Audio & video
Compress video for WhatsApp
Under the 16 MB limit and capped at 720p, because WhatsApp re-compresses anything larger anyway.
Drop a video here
MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI · nothing is uploaded
Preset for this page: 16 MB
How it works
- 1Choose a video, or drag one onto the box. MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV and AVI all work.
- 2Check the target — this page is set to 16 MB — and press Compress.
- 3The bitrate is worked out from the length of the video, the encoder runs on your device, and the result is measured against the limit.
- 4Watch the preview, then download the MP4.
Specification
- Target size
- 16 MB
- Output
- MP4 · H.264 video · AAC audio
- Resolution cap
- 720p — WhatsApp re-compresses anything larger
- Method
- Bitrate set from the video's length; resolution and frame rate lowered only when the budget is too thin for the pixels
- Encoder
- ffmpeg compiled to WebAssembly, single-threaded, loaded on first use (about 9 MB)
- Accepts
- MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI, 3GP — including HEVC and 10-bit phone footage
- Uploads
- None — the video never leaves your browser
Questions
Will it really be under 16 MB?
Yes. The output is measured, and if the encoder overshot by a little the video is re-encoded at a lower bitrate — the file you download has been checked against the limit, not estimated. The one exception is a video so long that even the lowest usable bitrate does not fit into 16 MB; then the tool says so instead of handing you a file that will be rejected.
Why does it take a while?
The encoder is the real ffmpeg, compiled to run inside the browser on a single thread. A minute of 1080p takes roughly one to three minutes on a laptop and longer on a phone. That is the price of the file never leaving your device — and for a large video the upload other tools require is often slower than the encode.
How much quality is lost?
Some detail goes — that is what compression is. The whole budget is spent: the bitrate is calculated from the length so nothing is wasted, and resolution or frame rate are lowered only when keeping them would mean visible blocks. Under 16 MB, a short clip stays crisp; a ten-minute one cannot, and the tool warns you when the budget is that thin.
Does it keep the sound?
Yes. Audio is re-encoded as AAC at 32–128 kbps, depending on how much room the budget leaves, and dropped only when the source had none.
What about portrait videos from a phone?
The rotation flag phones write is applied while encoding, so a portrait clip comes out portrait, and HEVC or 10-bit footage from recent iPhones and Androids is converted to plain H.264 that plays everywhere.
Why is the output capped at 720p?
WhatsApp re-compresses every video sent as media to roughly 720p, so a 1080p file only means a longer upload for the same result. To keep exactly the quality you see here, send it as a document (the paperclip, then Document) — WhatsApp leaves documents untouched. Status videos are limited to 30 seconds regardless of size.
Is my video uploaded anywhere?
No. The encoder runs inside your browser. The only download is the encoder itself, once, from a content delivery network; after that the page works with the network switched off.
Is this the same as "whatsapp video compressor"?
Yes. It also gets called "reduce video size for whatsapp" and "compress video to send on whatsapp". They all describe this one job, and this page does it.