What determines the size of a video
Three things decide how big a video is: its length, its resolution and its bitrate – the amount of data used per second. Reducing any of them makes the file smaller. The audio track usually accounts for only a small share.
Step 1: Compress the video
Open Compress Video, add your file and choose a quality preset. The video is re-encoded on your device with FFmpeg, so nothing is uploaded. For viewing on phones, a balanced preset is usually indistinguishable from the original.
Step 2: Lower the resolution
Resolution has the biggest impact. A 4K video has four times as many pixels as 1080p, and 1080p more than twice as many as 720p. For messengers and email, 720p still looks sharp on a phone screen. You can choose it while compressing or with Video Resizer.
Step 3: Trim what nobody needs
Cutting a three-minute clip down to the 40 seconds that matter makes it more than four times smaller. Use Video Trimmer to remove the beginning, the end or a section in the middle.
Size limits to keep in mind
- Email: about 20–25 MB per message
- Discord: 10 MB per file for free accounts
- WhatsApp: large videos are recompressed heavily – shrinking them yourself keeps control over quality
- Web forms and portals: often 50–100 MB
Convert unusual formats
If a MOV, MKV or AVI file will not play for the recipient, convert it to MP4 with Video Converter. MP4 with H.264 plays on practically every device.