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Compress Video Online Free — PrivaTools

TL;DR: Upload a video and pick a CRF quality level — output is smaller H.264 MP4 that plays everywhere.

Compress video online for free — reduce video file size for email, messaging, and uploads. Choose quality presets from High Quality to WhatsApp-ready. Supports MP4, MOV, WebM.

Compress Video is one of 179+ free file utilities on PrivaTools. The entire stack is open source under the MIT license, so the privacy guarantees can be audited end-to-end. You can also run all 179 tools on your own infrastructure with one docker compose command.

How to Use Compress Video

  1. Upload a video — Select an MP4, WebM, MOV, or AVI file up to 500 MB.
  2. Choose compression preset — Pick Light, Medium, or Heavy compression. Heavier settings reduce file size more but lower visual quality.
  3. Compress and download — Click Compress. The server re-encodes the video using FFmpeg with H.264/H.265. The result shows the file size reduction.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much can a video be compressed?

Typical results are 30-70% size reduction at Medium compression. Raw or high-bitrate videos see the largest savings.

Does compression change the video resolution?

No. The resolution stays the same by default. Only the bitrate is reduced. You can optionally lower the resolution for even smaller files.

What output format is used?

The output is MP4 with H.264 encoding, which is universally compatible with all devices and browsers.

Last reviewed 2026-04-08 by the PrivaTools maintainers. Source code on (MIT-licensed, self-hostable).

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