To compress a video here, you do not choose a vague quality slider and hope. You type the size you need, in megabytes, and this free video compressor works out the rest: pick the Discord, email or WhatsApp preset, or enter your own target, and the tool re-encodes your clip to land just under that size, with the audio kept. There is no upload, no sign-up and no watermark on the result, because the compression runs entirely in your browser.
That design is deliberate. Most online compressors send your video to their server. Here your file never leaves your device. The trade is time: expect roughly 5 minutes of processing per minute of 1080p video on a modest computer, less at 720p, and faster machines finish sooner. What you get back is an MP4 that is watchable and sized to fit. If the clip also needs shortening first, do that with our free Video Trimmer, and if you only need the sound, the Video to MP3 Converter saves just the audio.
How to compress a video, step by step
- Drop your video onto the tool, or click to choose it from your device. MP4, WebM, MOV and MKV files your browser can play are accepted, up to 200 MB and 5 minutes long.
- Check the file details shown under the preview: size, length and resolution. If anything looks wrong, pick the file again.
- Choose a preset (Discord 20 MB, Email 25 MB or WhatsApp 100 MB) or switch to Custom and type your own target size in MB.
- Read the plan. It shows the target size, the video bitrate the tool will use, and the output resolution, before anything starts.
- If the tool suggests a smaller height, decide: accept it for a clearer picture at a tight size, or keep the original height. The note below explains when each is right.
- Press Compress video and leave the tab open while it works. When it finishes, preview the result and download the MP4.
Presets: the size limits that actually apply today
Platform limits change, and plenty of compressor pages still quote old numbers. These are the current free limits our presets use, checked in November 2026:
- Discord: 20 MB. Discord raised the free upload limit from 10 MB to 20 MB in August 2026. Pages still telling you to compress to 8 MB or 10 MB for Discord are out of date.
- Email: 25 MB. Gmail accepts attachments up to 25 MB in total, so the Email preset targets 25 MB for a single video attachment.
- WhatsApp: about 100 MB. Videos sent in a chat can be up to about 100 MB (less on slow connections, around 64 MB), and up to 2 GB when sent as a document. The preset targets 100 MB for normal in-chat sending.
- Custom: any size from 1 MB up. Use it when a course platform, a job portal or a forum states its own limit.
Whatever target you pick, the encoder aims at 97.5 percent of it, so the finished file lands just under the limit rather than a fraction over it.
How the size is worked out: bitrate, in plain words
A video file is picture and sound stored second by second, and its final size is set by one number: the bitrate, how many kilobits of data each second gets. Cameras and phones record at a high bitrate to keep every detail, which is why a one minute phone clip can be 60 MB or more. Compression means re-encoding the same seconds at a lower bitrate, so each second is stored less finely and the file shrinks.
The maths runs backwards from your target. Say your clip is 60 seconds and you want 25 MB. The tool converts 25 MB into kilobits, takes its 97.5 percent safety margin, divides by 60 seconds, and sets aside 128 kbps for the audio. What remains, about 3,200 kbps, becomes the video bitrate. In our own tests, a 60 second 1080p clip compressed this way came out within about 1.5 percent of the size asked for, always just under it.
Bitrate is also why the tool sometimes suggests a smaller height. Spread 20 MB over a 3 minute clip and the picture gets only about 780 kbps. At 1080p that looks soft; the same bits at 720p look clearer, because fewer pixels share them. When the picture bitrate falls below about 800 kbps, the tool offers the smaller height and lets you choose. Nothing is changed without your say.
An honest note on quality and limits
Re-encoding always costs some quality, and this page will not promise otherwise. At generous targets most viewers cannot tell the difference. At tight targets, 8 to 10 MB for a minute of detailed 1080p footage, expect visible softening, whatever tool you use. Starting from your best quality source file and picking the largest target your destination allows are the two habits that protect quality most.
The caps are 200 MB and 5 minutes per file, because the whole video is held in memory while it compresses. Clips of 2 to 3 minutes are the sweet spot, and phones can struggle with larger files for the same reason, so a laptop or desktop is the safer choice for anything big. For a longer recording, trim it into parts with the Video Trimmer and compress each part. The video engine itself, about 31 MB, downloads once on the first run and is cached by your browser after that. If a clip carries marks you want gone before you share it, clean it first with the Watermark Remover.
Need to shorten the clip before you shrink it? Our free Video Trimmer cuts it in your browser, and the Watermark Remover on this site cleans marks from the frames first.