Compress a video for email
Short answer
Gmail and Outlook cap attachments near 25 MB. Drop your clip in and pick Balanced — that usually brings a 100 MB video under. It runs in your browser.
Drop a video here or choose a file
or drop your file here.
MP4 · MOV · MKV — compressed in your browser, never uploaded
Runs in your browser — your file is never uploaded.
Gmail rejects attachments over 25 MB and quietly offers a Drive link instead; many Outlook accounts stop at 20 MB. A single minute of 4K phone video is comfortably past both, which is why an email that looks fine on your side can simply fail to arrive.
Balanced is the preset to reach for first. It re-encodes with H.264 at CRF 26, which usually lands between a quarter and a half of the original size while staying clean on a laptop screen. If you are still over the limit, Small will get you there, at the cost of visible softness in fast motion.
Because the compression runs inside your browser, the video never leaves your machine — worth knowing when you are emailing something personal, medical, or work-confidential.
How to compress a video for email
- 1Add your video. Drop the file in below — nothing is uploaded.
- 2Pick Balanced. Start there, and switch to Small only if you are still over the limit.
- 3Compress and check the size. The result shows the before and after size so you can confirm it will send.
- 4Download and attach. Save the smaller file and attach it to your email as normal.
Frequently asked questions
What size video can I email?+
Gmail allows 25 MB and many Outlook accounts 20 MB, counted across the whole message. Aim under 20 MB to be safe, since encoding overhead adds a little.
Will it look noticeably worse?+
On Balanced, rarely — it is tuned to be hard to tell apart on a normal screen. Small trades visible quality for size and is best saved for when you must hit a hard limit.
Is my video uploaded anywhere?+
No. It is compressed by ffmpeg running inside your browser, so it never leaves your device and nothing is stored on a server.