sooner.
Make your video smaller now
To compress video online, choose Quality when you just want a lighter file, or Target size when a limit decides for you. Watch the before and after bars, remember that the floor depends on how long your clip is, and keep the original safe.
Nothing is uploaded and it costs nothing, so it is a quick way to reduce video size before you send it. Scroll back up, drop in your video, and press Compress.
