How to make a video smaller for email
Most email providers cap attachments around 25 MB, and even a short phone video easily exceeds that at full quality.
For short clips
- Open Video Compressor.
- Upload the video.
- Choose 720p resolution and a moderate quality setting.
- Check the result is under your target size before attaching.
For anything longer than a minute or so
Compression alone often can't bring a longer video under 25 MB without visibly hurting quality. Upload it to Google Drive or a similar service and email the link instead — this preserves full quality and avoids the size limit entirely.
Choosing between compression and a link
As a rough guide: clips under about 30 seconds are usually worth compressing and attaching directly with Video Compressor; anything longer is more reliably shared as a link to Google Drive or a similar service, since compression alone struggles to meet a 25MB limit without visibly hurting quality on longer content.
If the recipient needs to reply with edits
A shared link also has the advantage of letting you update the same file later if needed, rather than needing to resend a whole new email attachment for a small change.
Considering the recipient's situation
If you know the recipient is on a slow or limited connection, a smaller, more compressed file that downloads quickly is often more helpful to them than a larger file at slightly better quality — worth factoring in alongside your own preference for quality.
Related help articles
If you send video by email often, it is worth deciding your default approach in advance — compress-and-attach for short clips, always-link for anything longer — rather than deciding fresh each time, which saves the back-and-forth of trying compression first and discovering it will not fit.
