Compress Video
Make a video small enough to email, message or upload, without turning it into a smear. Choose how hard to squeeze, optionally scale it down, and the file is re-encoded here — so even a 4 GB recording never has to travel first.
- Never stored
- No queue, no waiting
- No signup, no watermark
How it works
Add your video
Drop an MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM, AVI, FLV or WMV file. You are shown its size, length and picture size.
Choose how much
Light keeps the picture close to the original; Balanced is the usual choice; Strong is for tight limits. Scaling to 1080p or 720p saves far more than any quality setting.
Download
You see the new size next to the old one before you save.
How the bitrate is chosen
The three settings are not quality numbers, they are bits per pixel per frame: 0.1 for Light, 0.065 for Balanced, 0.04 for Strong. That figure is multiplied by the output width, height and frame rate to arrive at a bitrate, which is why scaling down saves so much more than squeezing harder — halving the height quarters the pixel count and quarters the budget with it. The answer is then capped at a share of the file's own bitrate (three quarters, a half, three tenths) so an already-efficient video is never handed a budget larger than it needs, and floored at 150 kbps so nothing is reduced to mud.
It is a single pass at a target bitrate rather than a quality-targeted encode, and the difference shows on unusual material. A quality-targeted encode spends almost nothing on a static talking head and a great deal on a snowstorm; a bitrate target spends the same on both, so a screen recording or a slideshow comes out larger than it needed to be and a hand-held clip of foliage comes out worse than it should. A key frame is written every two seconds, which is what keeps seeking responsive and the file safe to stream.
The encoding is done by the video hardware already in your device rather than by software. That is what makes it faster than real time without the fan spinning up, and it is also why there is nothing to tune: it takes a bitrate and a frame size and gets on with it.
When you want something else
When the size has to be exact — under 10 MB for Discord, under 25 MB for mail — ffmpeg takes the number directly: divide the budget by the duration, run its two-pass mode, and the file lands where you asked rather than where a preset happens to put it. Here the equivalent is choosing Strong, dropping to 720p and looking at what comes back.
When the same quality has to fit in fewer bytes, the answer is a newer codec: x265 or SVT-AV1 at a CRF around 28 to 32 beats anything H.264 can do by a third or more, and HandBrake puts both behind a dialog box for people who would rather not type a command. Grain and flat animation are the clearest case for going elsewhere — x264 alone carries separate tunes for the two, because they need opposite treatment, and none of that is reachable from a browser.
Frequently asked questions
How small will my video get?
Balanced usually lands at a third to a half of a phone recording, and Strong nearer a fifth. Scaling matters more than quality: 4K down to 1080p is a quarter of the pixels, and 1080p down to 720p is a little over half. Already-compressed downloads shrink least — they were squeezed once already.
Is my video stored anywhere?
No, and that is the point: sending a 4 GB file somewhere to compress it takes longer than the compression. The output is written as it goes, and nothing is sent anywhere or stored.
Which setting for WhatsApp, email or Discord?
For a mail attachment under 25 MB, take Strong and 720p for anything over a couple of minutes. WhatsApp re-compresses whatever you send, so Balanced at 720p is plenty. For Discord's 10 MB limit, Strong at 720p, and trim the clip first if it is long.
Will it look bad?
Light and Balanced are chosen so ordinary footage stays clean; Strong will show its work in fast motion and fine detail. Bitrate is set from the picture size and frame rate rather than a flat number, so a 4K clip is not given a 720p budget.
Why did my file get bigger?
Some videos are already compressed harder than this tool would. When that happens you are told, and the original is the file to keep — no setting will improve a file that is already efficient.
How long does it take?
Several times faster than real time on a modern laptop and around real time on a phone. Progress is shown throughout and you can cancel at any point; the page stays responsive while it works.
Good to know: The sound is re-encoded as AAC at 96–128 kbps. Only the main video and sound track are kept. HDR video is converted to standard range, so a very bright HDR clip will look flatter.
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