Compress video
Shrink a clip with CRF quality or a target size estimate.
This runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. Longer clips take longer here than they would on a fast server — that is the trade-off for not sending the file.
About Compress video
Shrinks a video in the browser with an H.264 or VP8 encode, using CRF quality or a one-pass bitrate aimed at a target size.
The image tools on this site already have a “compress to target size” slider that binary-searches JPEG quality. Doing that with video would mean encoding the clip five times in WebAssembly. This page does one pass: either a CRF value (lower is bigger and cleaner) or a bitrate derived from the size you typed and the duration of the file.
The size field is an estimate, not a contract. Audio takes a slice of the budget, headers exist, and VP8 rate control is not a lawyer. If you need to land under an email cap, check the downloaded bytes and run again with a lower target. CRF 28 is a reasonable default for talking-head clips; 18 is near-transparent and slow; 36 looks like a 2012 phone upload.
Nothing about this is magic compared with HandBrake. The difference is that HandBrake is an app and this is a tab, and the tab still does not get a copy of the offsite meeting recording.
How to use Compress video
- 1Drop a clip and wait for duration.
- 2Leave CRF at 28, or type a target size in megabytes.
- 3Click Compress, then Download and check the file size.
What it won't do
- One-pass only; no two-pass or hardware encode.
- Very large sources may crash the tab before they get small.
Common questions
Why didn’t the file hit my target size exactly?
Bitrate is duration times target bytes, minus a guess for audio. One-pass encodes overshoot or undershoot. I will not loop the encoder for ten minutes to chase a kilobyte.
Should I use CRF or a target size?
CRF when you care how it looks. Target size when a form will not accept anything over 25 MB. Do not use both as a combined strategy — a filled target size wins.
Does compression strip metadata or the audio track?
Audio is re-encoded, not removed. Embedded tags may or may not survive. If you need a silent file, use Mute video. If you need EXIF-style stripping, video metadata is a different mess than photos.
Related tools
Why this one doesn't upload your file
There is no server to upload to. This page is a static file, and the work happens in your browser using the same graphics and WebAssembly code that renders every other site you visit. Your file is read from disk into memory, processed, and handed back as a download. Once the page has loaded you can disconnect from the network entirely and it keeps working. The longer explanation