Video target
Compress video to 20MB
You can compress any video to under 20MB in your browser, with no upload and no signup. One caveat worth knowing first: Outlook advertises a 20MB limit, but the file itself needs to be closer to 15MB to actually go through. The Outlook preset below targets the number that works.
2Add your file
Video, images and PDFs, all compressed on your own machine. No upload, no account, no watermark, no limit on how many files.
The same tool takes video, images and PDFs, at this size or any other.
Watch out
Why 20MB is not really 20MB on Outlook
Outlook.com allows 20MB, but the cap is measured after MIME encoding and corporate Exchange administrators routinely set it lower. 15MB is the number that actually sends.
Aim for15MBMore on Outlook
Who enforces it
What uses a 20MB limit
Mechanism
How this works
Four steps, one of which nobody else does.
- 01
Your browser reads the file
Length, resolution, frame rate and bitrate come out of the container in a fraction of a second. Nothing is decoded and nothing is sent anywhere.
- 02
We work out what fits 20MB
Subtract what the audio needs, divide the rest by the duration, and drop the resolution if the remaining bitrate is too low to still look like video.
- 03
Your own hardware encoder runs
The same silicon your phone uses to record video, reached through WebCodecs. This is the part that would otherwise be an upload and a queue.
- 04
We measure the output
If it came in over 20MB, the bitrate is corrected by the observed error and it encodes again. This is the step almost every other tool skips.
Questions
Compressing video to 20MB
- How do I compress a video to 20MB?
- Drop the file into the tool on this page -- the target is already set to 20MB. The work happens in your browser on your own machine, so there is no upload, no queue and no account. The output is measured before you are given it, so it is genuinely under 20MB.
- Is that exactly 20MB, or approximately 20MB?
- Under it, and verified. The byte count of the finished file is measured and compared against the limit before anything is handed back, and if it came in over, it is done again. 20MB here means 20 decimal megabytes -- 20,000,000 bytes -- which is the smaller of the two readings a platform might intend, so it clears either.
- Will a long video still fit in 20MB?
- Up to a point, and you are told before spending the time. The budget is divided by the duration, so a longer clip gets a lower bitrate and the resolution steps down to match -- 1080p, 720p, 480p, 360p, then 240p. If not even 240p fits, the page tells you how short the clip would have to be instead of handing you something unwatchable.
- Does it put a watermark on the video?
- No, and it never will. Compression runs on your own hardware, which costs us nothing per file, so there is nothing to ration and no paid tier to push you toward. No watermark, no signup, no daily cap.
Nearby
Other sizes
Landed on the wrong number? The right one is one click away.
Other files
Not what you were holding?
Each family reaches your number a different way, because each has a different dial to turn.
Background
Worth reading first
The arithmetic behind the number, and what to do when it will not fit.
- Compressing a video for DiscordDiscord's free limit went to 20MB, but the rollout was uneven and some accounts still see 10MB. Here is how to pick a target that actually uploads.
- Compressing a video for Microsoft TeamsTeams advertises 250GB per file and caps a chat attachment at 100MB. Different routes, different limits -- and the interface pushes you to the small one.
- H.264, H.265 and AV1 comparedAV1 beats H.265 which beats H.264 on efficiency. H.264 is still right for most files you hand to someone else, and the reason is compatibility.