A minute of video from a modern phone can be several hundred megabytes, which is far past the limit of email and many messaging services. There are two quite different ways to shrink it, and the right choice depends on what is wrong.
Why videos are so big
A video is thousands of still pictures plus sound. At 4K resolution each of those pictures is eight million pixels, and a phone records up to 60 of them every second. Phones compress this cleverly, but the result is still large. A short clip of a family event can take more space than a hundred photos.
Fix one: change the wrapper, not the picture
Sometimes the file is not too big, it is just the wrong type. iPhones record in a QuickTime file (.mov). Many Windows computers and websites prefer MP4. Our MOV to MP4 page offers a Fast choice which repackages the video without touching the picture or the sound, so it takes seconds and loses no quality.
This does not make the file smaller, so it only helps when the problem is compatibility. If the video still will not play on a device after Fast, try Most compatible, which remakes the picture in H.264, the version that plays almost everywhere. That takes longer and works best in Chrome or Edge.
Fix two: make the picture again at a lower quality
If the file is simply too big, you have to remake the picture at a lower quality. That is what Compress video does. Because every frame is made again on your own computer, it takes real time, longer for longer or higher-resolution videos. Keep the tab open and watch the progress bar on each video.
The quality slider balances size against detail. The middle setting suits most videos. Move it to the left for a quick message where small size matters most, and to the right if the video has fine detail or you plan to edit it later.
Tips for the best result
A few habits make a big difference:
- Trim first. Cutting a video to just the part people need is the biggest saving of all and costs no quality. Most phones can trim in their Photos app.
- Compress once. Compressing a video again and again makes it steadily worse. Keep your original and make one smaller copy from it.
- Play the result before you delete anything. Look at a fast-moving part and a dark part, because that is where lost quality shows first.
- Keep the page open while it works. Closing the tab or locking the screen on a phone can interrupt the job.
Other ways to send big videos
If a video still has to stay large, think about how you share it rather than how you shrink it. Shared album links, cloud folders and file-transfer links let someone download the full original without squeezing it through email. For a family video you want people to keep, that is often the better route. For a quick clip someone will watch once, a compressed copy is perfectly fine.
If you only need a loop or the sound
If what you really want is a short silent loop for a chat, our Video to GIF page cuts out a few seconds and saves them as a GIF. If you want only the sound, MP4 to MP3 lifts the audio out. Both work in your browser, and neither uploads your video.