How to Compress a Video for WhatsApp and Email
Shrink a large phone video so it fits an email attachment or sends on WhatsApp without being squashed. Free for clips up to 30 seconds.
Published · 4 min read
To compress a video for WhatsApp or email, re-save it at a lower bitrate and, if it's 4K, at a smaller picture size, then send the smaller MP4. Our video compressor does it with one choice: Smallest file, Balanced or Best quality. For email, also keep the video short, because attachment limits are tight. It's free for videos up to 30 seconds.
Why phone videos are so big
Modern phones record in high resolution with a generous bitrate, so even a short clip runs to tens of megabytes, and 4K clips grow far faster. That's great for watching on a big TV, and overkill for a chat window or an inbox.
Compression shrinks the file in two ways:
- Fewer bits per second. The video is re-encoded more efficiently, so each second of video takes less space.
- Fewer pixels. A 4K video is scaled down to 1080p (or 720p), which is still sharp on a phone screen.
Size limits you'll run into
Limits differ by service and change over time, so treat these as typical values and check your provider's help pages:
| Where you're sending | Typical limit | What to aim for |
|---|---|---|
| Email attachment (Gmail, Outlook and most providers) | About 20-25 MB per email | Under 20 MB to be safe |
| WhatsApp, sent as a video in the chat | The app compresses it for you, often heavily | Compress first so the app has less to squash |
| WhatsApp, sent as a document | Much larger files allowed, sent without the app's compression | Compress so it uploads quickly on mobile data |
When a file is too big for email, most providers offer to send a cloud link instead. That works, but plenty of people prefer an attachment that just plays.
Step by step
- Open the video compressor.
- Choose the Compression level:
- Smallest file: the most saving. Videos above 720p are scaled down to 720p. Best for email.
- Balanced (the default): a good saving with little visible change. Videos above 1080p are scaled down to 1080p.
- Best quality: the least saving, the most detail. Also capped at 1080p.
- Under Choose a file, pick your video: MP4, MOV, MKV, WEBM or most other formats, up to 1 GB and 30 minutes.
- Press Start and wait while it compresses. Longer videos take longer.
- Press Download result to save the MP4. It's kept for 1 hour.
You always get an MP4 back, which plays on almost every phone, computer and email app. One catch: your browser reads the video's length before uploading, and browsers can't do that for AVI and some other files, so those may show "We couldn't read that file." Save them as MP4 or MOV from your camera or editor first.
Which level to pick
- For email: start with Smallest file. If the result is still over your limit, the video is too long to email; trim it (see below) or share a link.
- For WhatsApp: Balanced is usually right. It's small enough to send quickly, and leaves WhatsApp less to compress, so it looks better on the other end.
- For keeping or posting: Best quality keeps the most detail while still saving space, especially on 4K clips.
If a video is already efficiently compressed, it may not shrink. The compressor won't hand you a "compressed" file that's bigger than the original; instead it tells you the video is already well compressed, or as small as it can get.
Too long to fit? Trim first
File size grows with length. If you only need part of a video, cutting it is the most effective compression there is: a 20-second clip is roughly a third the size of the full minute.
- Cut the part you want with trim video, by entering a start and end time in seconds. See how to trim a video.
- Compress the trimmed clip.
Trimming first also helps you stay within the free limit: trim video counts only the part you keep, and it's free when that part is 30 seconds or less.
Free limits
Video compression is free for videos up to 30 seconds, with no daily limit. That covers many WhatsApp clips. Longer videos, up to 30 minutes and 1 GB, need Pro.
iPhone videos (MOV)
iPhone videos are MOV files, and some Windows PCs, older Android phones and email apps can't play them. The compressor turns them into MP4 at the same time as making them smaller. If you only want to change the format and keep the full quality, use MOV to MP4 instead; see how to convert MOV to MP4.
Your files and privacy
Compression runs on our servers, so your video is uploaded. It's deleted as soon as it's compressed, and your new video is available to download for 1 hour, then deleted too.
Make your video smaller
Pick a level, choose your video and download a smaller MP4 with the video compressor. Clips up to 30 seconds are free.
Frequently asked questions
- How much smaller will my video get?
- It depends on the video. Phone and camera recordings often shrink a lot, especially 4K clips. Smallest file saves the most space; Best quality keeps the most detail.
- Can I compress a video to an exact size, like 20 MB?
- There's no size box. Pick Smallest file for the biggest saving. If it's still too large, trim the video shorter and compress again.
- Will the video look worse?
- Balanced and Best quality changes are hard to see on a phone. Smallest file scales the picture down to 720p, which looks fine on phones but softer on a big screen.
- Why did it say my video is already well compressed?
- Some videos are already efficiently encoded, and compressing them again wouldn't make them smaller. Try Smallest file, or trim the video shorter.
- Does WhatsApp compress videos anyway?
- Yes, videos sent in a chat are usually compressed by the app. Compressing first, at a sensible level, gives you more control over how the result looks.
Video tools
Try Compress Video
Free, no sign-up, no daily limit. Compress a video to make the file smaller for email, messaging apps or uploading.