Skip to content
Rescreen
Signup
Menu

Rescreen / Free tools / Video compressor

Video compressor

Make a video or screen recording smaller: pick a quality, a lower resolution or frame rate, or the size it has to fit, and get an MP4 that plays everywhere. It is compressed in your browser, so the video is never uploaded. No account, no watermark.

Compress a video

Drop a video here

or choose one from your device

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

How to compress a video

From a file that is too big to one that fits.

  1. Choose your video

    Choose or drop an MP4, MOV or WebM. The page reads what is inside — codec, size, frame rate, sound — and checks this browser can decode it, before anything starts.

  2. Pick how small

    Compress by quality (Light, Balanced or Strong), or to fit a size such as 25 MB. Lower the resolution or frame rate for more, and choose what happens to the sound. The estimated size updates as you change them.

  3. Compress

    Press Compress video. A progress bar shows how far it has got and roughly how long is left; Cancel stops it at any point.

  4. Compare and download

    The page measures the new file and shows both sizes. Play it, switch to the original at the same moment to compare, then press Download MP4 — or Try other settings.

What it changes

A video is mostly a stream of bits per second. This tool makes it smaller in three ways, each a setting: it spends fewer bits per second on the picture (the compression step, or a bitrate worked out from your target size), it can use fewer pixels (a lower resolution, such as 1080p down to 720p) and fewer frames (a cap such as 30 or 24 frames per second). The sound is re-encoded at the rate you pick, copied as it is when it is already small AAC, or removed.

The result is always an MP4 with H.264 video and AAC sound, which plays on phones, Macs, Windows and every upload form. Picture and sound keep their timing, including the uneven frame timing screen recordings often have, and a phone video stays the right way up.

Worked example

Take a one-minute 1080p MP4 at 30 fps, 60.5 MB: about what a phone or a desktop recorder makes. Choose To fit a size and press 25 MB. The page works out the bitrate that fits after the sound and estimates about 24.0 MB before you start. On our test Mac it took 9 seconds and measured 23.8 MB, 61% smaller, with the sound still in step with the picture.

If the target is too small for the length — 5 MB for twenty minutes at 1080p, say — the page says so and tells you the smallest size that stays readable at that resolution, rather than making an unwatchable file. Encoders can land a little over a target; when that happens the page tries once more at a lower bitrate, and tells you the measured size either way.

Will it lose quality?

Yes, some. Compression that makes a file smaller works by throwing detail away, and this tool re-encodes the video, so it is never lossless. The Light step keeps the most; Strong keeps the least. Screen recordings are the hard case: small text and thin lines are the first things to blur. Before you delete the original, pause the preview on a busy part with small text and switch between Compressed and Original.

Sometimes it cannot make the file smaller at all. A video already encoded tightly — VP9 or AV1 from a browser, H.265 from an iPhone — can come out the same size or bigger as H.264. The estimate warns you before you start, and after it finishes the page shows the measured size and says plainly if it is not smaller; in that case keep the original, or lower the resolution or frame rate.

Which browsers it works in

The compressor uses WebCodecs, the browser’s own video encoder and decoder. We have tested it in a Chromium-based browser (the engine behind Chrome and Edge) on a Mac, at desktop and phone screen widths, with H.264 MP4 at 60 fps, a rotated phone-style MOV, and VP8, VP9 and AV1 WebM recordings with and without sound. Safari and Firefox also provide WebCodecs, but we have not tested them yet. Where a browser has no built-in AAC encoder, as in Firefox, the page downloads a small open-source one (about 1 MB) the first time it is needed; it runs on your device like everything else.

Which videos a browser can decode varies: H.265 (HEVC) from an iPhone needs a browser and computer with H.265 support. If a browser cannot handle a file or a setting, the page says which part is the problem before you start.

Limitations

  • Files up to 2.0 GB, and results up to 1.0 GB: the compressed video is built in your browser’s memory until you save it. A ten-minute 1080p recording (610 MB) compressed to 243 MB in about a minute and a half on our test Mac; a phone may run out of memory on a long recording well before these limits.
  • It compresses the whole video. To cut a part out first, trim it in your editor.
  • Only the first video and sound tracks are kept; subtitles, chapters and extra audio tracks are left out.
  • A target size is met by the measured file, but a very low target for a long video is refused: the page says what it needs instead.
  • Compressing is real work for your computer, and runs at about the speed your browser can encode. Keep the tab open until it finishes; closing it cancels.

Is my video 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, which kind of setting was used, and why it failed from a fixed list of reasons; those events never include the video, its name, its size or its length. See the privacy policy.

Frequently asked questions

Want the numbers first? The video file size calculator works out the bitrate that fits a limit. For a WebM that just needs to play everywhere, the WebM to MP4 converter keeps the quality instead.

How do I compress a video to 10 MB or 25 MB?

Choose To fit a size, press 10 MB or 25 MB (or type any size), and compress. The page works out the bitrate from the video’s length and the sound you chose. One MB here is 1,000,000 bytes, slightly less than some apps mean by it, so the file fits a limit measured either way. If the length makes that size unreadable, it says what size would work.

How do I compress a screen recording without blurring the text?

Keep the resolution and lower the frame rate first: a screen recording rarely needs 60 frames a second, and fewer frames leave more bits for each one. Then use Light or Balanced rather than Strong. Check small text in the preview against the original before you delete anything.

Why is my compressed video bigger than the original?

The original was already encoded tightly, often with a more efficient codec than H.264 (VP9, AV1 or H.265). Re-encoding cannot recover that. Lower the resolution or frame rate, use Strong, or keep the original. The page says when this happens rather than handing you a bigger file as if it were smaller.

Is there a watermark or a time limit?

No watermark and no time limit. The only limit is the 2.0 GB file size, set by how much your browser can hold in memory.

What format does it save?

An MP4 with H.264 video and AAC sound, named after your file with -compressed added. MOV and WebM files come out as MP4 too.

Spend less time editing
your next recording.

Create an account and record your first video in your browser.

Signup