How to shrink a video so you can send it by email or chat
A one minute phone video easily goes over 100MB. Email attachments are usually limited to about 25MB, and chat apps and work tools have their own upload limits, so you often cannot send a video as is. Once you understand what makes a video big, you can fit it to the size you need without ruining the quality.
Three things decide the file size
Video size is roughly bitrate × length. Bitrate is the amount of data used per second, and higher resolutions need a higher bitrate for the same quality. So there are three ways to shrink a video.
- Make it shorter: cut the parts you do not need from the start and end. This costs no quality at all, so try it first.
- Lower the resolution: go from 4K or 1080p to 720p. On a phone screen, most people will not notice.
- Lower the bitrate: use less data at the same resolution. Go too low and fast motion turns blocky.
Step 1: Keep only what you need
If you only need part of the video, cut it first. Keeping 40 seconds of a 2 minute video makes it a third of the size on its own.
Step 2: Set the resolution and bitrate
In the video compressor, choose By target size and enter the size you need, such as 25MB. The bitrate is calculated from the video length for you. If you prefer to pick yourself, use the table below.
| Use | Resolution | Video bitrate | Size per minute |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watching on a phone | 720p | 1.5Mbps | about 12MB |
| PC screen recording (lots of text) | 1080p | 2.5Mbps | about 19MB |
| As small as possible | 480p | 0.8Mbps | about 7MB |
The actual result can be 10 to 20% larger or smaller than the estimate depending on how much the scene moves. If your limit is 25MB, entering about 22MB leaves a safe margin.
Step 3: Drop the sound if you do not need it
If only the picture matters, you can remove the sound. An audio track is usually only about 1MB per minute, so it does not save much space, but it does help with privacy when a video picked up nearby conversations or noise.
For very short moments, consider a GIF
To show a quick action of 3 seconds or less, a GIF plays automatically, which is convenient. GIFs are much larger than a video of the same length, though, so beyond about 5 seconds a video is the better choice.
Summary
- Cut the start and end you do not need.
- Go down to 720p and enter a target size with a little margin.
- Preview the result and check that text and faces are not blurred.
Everything happens in your browser, so your video is never uploaded to another server.