Convert
Compress Video
Shrink a video’s file size right in your browser — turn a large MP4, MOV, or WebM into a smaller MP4 you can share. Nothing is uploaded. Free, no signup.
Drop a video here, or click to browse
Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded
What this is and why it matters
Video files are large because they pack a huge amount of information: every second is dozens of full frames, and modern phones record at high resolutions and high bitrates by default. A minute of 1080p or 4K footage from a recent phone can easily run to tens or even hundreds of megabytes. That collides constantly with the limits the rest of the world imposes — WhatsApp caps video shares, government and job portals reject files over a few megabytes, and email attachments bounce past a certain size. Compressing the video lowers its bitrate so it fits within those caps and can actually be sent.
This tool compresses in the browser rather than on a server, for the same privacy reason as the rest of the toolkit. The videos people most need to shrink are often personal or sensitive: family clips, a KYC verification selfie a bank asked for, a property walkthrough, a video of an accident or damage for an insurance claim. Uploading those to an unknown compression website just to make them smaller is a poor trade. Here, the file is read into memory on your own device, re-encoded locally by a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg, and the smaller MP4 is handed straight back to you. Nothing is transmitted and nothing is stored.
It helps to understand how this compression works, because it involves a real tradeoff. The tool re-encodes the video with the H.264 codec at a lower quality target, which discards visual information you are unlikely to miss at normal viewing sizes. This is lossy: pushing compression harder means a smaller file but more visible softening, especially in fast motion. That is why there are three presets rather than one button — so you can choose a gentle squeeze that stays close to the original, or a hard squeeze that prioritises getting under a strict size limit.
How to use this tool
Add your video. Drag the file onto the drop zone above, or click it to open the file picker and choose a video from your device. MP4, MOV, WebM, and MKV are all accepted. The moment it is selected, the tool reads it locally and shows the file name and its current size, so you know your starting point. Nothing uploads — the reading and everything that follows happens on your own machine. Files must be under 500 MB, the practical ceiling for in-browser processing without a server.
Let the engine load on first use. The first time you compress a video, the tool downloads a one-time compression engine of about 30 MB into your browser. This happens only once — afterwards it is cached, and subsequent compressions start immediately. A short message shows while it loads.
Choose a preset. Three options trade size against quality. Strong re-encodes at the lowest quality target for the smallest possible file, best when you are fighting a strict upload or share limit. Balanced is the recommended default and suits most everyday sharing. Light keeps more visual detail with a smaller size reduction, for when clarity matters more than squeezing every megabyte. Balanced is selected by default.
Compress and download. Press Compress Video and the tool re-encodes the file, showing a live percentage as it works — this can take a few minutes for large or long videos. You can cancel at any time. When it finishes, it shows the original size next to the new size and how much smaller the file is, then offers the compressed MP4 for download. If compression would have made the file larger, it keeps your original instead and tells you so.
Examples and use cases
Getting a phone clip under WhatsApp’s share limit
A Delhi shopkeeper records a 90-second 1080p video of a product to send a wholesaler, but at 95 MB it is too large for WhatsApp to send as a video. Running it through this tool on the Balanced preset re-encodes it to around 18 MB — small enough to share instantly — while staying clear enough to show the product detail. The clip never left the phone’s browser.
Uploading a property walkthrough to a portal cap
A Pune broker has a 3-minute apartment walkthrough at 220 MB that a listing portal refuses because it exceeds the 50 MB video cap. Choosing the Strong preset compresses it to about 35 MB, comfortably under the limit, so the listing goes live with video. Because the footage is of a client’s home, keeping it off third-party servers matters.
Emailing a wedding clip that bounced
A Chennai user tries to email a 70 MB highlight clip from a family wedding, but it bounces for exceeding the attachment limit. Compressing on Light keeps the colours and faces looking good while dropping the file to around 22 MB, small enough to attach and send without a cloud link.
Keeping the original when compression would not help
A Bengaluru creator tries to compress a short clip they already exported at a low bitrate for social media. The tool detects that re-encoding would actually produce a larger file, so it keeps the original and tells the creator it is already well compressed — avoiding handing back a bigger, lower-quality version.
Frequently asked questions
- Is my video uploaded to a server?
- No. The entire compression happens inside your browser. Your video is read into memory on your own device, re-encoded locally by a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg, and the smaller MP4 is handed straight back to you as a download — no byte of the video is ever sent to us or anyone else. This is why the tool is safe for private footage like personal clips, KYC selfies, and insurance or evidence videos. Close the tab and nothing is retained.
- Why is the output always an MP4, even if I upload a MOV or WebM?
- MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio is the most universally playable combination — it works on virtually every phone, browser, messaging app, and portal without extra codecs. Standardising on it means the compressed file you get back will just play everywhere, which is what most people need when they are trying to share a video. If you specifically need to change a video’s format rather than shrink it, that is a job for a dedicated video converter, not a compressor.
- Why does the first compression download about 30 MB?
- The compression is done by a full build of FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly so it can run inside your browser. That engine is about 30 MB, and it downloads once the first time you use the tool. After that your browser caches it, so later compressions start right away without downloading it again. This one-time cost is the price of doing real video encoding on your own device instead of on a server you would have to upload to.
- Why did it ask me to reload the page before compressing?
- Multi-threaded in-browser video encoding needs a browser security feature called cross-origin isolation, which is switched on by the page’s response headers when the page is loaded directly. If you reached the tool by clicking through from another page, the browser may still be in the previous, non-isolated state. Reloading the page makes the browser fetch it fresh with the right headers, which enables the fast multi-threaded engine. It is a one-click step and only happens when needed.
- Is there a limit on video size?
- Yes — 500 MB. Because the work is done entirely by your own device inside a browser tab, the whole video plus the working data has to fit in the tab’s memory, and very large files would crash the tab partway through. A 500 MB cap keeps the process reliable. Even below that, very large or long videos use a lot of memory and may not finish on older phones; for the smoothest results, compress on a computer when the file is big.