Drop your input and pick the compression level - higher levels trade quality for byte savings. Choose Smaller file for the biggest size reduction, Balanced for everyday sharing, or Higher quality when you want to keep as much detail as possible while still shrinking the file. The output keeps your original file extension and downloads with a "-compressed" suffix once FFmpeg.wasm finishes re-encoding it in this tab. Only video files are accepted here - an audio-only upload shows a clear error instead of a broken result.
For a walkthrough of picking a compression level and what to expect for file-size savings, see the video compressor step-by-step guide.
Video Compressor
Reduce the byte size of a video file in the browser. Drop your input and pick a compression level - higher levels trade quality for byte savings.
Output is downloadable immediately after processing, and your original input is not retained beyond the page session.
Key features
- Pick one of three fixed presets - Smaller file, Balanced, or Higher quality - before choosing your video; there is no control for an exact target file size or bitrate, only the three levels.
- The output keeps the same file type as your input, just smaller, downloaded with a "-compressed" suffix.
- The whole re-encode runs entirely in this browser tab via FFmpeg.wasm, so your video is never uploaded to a server.
- Because it runs single-threaded on your device rather than a server, large 4K or high-bitrate files can take several minutes.
- Compression always re-encodes the video, so there is some quality loss even at the Higher-quality setting.
Which codec each container uses
The codec the re-encode uses depends on your input's container - each container keeps its own native codec pairing rather than being forced onto a single codec.
| Input container | Video codec | Audio codec |
|---|---|---|
| mp4, mov, avi, mkv | H.264 | AAC |
| webm | VP9 | Opus |
When to use another tool
If you only need to cut a clip or drop the audio track with no quality loss at all, use the trim or strip-audio tools instead. For format conversion, see the related-tools section.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Video Compressor do?
It shrinks the byte size of a video file right in your browser, keeping the same container format, and lets you download the smaller file as soon as processing finishes.
When should I reach for video compressor?
Reach for it when a clip is too large to email, upload, or share and you want a smaller file without changing its format - pick one of the compression presets and the tool re-encodes the video to a lighter size, trading some visual quality for the space you save.
What complementary tools work well alongside video compressor?
For format conversion, see the related-tools section.