Compress Videos to 1MB
Reduce MP4, WebM, and MOV file sizes instantly, from 50MB down to 5MB, 2MB, 1MB, or even smaller. Free, private, and browser-based. Files never leave your device.
Compression tips by format
MP4 videos
Best for sharing. H.264 encoding offers excellent quality-to-size ratio at most bitrates.
WebM videos
Open format with great compression. The tool converts to MP4 for maximum compatibility.
Large recordings
Screen recordings and long clips are scaled to 720p and re-encoded for dramatic size reduction.
Email attachments
Most email providers cap attachments at 10-25MB. Compress to fit the limit easily.
How to compress a video to under 1MB
Large video files can be a major obstacle when sharing via email, uploading to web forms, or posting on social media. Most platforms impose strict file size limits, typically between 5MB and 25MB. Whether you need to compress a video to 5MB, 2MB, 1MB, or even smaller, our free video compressor handles it without excessive quality loss.
The tool uses FFmpeg WebAssembly to re-encode your video directly in the browser. Video size is dominated by one number — the bitrate, roughly bytes-per-second of playback — so the tool works backward from your target: target size ÷ duration gives a bitrate budget, minus a reserve for the audio track, and FFmpeg is told to hit that video bitrate with a single-pass H.264 encode. If the resulting resolution would need an unreasonably low bitrate per pixel to hit the target (which shows up as blocky, smeared motion), the tool scales the frame down — usually to 720p — so the same bit budget covers fewer pixels and looks noticeably cleaner than forcing 1080p at a starved bitrate.
All processing runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly. Your video files are never uploaded to any server, ensuring complete privacy. The first compression requires a one-time download of the FFmpeg engine (~30MB), after which subsequent compressions start immediately.
- 1Upload your video. Drag and drop or click to select an MP4, WebM, MOV, or AVI video file.
- 2Set target size. Choose your desired file size: 5MB, 2MB, 1MB, or a custom limit.
- 3Compress and download. The video is compressed in your browser using FFmpeg WebAssembly. Download the result when done.
Which target for which video
| Situation | Setting | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A 30-60 second phone clip for Discord's 10MB free cap | Target 9MB (leave headroom) | At typical phone-clip bitrates this usually keeps 1080p or drops to 720p with barely visible softening — trimming a few seconds first buys much more quality than shaving the target further. |
| A 2-3 minute screen recording for a bug report or tutorial | Target 5-10MB, let it scale to 720p | Screen recordings are mostly static UI with occasional motion — they compress far more efficiently than camera footage, so 720p at a modest bitrate stays crisp for text and cursors. |
| A video attachment for Gmail's 25MB cap | Target 20-22MB | Leaves margin below the hard limit; Gmail also silently converts large attachments to a Drive link past 25MB, which some recipients find less convenient than a direct download. |
| Long-form footage (5+ minutes) that's still too big at a reasonable bitrate | Trim first with the video trimmer, then compress | Bitrate scales roughly with duration for a fixed target size — halving the length roughly doubles the quality budget per second, which usually beats compressing the full clip harder. |
| A video you'll only ever view on a phone screen | Target the smallest size that still looks right on-device | Phone screens rarely resolve detail beyond 720p at typical viewing distance, so there's little reason to protect 1080p source resolution for a video that's never going to a larger display. |
Known limits
Video is by far the most CPU-intensive thing this site does, because a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg is doing real software encoding without hardware acceleration — a 1080p clip that a phone's native camera app encodes in real time using dedicated video hardware can take 3-6x its own playback length to re-encode in the browser, longer on older or lower-power devices.
Files well over 50MB, or long-form footage past a few minutes, push against browser memory limits, especially on mobile Safari, which caps a single tab's memory more aggressively than desktop browsers. If a large file fails partway through, trimming it first or switching to a desktop browser usually resolves it.
Because there's no server, there's no way to resume a compression that was interrupted by closing the tab or losing power — you'd restart from the original file. That's the direct tradeoff for the file never having been uploaded anywhere in the first place.
Frequently asked questions
What video formats are supported?
We support MP4, WebM, MOV, and AVI input. The output is always MP4 (H.264 + AAC) for maximum compatibility across devices and platforms.
Will my video lose quality?
Some quality reduction is expected when compressing to a smaller size. The tool uses smart bitrate targeting. It finds the highest quality that fits within your size limit. For moderate compression (e.g., 50MB → 10MB), quality loss is usually minimal.
How long does compression take?
Processing time depends on video length and resolution. A 30-second 1080p clip typically takes 15-45 seconds. The first compression requires downloading the video engine (~30MB one-time download). Subsequent compressions are faster.
Is my video uploaded anywhere while this runs?
No. Video compression uses ffmpeg.wasm — a WebAssembly build of the real FFmpeg encoder — running inside a Web Worker on your device. The ~30MB download the first time you use the tool is the encoder itself, not a place your video goes; the video data never leaves the tab. You can confirm this by disconnecting from the internet after that one-time download finishes — compression still works.
What's the maximum file size I can compress?
For best performance, we recommend files under 50MB. Larger files will still work but may take several minutes to process, especially on mobile devices.
Learn more
From the blog
Discord file size limits
Complete guide to Discord file size limits and how to compress files.