Compress Video
Need a smaller video file? Compress your video with three levels of compression — from light (minimal quality loss) to heavy (maximum size reduction with resolution downscaling).
No account, no login, no credit card — just open and use.
How It Works
Upload your video
Choose compression level
Compress and download the smaller file
Features
Use Cases
Shrink videos for email attachments
Reduce storage usage for archives
Speed up video uploads to social media
CRF: quality-first compression
The compressor drives H.264 in constant-rate-factor mode, which inverts how people imagine compression working. Instead of forcing a bitrate and letting quality land where it may, CRF holds perceptual quality steady and lets the file size float. A talking head against a plain wall spends few bits; confetti at a concert spends many — each at the same visual standard.
The levels are honest about their trade: Light (CRF 28) for 'smaller but I care how it looks', Medium (CRF 32) for the everyday balance, Heavy (CRF 38 with a half-resolution scale) for 'it must fit through this hole'. Audio rides along untouched, and everything happens in your browser — compressing a private screen recording never means uploading it somewhere first.
Getting the most per megabyte
Compression compounds with the other tools. Trim first — nothing compresses better than footage you deleted. Downscale 4K to 1080p or 720p with Resize before compressing; resolution reduction preserves more visible quality per megabyte than deeper CRF at full size. Grainy footage? A Denoise pass first removes the incompressible noise that would otherwise eat your bit budget.
Know when to stop: one deliberate compression generation is a tool, repeated generations are decay. Keep the original, compress copies per destination, and if a platform will re-encode your upload anyway (most do), compress only enough to satisfy the size limit — their encoder finishing from a cleaner source ends up looking better on the feed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much smaller will my video get?
Depends on the source and the level. Phone footage is often generously encoded, so Light typically lands 40–60% smaller with barely visible change. Medium usually halves to quarters the size. Heavy — which also halves the resolution — can reach 80–90% reduction for messaging apps and email limits.
What do the three levels actually do?
They set the encoder's constant rate factor: Light at CRF 28, Medium at CRF 32, Heavy at CRF 38 plus a half-resolution downscale. CRF is a quality dial, not a bitrate target — the encoder spends bits where the picture needs them and saves where it will not show.
Where does the removed data come from — what am I losing?
The encoder discards what eyes notice least: invisible detail in motion, texture in flat areas, color precision beyond perception. At Light the loss is genuinely hard to spot. By Heavy you will see softness and, in busy scenes, some blockiness — the trade for a file a tenth the size.
Why is my already-small video not shrinking much?
Because someone compressed it before you — a downloaded or platform-processed file has already had its redundancy spent. Compression works on headroom, and re-compressing efficient files mostly adds artifacts. The big wins come on camera-original footage.
Does compressing touch the audio?
No — the audio stream is copied through unchanged. Video dominates file size so thoroughly that re-encoding audio would add risk for negligible savings.
Often Used Together
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No account needed. No login. Your video never leaves your device. Process unlimited videos for free.
Open Compress Video Tool — FreeNo sign-up • No installation • Works on any device