Choose Fit under a size in Compress video, type the limit, such as 20 MB, and it encodes the video to land just under it. It runs in your browser, so there’s no upload wait and no watermark.
Compress a videoThe limits, checked 8 October 2026
These come from each service’s own help pages. Limits change, so the error message you see wins.
| Where | Limit per file | What happens over it |
|---|---|---|
| Discord, free account | 20 MB | Too large to send |
| Discord Nitro Basic | 50 MB | Too large to send |
| Discord Nitro | 1 GB | Too large to send |
| Gmail, personal account | 25 MB of attachments | Gmail replaces the file with a Google Drive link |
| WhatsApp, sent as a document | 2 GB | Too large to send |
Many articles still say Discord’s free limit is 8 MB or 10 MB. Those were earlier limits. Discord’s File Attachments FAQ now says the maximum for non-Nitro users is 20 MB, and notes that Discord is experimenting with limits, so some accounts may see a different number.
Compress it to fit
- Add the video. MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV work, including iPhone and Android recordings.
- Choose Fit under a size. Type 20 for Discord, 24 for Gmail, or whatever the app tells you.
- Lower the resolution for longer clips. 720p for a minute or two, 480p for longer. See the table below.
- Compress, watch, download. Check the picture and the new size before you send it.
The tool divides the size by the video’s length to get a bitrate, keeps some for the sound, aims about 6% under the limit and checks the result. If it’s still over, it tries once more with a lower bitrate. A megabyte here is 1,000,000 bytes, the stricter way of counting.
How much video fits in the limit
Every second of video shares the same budget, so length matters as much as the limit. The total bitrate you can afford is:
Bitrate (kbps) = size in MB × 8,000 ÷ length in seconds
| Length | 20 MB (Discord) | 25 MB (Gmail) | 50 MB (Nitro Basic) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 seconds | about 5,300 kbps | about 6,700 kbps | about 13,300 kbps |
| 1 minute | about 2,700 kbps | about 3,300 kbps | about 6,700 kbps |
| 3 minutes | about 890 kbps | about 1,100 kbps | about 2,200 kbps |
| 5 minutes | about 530 kbps | about 670 kbps | about 1,300 kbps |
That total includes the sound, which needs a small share of it. Phone cameras record at much higher bitrates than these, which is why a one-minute clip straight from the camera is often well over 20 MB.
Pick a resolution that suits the budget
Fewer pixels at the same bitrate look sharper than many pixels starved of data. Starting points for ordinary phone footage:
| Bitrate available | Resolution to try |
|---|---|
| Above about 3,000 kbps | 1080p |
| About 1,500 to 3,000 kbps | 720p |
| Below about 1,500 kbps | 480p |
So a one-minute clip for Discord’s 20 MB works at 720p, and a three-minute one wants 480p. Busy footage, such as sport, water or confetti, needs more data than someone talking, so step down sooner. To make a clip shorter instead, cut it first with Trim video.
Discord
Discord’s help page lists MP4 with H.264, HEVC (H.265) or AV1 video among the common file types. The compressor saves H.264 MP4 where the browser supports it, the most widely playable of the three. A few tips:
- Aim for 19 MB on a free account rather than exactly 20, to leave room for rounding.
- For a gaming clip, trim to the moment that matters. 20 seconds at 1080p beats 2 minutes at 480p.
- A link to the full video on another service avoids the limit entirely.
Personal Gmail accounts can attach up to 25 MB per email. Over that, Gmail uploads the file to Google Drive and sends a link instead, which the recipient needs access to. Work and school accounts have limits set by their administrator.
Aim a little under, such as 24 MB, and remember the limit covers every attachment in the email together. The recipient’s email service may accept less than you can send, so a smaller file is safer for people outside your company.
WhatsApp has allowed files up to 2 GB since 2022 when sent as a document. A video sent the usual way, from the gallery, is usually compressed again by WhatsApp and can look softer. To control the quality yourself:
- Compress the video to a sensible size here, such as 50 MB at 720p for a few minutes of footage.
- Send it with Document instead of Gallery, so WhatsApp sends your file unchanged.
If it won’t fit
- “Won’t fit at any watchable quality.” The video is too long for the limit. Trim it, split it into parts, or share a link.
- Blocky picture. Lower the resolution one step; it looks better than more pixels at the same bitrate.
- It kept the original. If re-encoding would make the file bigger, you get the original back. Pick a size limit or a lower resolution to force it down.
- A vertical phone video. To change its shape for Reels or Shorts, use Resize video before compressing.
Sources
- Discord Support: File Attachments FAQ. 20 MB for non-Nitro users; supported MP4 video codecs. Read 8 October 2026
- Discord Support: What are Nitro and Nitro Basic?. 50 MB with Nitro Basic, up to 1 GB with Nitro
- Gmail Help: Attachment size limits. 25 MB for personal accounts; larger files become Drive links
- WhatsApp Blog: Reactions, 2GB file sharing, 512 groups (5 May 2022)