Video Compressor

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Drop a video here, or click to choose

MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV — the file stays on your device

This is a free video compressor that works on the video files already sitting on your own device, and it never uploads a single byte. That matters more here than in almost any other tool: a 900 MB clip has to travel to a server and back before an ordinary online compressor can even begin, which on a normal home connection is a quarter of an hour of waiting before anything happens. Here the file is read straight from your disk, decoded by the browser's own video engine, re-encoded as H.264 MP4 on your machine, and handed back to you. Three presets cover what people actually need: Email-friendly works the bitrate backwards from the length of your video so the result lands under the 25 MB attachment ceiling that Gmail, Outlook and most company mail servers enforce; Web & social targets 720p for uploading; High quality keeps 1080p and squeezes lightly. You never have to know what a bitrate is. And when a file is already compressed so tightly that there is nothing left to gain, the tool says so before you start rather than quietly handing you a copy that is larger than what you began with.

How to compress a video

  1. 1

    Open your video file

    Drag a video into the box or click to pick one from your device. MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV all work, and the file is read locally — it is never sent anywhere, so even a very large clip is ready in a moment.

  2. 2

    Pick a compression level

    Email-friendly for anything you need to attach to a message, Web & social for uploads, High quality when the picture still has to hold up. The estimated output size and the saving appear straight away.

  3. 3

    Compress and save

    Click “Compress video” and watch the progress bar; you can cancel at any point. When it finishes, play the result on the page to check the quality, then download the MP4.

Highlights

Nothing leaves your device

Decoding and re-encoding both happen in your browser. Family footage, confidential recordings and unreleased work stay on your own machine, and there is no upload to sit through before the work can start.

A preset built around the 25 MB limit

Email-friendly does the arithmetic for you: it divides a 25 MB budget by the length of your video, sets the bitrate to match and drops the resolution as well when that is the only way to fit.

It tells you when compressing is pointless

If your file is already squeezed as hard as the chosen preset would squeeze it, you are told before the run instead of after — and the tool never asks for a higher bitrate than the source actually has, so it cannot hand you a bigger file.

See the result before you keep it

The estimated size appears the moment you choose a preset, the finished video plays right on the page, and the real before-and-after sizes are shown side by side.

Free, no watermark, no sign-up

No account, no credits, no daily quota and no logo burned into the corner of your footage. Compress as many of your own files as you like.

Standard MP4 out, plays everywhere

The output is H.264 in an MP4 container with the index written at the front, so it starts playing immediately on phones, computers, TVs and every upload form you are likely to meet.

Common uses

Sending a video by email or chat

Most mail services stop at 25 MB per message, and chat apps have their own ceilings. The Email-friendly preset aims straight at that number so the attachment goes through the first time.

Uploading without the long wait

A smaller file uploads faster to a website, a course platform or a client portal, and is far less likely to time out halfway on a slow or shared connection.

Freeing up space on a phone or laptop

Phone video is recorded at a generous bitrate. Re-encoding holiday clips at a sensible level typically frees most of the space they took up, while they still look fine on the screen you actually watch them on.

Sending footage to someone on limited data

A colleague on mobile data or a relative on a slow connection will thank you for a version that downloads in seconds rather than one that eats their allowance.

FAQ

Is my video uploaded to a server?

No. The file is read from your disk, decoded and re-encoded entirely inside your browser, and the result is handed straight back to you. Nothing is transmitted at any point. Besides the obvious privacy benefit, this is the reason the tool starts working immediately: an ordinary online compressor has to receive your whole file before it can begin, and for a large video that upload is usually the slowest part of the entire job.

How much smaller will my video get?

It depends entirely on how the file was encoded to begin with. Video straight from a phone or a camera is recorded at a deliberately generous bitrate, and cutting it to Web & social level commonly removes the large majority of the size. Something already exported for the web may barely shrink at all. The estimated size is shown before you start and the real size after, so you never have to guess.

Which preset should I choose?

Email-friendly when the video has to fit through an attachment limit — it targets 25 MB and works the bitrate backwards from the length of your clip. Web & social when it is going to be uploaded somewhere that will compress it again anyway. High quality when the picture still has to hold up on a large screen and you only want to trim the excess. If you are unsure, try Web & social first and watch the result on the page.

Does compressing reduce the quality?

Yes. Compression is lossy re-encoding: some detail is discarded to make the file smaller, and it cannot be recovered afterwards. That is the whole trade. The presets are chosen so the loss stays inconspicuous for ordinary viewing, and High quality is deliberately gentle. Your original file is never modified, so keep it until you have watched the result and are happy with it.

Why does it say my file will not get smaller?

Because it has already been compressed at or below the bitrate the chosen preset would use. Re-encoding cannot invent detail that is no longer in the file, so asking for more bits than the source contains would simply produce a larger file with worse picture. The tool refuses to do that: it never requests a higher bitrate than the source has, and it warns you up front instead of quietly returning something bigger. Try a stronger preset, or keep the file you have.

How long a video can I compress?

The limit is memory rather than length: the finished video has to be assembled as a single block inside the browser tab, so the output size is estimated before the run and you are warned when a setting would be too large. As a rough guide, High quality handles a few minutes comfortably, Web & social a good deal more, and Email-friendly is capped at 25 MB by definition. Re-encoding also takes real time — expect a long clip to take a while, and use the cancel button freely.

What format do I get back?

An MP4 file containing H.264 video and AAC audio, with the index written at the front of the file so it starts playing without downloading the whole thing first. That combination plays on essentially every phone, computer, television and upload form in use today. The original stays exactly where it was, untouched, under its own name; the compressed copy is saved with “-compressed” added.

Make that video small enough to send

Free, private and entirely in your browser. Open a file, pick a preset, and download a smaller MP4.

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