You attach a video, press send, and the message bounces because the file is too big. A minute of phone video can easily be tens of MB, so a video too large to email is the usual case, not bad luck. The answer is to compress video for email so the file slips under the limit.
This page opens the compressor with a 20 MB target. Personal Gmail and Outlook.com accounts both stop at 25 MB per message, and most email services sit around 20 to 25 MB, so 20 MB keeps you inside the line with a little room for the message itself.
The work happens in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, which matters when the video is a work recording, a client demo or something personal.
How to email a large video: compress it first
Use this page to compress video for email whenever a message bounces. The shortcut starts the tool in Target size mode with the slider at 20 MB, so you only need to check it and press the button.
- Drop your video onto the tool, or choose the file from your computer.
- Check the Target size slider. It should read 20 MB, unless your video is already smaller than that or too long to get there.
- Look at the two bars: Original is the size now, and Result is the size to expect.
- Press Compress, then save the file. You get an MP4 named after your original with _compressed added, and your first file stays as it was.
- Attach the saved file to your email as normal.
If you are not sure how large the file is now, the bars tell you before you press anything. Under them, a line such as "62% smaller" shows the saving, so you can see at once whether a 20 MB attachment is within reach.
Email attachment size limits and the 20 MB target
Each service sets its own email video size limit, and a video counts like any other attachment. Gmail Help gives the Gmail attachment size limit for personal accounts as 25 MB, for all the attachments in a message together. Microsoft support gives Outlook.com a 25 MB limit per email, and that counts the text and any pictures in the message as well as the files.
In Gmail, work and school accounts use a limit their administrator sets, and other services vary: see our list of email size limits by service. Most stop at around 20 to 25 MB per message, which is why this shortcut aims for 20 MB. So if you need to compress a video for Gmail or Outlook.com, the default fits both. If you know your provider allows less, lower the slider; if it allows more, you can raise it.
Go over the limit in Gmail and the file is not attached at all: Gmail Help says it swaps the file for a Google Drive link. That suits some people, but if the recipient needs the file itself, compress it first.
The target is approximate, so the finished file lands close to 20 MB rather than on it exactly. Since the ceiling is a hard stop, leave a margin, especially when you attach more than one file.
| Your situation | Suggested approach |
|---|---|
| One video, nothing else attached | Keep the 20 MB target. |
| A video plus a document or two | Drag the slider down to leave room. |
| Your provider has a lower limit | Set the slider below that limit. |
| The video is already under the limit | You may not need to compress it at all. |
Keeping a video readable at email size
Compression trades detail for size. For an email video that is usually a fair deal, because the person opening it wants to understand the content, not admire every pixel. Still, a few choices make the result noticeably better.
Length matters most
A fixed size is spread across the whole running time. A two minute clip has far more room per second than a twenty minute one. If your video is long, consider whether the recipient needs all of it.
Screen recordings and talking heads
Screen recordings and meetings often have little movement, so they compress well. If your recording has no useful sound, switch off Keep the sound to lower the minimum size and give the picture more room.
Text on screen is the one thing to check afterwards. Small writing can go soft at a low size, so play the result before you send it. If the words are hard to read, raise the target a little and try again from the original.
When the floor stops you
Each video needs a minimum amount of data for picture and sound, and the slider shows this as a shaded floor. With sound kept it is about 1.85 MB per minute (150 kbps for the picture plus 96 kbps for the sound), and about 1.1 MB per minute without the sound. Going by those numbers, you can compress a video to 20 MB if it runs up to about 10 minutes 50 seconds with sound, or about 17 minutes 45 seconds without. If yours is longer, shorten it with Trim video or cut it into parts with Split video.
Other ways to get a video under the email limit
If you want to shrink a video to send by email without losing the point of it, compression is only one lever. Sometimes a different combination gets you there with less loss.
- Trim the beginning and end, where nothing useful happens.
- Lower the picture size with Resize video if the video is much larger than the screen it will be watched on.
- Remove the sound when it adds nothing.
- Send a short excerpt rather than the whole recording.
- Split a long video into parts and send each in its own message.
Sometimes a link is a better way to send a large video by email than an attachment. If the recipient only needs to watch the video once, sharing it through a file-sharing service you already use avoids the size limit altogether. Compression is the right tool when it really has to travel as an attachment.
For other limits, the same tool has Compress video for WhatsApp and Compress video for Discord. To choose a quality level instead of a size, use the main Compress video page.
Free, private and without an account
There is nothing to sign up for, and no watermark is added. Video tools are not counted against the free daily limit that covers document conversions. Because the video is never uploaded, you are not handing your footage to a third party. Details are on the privacy page.
Most videos have no size limit. Some files take longer to read, and those can be up to 2 GB. The tool works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox.
Send your video without the bounce
To compress video for email, keep the 20 MB target, or lower it to leave room for other attachments, and press Compress. Trim first if the clip is long, and keep your original safe.
It costs nothing and your video never leaves your device. Scroll up to the tool and get your attachment down to size.
