compress video
shrink a video for email, chat or storage by lowering quality and resolution. everything happens on your device.
runs on your device · free · no sign-up
loading tool…
how to compress video
- drop your video on the box above.
- choose target file size and enter a limit like 10 mb, or switch to choose quality.
- optionally trim with the start and end sliders, and pick a resolution.
- press compress video, check the size and download the mp4.
video size is bitrate multiplied by time. a 60 second clip at 1.5 mb per second is 90 mb, and the only ways to shrink it are lower bitrate, fewer pixels or less time. target size mode does that arithmetic for you: 10 mb over 60 seconds leaves about 1,200 kbps after audio, which is good for 720p and acceptable for 1080p screen recordings.
resolution matters as much as bitrate. at low bitrates a smaller picture looks better than a big blocky one, so auto mode picks 360p below about 500 kbps, 480p up to 1,000, 720p up to 2,500 and 1080p above. phone screens barely show the difference between 720p and 1080p.
quality mode uses a constant quality setting (crf). 23 looks near-original, 28 is a good balance for sharing, 32 and above shows visible blocks. the result size is not known in advance, which is why target mode exists. speed is limited by running in a browser, so use a desktop encoder for hour-long files.
features
- target file size mode: bitrate is calculated from the clip length and corrected after each pass
- resolution presets (auto, 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p) and a quality slider
- trim start and end before compressing, with preview
- remove the audio track to save more space
- mp4 (h.264) output that plays everywhere, no watermark, no upload
popular uses
frequently asked questions
how much smaller will it get?
a crf of 28 with a 720p cap usually cuts phone and screen recordings by 70-90%. raise the quality slider toward 18 for a larger, better looking file.
why is it slow on long videos?
encoding runs in webassembly on one thread, so expect roughly real-time speed or slower. short clips finish in under a minute; for long films use a desktop app.
does it add a watermark or upload my video?
no watermark and no upload. your file never leaves the browser tab.
how does target file size mode work?
we take your size, subtract room for audio, and divide by the clip length to get a video bitrate. we encode, measure the real file, and if it is over (or well under) we correct the bitrate and run again, up to three passes.
why does a long video get blurry at a small target?
the target is a fixed budget of bits. 10 mb spread over 20 minutes is only about 60 kbps, which cannot look good. trim the clip, lower the resolution or raise the size.
can i cut part of the video while compressing?
yes. set the start and end sliders and only that part is encoded, which also makes the file smaller and the target easier to hit.