Compress a video for WhatsApp

WhatsApp aggressively re-compresses videos, which can make them look worse and still slow to send. Compress your clip first, right here in your browser, to control the quality and keep the file small — with nothing uploaded.

Target size is preset to 16 MB, the classic WhatsApp limit. Videos up to 200 MB are compressed in your browser.

How it works

  1. Drop your clip into the box above.
  2. Keep the 16 MB target, or choose a bigger one for WhatsApp Web.
  3. Download and share the smaller video on WhatsApp.

Beat WhatsApp’s own compression

When you pre-compress to a sensible size, WhatsApp has less to re-encode, so your video sends faster and often looks better at the other end.

Stay under sharing limits

WhatsApp limits video size for sharing, historically 16 MB and up to 2 GB for documents. The 16 MB target gets most clips comfortably under the cap while keeping 720p.

Batch your clips

Sending several videos? Drop them all in and they are compressed one after another before you open WhatsApp.

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Frequently asked questions

Why does WhatsApp ruin my videos?

WhatsApp re-compresses videos to save bandwidth. Pre-compressing gives it a smaller, optimized source, which usually means a better-looking result and faster sending.

What size should I target?

16 MB is the safe default for a video message. If you send the file as a document instead, WhatsApp keeps it as-is, so a larger target such as 50 MB gives better quality.

Is anything uploaded?

No. The browser compresses locally before you ever open WhatsApp.

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