Compress a MOV file
A MOV straight off an iPhone is usually HEVC at a very high bitrate — excellent quality, awkward size, and not always playable where you are sending it. Compressing to H.264 MP4 fixes both at once.
Compress a MOV file
Pick a quality level; the file comes out as big as this clip needs.
Choose a video or drop it here
Read by this page, never uploaded. MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI, WMV, FLV and more.
Resolution, frame rate, audio, codec
Nothing is uploaded
FFmpeg runs in this tab. Turn your Wi-Fi off after the page loads and it still works.
Hit an exact size
Say "under 25 MB" and the bitrate is solved for you, two-pass.
No account, no watermark
No sign-up, no email, no logo burned into your video.
No file-size cap
No 100 MB paywall. The only limit is your browser's memory, around 2 GB.
Why iPhone MOV files are so large
An iPhone records to a .mov container using HEVC (H.265) at a deliberately generous bitrate — around 50 Mbps for 4K60, near 100 Mbps in ProRes modes. That is a recording format: it is meant to survive editing and colour grading, not to be emailed. A minute of 4K60 is roughly 400 MB.
It also explains the other MOV complaint: a file that will not play on a Windows PC or an Android phone. That is not the container's fault, it is HEVC, and the fix is the same as the size fix — re-encode the picture to H.264.
What to compress it to
| Where it is going | Format | Codec | Resolution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email, chat, upload forms | MP4 | H.264 | 1080p or 720p |
| A Windows PC or Android phone | MP4 | H.264 | Keep original |
| Final Cut, iMovie, Apple ecosystem | MOV | H.265 to stay small | Keep original |
| Long-term storage on a full phone | MP4 | H.265 | Keep original |
Both output containers are offered under Advanced. MP4 with H.264 is the default because it plays everywhere, which is what most people actually need when a MOV has become a problem.
Rotation, which is where other tools go wrong
Portrait iPhone video is stored as landscape with a rotation flag attached. Tools that ignore the flag produce a sideways result, and tools that half-respect it produce a squashed one. The readout here shows the dimensions as you see them, and the resolution presets apply to that displayed frame — choose 720p on a portrait clip and you get 720 across the short side, which is what you meant.
Compressing on the phone instead
If the file is still on the iPhone, doing this on the phone is faster by a wide margin: the hardware encoder is built for exactly this, and there is no transfer to a laptop first. That is what the iPhone app is for.
How it works
Pick your video
It is read straight from your disk by this page. No upload, no queue, no account.
Choose a quality level
Balanced is visually indistinguishable on a phone or laptop at normal viewing distance.
Compress in the tab
FFmpeg runs in WebAssembly on your own machine. The first run downloads a 31 MB engine, once per browser.
Download it
The result is handed back as a file. Nothing was sent anywhere, so there is nothing to delete afterwards.
Compress for a specific limit
Compress a video for email
Targets 20 MB by default.
Open the compressor →Compress a video for Discord
Targets 9 MB by default.
Open the compressor →Compress a video for WhatsApp
Targets 15 MB by default.
Open the compressor →Compress a video to 8 MB
Targets 7.5 MB by default.
Open the compressor →Compress a video to 25 MB
Targets 24 MB by default.
Open the compressor →Compress an MP4
Quality-based, no target to pick.
Open the compressor →Compress a video for Instagram
Quality-based, no target to pick.
Open the compressor →Reduce a video's file size
Quality-based, no target to pick.
Open the compressor →Compress a 4K video
Quality-based, no target to pick.
Open the compressor →Questions people actually ask
Short answers here, the full story in the guides.
Is my video uploaded to a server?
No. The compressor is FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly and it runs inside this browser tab. Your file is read from disk by the page, processed in memory, and handed back to you as a download. You can load the page, disconnect from the internet, and compress anyway — which is the simplest proof there is.
Does compressing a video lose quality?
Yes, always — compression works by throwing information away. The honest question is whether you can see it. At a sensible bitrate for the resolution, most people cannot tell on a phone or laptop screen. Anyone promising "no quality loss" is describing the perception, not the file.
How do I compress a video to an exact size?
Switch the tool to Target size and type the number. It reads the clip's duration, subtracts the audio budget, solves for the video bitrate that fits, and encodes two-pass so the result lands under the target rather than near it.
Is there a file size limit?
No limit we impose, but a browser tab is bounded by WebAssembly's ~2 GB of memory, and a re-encode needs roughly three times the file's size free. Files up to a few hundred MB are comfortable. Above about 1 GB, the iPhone app is the better tool.
Is there a watermark?
No. No watermark, no logo, no intro frame, no account, and no upload cap to unlock by paying. The output is your video, compressed.
Which format should I compress to?
MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio, unless you have a specific reason not to. It plays on effectively everything. H.265 gives you a smaller file at the same quality but encodes much slower here and is refused by some uploaders and older devices.
Compressing on a phone?
The iPhone app does this on the device, with the hardware encoder.