Compress MOV

Make an iPhone or Mac MOV smaller, and keep it as MOV or save it as MP4.

Drop a video here

or choose one from your device

MOV, MP4 or WebM, up to 2.0 GB. Stays on your device.

Who this is for

Mac and iPhone owners land here with a MOV that is too big to email, upload or keep: a screen recording that grew to hundreds of megabytes in a few minutes, a 4K clip from a phone, or an export from an editor. Choose the file and the page reads what is inside it, picks a starting point (Balanced quality, at most 1080p, sound kept) and shows the size it expects before anything runs. Press Compress video, then play the result, compare it with the original at the same moment and download it. It stays a MOV unless you choose MP4 under Save as.

The numbers behind it

A Mac saves a screen recording as a MOV named "Screen Recording [date] at [time].mov", on the desktop unless you choose another place. Source
On a Mac with macOS Tahoe 26 or later that supports it, the Screenshot app records SDR as H.264 and HDR as HEVC (H.265). Source
An iPhone set to High Efficiency records HEVC; Most Compatible (Settings › Camera › Formats) records H.264. Apple says HEVC compresses better than H.264. Source
QuickTime Player can re-save a video with File › Export As, choosing Greater Compatibility (H.264) or Smaller File Size (HEVC). Source
Apple puts one minute of iPhone video at about 70–105 MB at 1080p, 19–27 MB at 720p, 12–16 MB at 540p and 6–9 MB at 360p. Source

Why Mac screen recordings are so big

A Retina screen has twice the pixels in each direction that macOS lays out, and a screen recording keeps all of them. On our 13-inch MacBook Pro, set to look like 1440 × 900, a recording comes out at 2880 × 1800: over five million pixels a frame, two and a half times 1080p.

It also records up to 60 frames a second whenever something moves, and macOS spends bits freely so text stays sharp. One minute of a working desktop on that Mac, with windows updating most of the time, made a 259 MB MOV at 34.5 Mbps. A still screen costs far less: ten seconds with almost nothing moving was 6.8 MB.

Most of that is rarely needed to show someone what you did. The page starts at 1080p and Balanced, which took the same minute to 47.9 MB. Capping the frame rate at 30 as well took it to 19.3 MB, because a screen recording changes little between frames. Pause the preview on small text to check it before you keep the smaller one.

Settings	Saved as	Result	Smaller by	Took
1080p, Balanced (where it starts)	MOV	47.9 MB	82%	19 s
1080p, Balanced	MP4	47.9 MB	82%	20 s
1080p, 30 fps, Balanced	MOV	19.3 MB	93%	12 s
720p, Strong	MOV	13.2 MB	95%	18 s
Full 2880 × 1800, 30 fps, Light	MOV	81.6 MB	69%	21 s
To fit 25 MB, 1080p	MOV	23.2 MB	91%	39 s

Our one-minute 2880 × 1800 Mac screen recording (259 MB, no sound), compressed with this page in Chrome on a 13-inch MacBook Pro (M1), 3 November 2026. Each result was measured after it was made. MOV and MP4 come out the same size.

MOV or MP4: which to save

Both hold the same thing here: H.264 picture and AAC sound. The container is the box around them, so choosing one or the other does not change the size or the quality.

Keep MOV when the file stays on Apple devices or goes back into Final Cut Pro, iMovie or QuickTime. Choose MP4 when it goes to a Windows PC, an Android phone, a website or an upload form that lists MP4: it is the format nearly everything accepts. If you only need the format changed and not the size, the MOV to MP4 converter copies the streams instead and loses nothing.

iPhone videos and HEVC

An iPhone records HEVC (H.265) unless its camera is set to Most Compatible. HEVC already compresses better than H.264, so an iPhone MOV shrinks less than a screen recording does, and lowering the resolution does most of the work.

A browser can only compress a video it can decode. Safari decodes HEVC, and so do Chrome and Edge on a Mac; on Windows it depends on the computer, and Firefox often cannot. This page checks when it opens and says so before you choose a file. If yours is refused, open the page in Safari, or re-save the video on a Mac with QuickTime Player (File › Export As › 1080p, Greater Compatibility) and compress that copy.

Other ways to compress a MOV

Each of these is free and runs on your own computer or phone. To make a smaller recording in the first place, see how to screen record on a Mac.

QuickTime Player (Mac): open the MOV, choose File › Export As, pick 1080p or 720p, then Greater Compatibility (H.264) or Smaller File Size (HEVC). There is no size target, and an export can come out bigger than a tightly encoded original.
iMovie (iPhone): start a movie project with the video, tap Share › Save or Share Video › Options, and choose 720, 540 or 360.
HandBrake (Mac, Windows, Linux): add the MOV, pick a preset such as Fast 1080p30 and start. It saves MP4, MKV or WebM, not MOV.
Share it as a link: iCloud Drive, AirDrop or a screen recorder that uploads for you sends the full-size file without compressing it at all.

What it cannot do

Most MOVs from a Mac or an iPhone work. These do not, or only in part.

ProRes MOVs from cameras and editors cannot be decoded in any browser. Export H.264 first, from QuickTime Player or your editor.
It always re-encodes, so it is never lossless. Check small text in the preview before you delete the original.
In Chrome and Edge on a computer, files of any size work. In Safari and Firefox, files go up to 2 GB, because the result is built in memory.
Only the first picture and sound tracks are kept. Timecode, chapters and extra audio tracks are left out.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my MOV file so large?

A screen recording keeps every Retina pixel at up to 60 frames a second, at a high bitrate. One minute on our MacBook Pro was 259 MB. Phone video is large because it is 1080p or 4K at a high bitrate. Lowering the resolution and frame rate is where most of the saving comes from.

Will renaming a MOV to MP4 make it smaller?

No. Renaming changes nothing inside the file, and zipping saves almost nothing because the video is already compressed. Only re-encoding at a lower bitrate, resolution or frame rate makes it smaller.

How do I compress a MOV without losing quality?

Every real reduction loses some detail, but you can keep it from showing. Keep the resolution at 1080p or above for screen recordings, lower the frame rate to 30, and use Light or Balanced. Compare the preview with the original on small text before you delete anything.

How do I make a MOV small enough to email?

Choose To fit a size and type the attachment limit your email service gives. The page works out the bitrate from the length and tells you if the video is too long to fit at a readable quality. Mail Drop or a shared link sends the full file instead.

Can I compress a MOV on my iPhone?

Yes, in iMovie: export at 720, 540 or 360. This page also works in Safari on an iPhone for short videos; long ones can run out of memory on a phone, so a computer is better for those.

Why does it say this browser cannot decode the video?

The MOV is HEVC or ProRes. HEVC needs a browser that decodes it, such as Safari, or Chrome on a Mac. ProRes is an editing format no browser decodes; export it as H.264 from QuickTime Player or your editor, then compress that.

Is my file uploaded?

No. The file is read, compressed and measured inside this page and never sent anywhere. We count anonymous page views and whether a compression started, finished or failed, with the kind of setting used and a reason from a fixed list; a failure also carries the step, your browser’s error and the kind of video (codecs, resolution, frame rate, size and length in broad bands). Never the video or its name. If a compression fails you can choose to send us the file, which is deleted within 30 days. See the privacy policy.

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