Compress Video for WhatsApp
Shrink a video to send on WhatsApp without losing it to compression twice.
Drop a video here or click to choose
compressed on your device — your video is never uploaded
WhatsApp treats a video sent as media the same way whatever its source: it caps the file at around 16 MB and re-encodes it hard, which is why a clip that looked fine on your phone arrives at the other end blocky and smeared. The trick is to do the shrinking yourself first, with a cleaner encoder and a sensible setting, so that WhatsApp either has little left to squeeze or you can send the result as a document and skip its re-encode altogether.
This page uses the medium preset, aimed at WhatsApp and Discord Nitro: a quality level that makes a typical phone clip several times smaller while keeping faces and text readable. The output is an MP4 that plays on any phone. All of the encoding happens in your browser with the FFmpeg engine, downloaded once (about 30 MB) and kept; the video itself is never uploaded, so a family clip stays on your device.
This preset chooses a quality, not a file size, so a long recording can still land over 16 MB; for a guaranteed number use the Compress Video to Size tool on this site with 16 as the target. And because your own processor does the work, a ten-minute video takes minutes, and longer on a phone than on a laptop.
More sizes & options
Frequently asked questions
- Why not just let WhatsApp compress it?
- WhatsApp's automatic compression is harsh and unpredictable. Compressing to a sensible size first gives you control and a cleaner final result.
- Is there a length limit?
- WhatsApp limits video length for status but not for chats. Longer videos just take a little longer to compress here since it's all local.
- Should I send the video as a document instead of as media?
- Sending as a document skips WhatsApp's re-encoding and allows far larger files, but the clip will not preview or play inline. Compress here first, then choose document if quality matters more than convenience.
- Will the result be under WhatsApp's 16 MB limit?
- Short phone clips usually are, but this preset fixes quality, not size, so a long video can exceed it. For a guaranteed size, use the Compress Video to Size tool and set 16 MB.
Guides
- How to compress a video for Discord (under 20 MB) without a watermark Discord's free upload limit is 20 MB since August 2026. Here is what that limit actually allows, how to get a clip under it without turning it into mush, and why you do not need an app or a server to do it.
- How to make a video file smaller without ruining it Four things decide how big a video is: length, resolution, bitrate and codec. Which one to change for email, WhatsApp, a website or a USB stick, the arithmetic behind "fit under 25 MB", and why trimming first is free.
Related tools
🔒 Your files are processed on your device. This tool runs entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded.