Video compression counts a lot. A 7min clip recorded in MKV 4K is about 980MB, and the average file size of a 4K movie is circa 100GB or larger, for example, Avatar 4K is 152GB, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 in 4K 184GB. You need to reduce video file size from time to time for faster sharing, uploading, emailing, or saving space. There's a simpler way to decrease video size - compress video free online.
Here we round up top 4 free online video compressors with which you can easily compress videos without losing quality for faster sending via email, sharing and uploading to WhatsApp, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram etc. You'll find out detailed info from our list, covering how-to guide, pros and cons. If you find any solid online video size converter, comment below and let us know.
How to Compress and Resize Videos for Faster Uploading [No Quality Loss]
- Compress MKV, AVCHD, MP4, AVI, WMV, FLV video, etc via codec change, e.g., H264 o H265, MPEG-4 to H264.
- 1:1 Resize HD 1080P/4K/8K UHD videos to smaller size by cropping/trimming without losing any quality at all.
- Lower the video resolution (4K to 1080p/720p), bit rate etc. parameters for faster sharing, uploading and sending.
- Intel QSV and Multi-core CPU accelerate video processing speed, 5x faster than tools.
Clipchamp
Clipchamp is a new freemium online video file compressor site. The interface is very clean and nifty. Clipchamp compresses MP4 files online, and other widely accepted video file formats. Users are allowed to compress video movie file online to MP4, WebM (VP9, VP8), FLV, and GIF. Resolution you can get is 240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, the original quality. After the compression process, you can directly share the video to YouTube, Facebook, Vimeo, Google Drive, or save to computer. As you can see, the downside is that output video file format(MP4, WebM, WMV, GIF) is far from satisfactory.
How to Reduce Video File Size Online Using Clipchamp
Step 1. Open online video size compressor clipchamp.com, log in with your Google or Facebook account. Select the basic plan which is free.
Step 2: Click "Convert my video" to import your video. You can take selfie, directly drag a file or select an input video file from local device or Google Drive. Free users can shrink unlimited videos but only get access to export 480p video with watermark.
Step 3. Select output settings. The settings offer access to shrink large online videos to a smaller size for Web, Android, iPhone iPad, Apple TV, Windows & Office. SD(480P), HD(720P) and Full HD(1080P) are at your choice. To compress video file size online for email, YouTube, FB etc, convert 4K UHD to 1080p, 1080p to 720p, 720p to 480p etc. This will decrease output video quality.
Step 4. Click "Start" to shrink video online video. After the job is done, you can share and save the compressed video files online for WhatsApp, YouTube, Android etc.
Note: the online video compressor took long time to process compressing a 495MB 4K video we uploaded for testing. It reduces video size free online by changing format, quality and resolution, so it is not suitable for users who want to compress videos online without quality loss.
VideoSmaller
Recently added: VideoSmaller is a top-ranking freemium online video file reducer that deserves a spot on the list. It's very easy to use and automatically cuts down the size of the video you upload. You don't need to deal with any video settings like you do with other online tools to make the file size smaller. Maximum video file you can upload is 500MB, which equals a 9-minute 1080p video formatted MP4. It supports MP4, MOV, AVI, and MPEG formats.
How to Convert Video File Size Online with VideoSmaller
Step 1: Open the website of the free online video compression application.
Step 2: Click Browse button to select a video you'd like to compress online.
Step 3: (optional): Click the "Scale video width" drop-down menu to reduce video to a specific width.
Step 4: Click the Green "Upload Video" to start to reduce video file size online. The process may take some time. After the compression task is completed, click Download File to save the reduced video file to your computer. The output video file size and compression ratio will appear on the right.
Note: the tool needs long time to load videos, especially 4K UHD clips.
Videograbber.net
The online video movie compressor features ease of use, high efficiency, and rich features. All the settings are normal and easy to handle. In addition to online compressing videos for YouTube, email, sharing, the online video shrinker tool also empowers users to grab online videos, convert videos to MP3, and record screen activity. The common problem with free online video file compressors drops to videograbber as well, the ads. Just keep your eyes open when reducing video file size online via videograbber.net. Before you click any download buttons, make sure it is the file you wanna save to avoid installing any malware on your desktop.
How to Decrease Video Size to Smaller with Video Grabber
Step 1. click "Browse" button to select a video file.
Step 2. Adjust output settings. To compress AVI, MKV, FLV etc. video file online, choose MP4 as output format. It works to adjust resolution, bitrate, frame rate to compress video file size online. In the advanced settings, you can trim and crop to cut video file size online.
Step 3. Click "Convert" to start the video file shrinking online process.
Note: Users are asked to download third-party program Launcher before online video compression.
Zamzar.com
Zamzar is a popular online tool. It supports a wide range of video formats, MP4, MOV, 3GP, AVI, MKV, FLV etc. The free video compressor downsizes video file size by converting video file format to other smaller-sized file formats. The pity for free user is limited video file size, slower compression speed, and long waiting time. To reduce and compress videos online, you need to give an email address to receive finished files. Hope that the popping up ads won't ruin your mood.
How to Decrease Video Size with Zamzar
Step 1. Open file compressor online zamzar.com, select video files to compress. The maximum video file size is 50MB for free users.
Step 2. Choose output video format. If your video is not in MP4 format, select MP4 for MP4 format keeps a good balance between file size and video quality.
Step 3. Enter email address to receive files. The online video size reducer & converter will send the compressed videos to this email address.
Step 4. Click "Convert" to start the compression process.
Note: This online free size converter lacks the feature from video resolution converter. That means it can't support you to lower resolution from 4K 2160p to 1080p, 1080p to 720p, change aspect ratio, change frame rate, bit rate, etc. All the program can do is to convert video format. It doesn't perform as we expected - videos cannot be compressed with high compression ratio by merely changing container format. The max 50MB for free users is far from enough.
Besides the above-mentioned online video compressors, there are still some other trustworhty tools such as Promo Video Compressor, Clideo, etc. These are all good at reduce video file size with high quality.
Online Video Compressor Pros and Cons You Must Know
Before you use online file compressor tool, you should know the fact that format limits and video file limits exit on most online tools. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. If you care about output quality, formats, and compression speed, desktop software is an ultimate choice.
Merits:
- It's easier and faster than many desktop software.
- It's generally free.
- You don't have to download or install any software on your PC or Mac.
Disadvantages:
- Output options are limited.
- Registration or email address is needed to access to compression.
- It may be bound to ads, malware or spyware.
- The file size of videos to be compressed is limited, e.g. less than 50MB
- Network or bandwidth is required. The poor network connection will have an effect on the compression speed .
- Some compressed videos won't open.
- Some online video compressors don't support 4K/8K video size reduction.
- No options to edit video or adjust parameter settings.
Top Video Size Converter Software That's Much Better Than Online Tools
If you care about output quality, formats, and compression speed, desktop software is a better choice, compared to online video compressor.
Less time, higher quality: MacX Video Converter Pro is the right video compressing software. It is able to compress MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV, AVCHD, YouTube, from MPEG-4 to H264 codec with almost 30% size off or H264 to H265/HEVC codec with 50% file size off, and reduce more files via codec change like AVI (DivX) to AVI (XviD), FLV (H263) to FLV (H264), WebM (VP8) to WebM (VP9), etc. at 98% quality reserved (thanks to High Quality Engine). With the recently added "Auto Copy" mode, it can even help you successfully solve video incompatibility issue without video decoding/re-encoding. Directly tick "Auto Copy" and it will 1:1 copy H264 video from MKV to MP4 container format, AVHCD to MP4, MOV to MP4, FLV to MP4, 3GP to MP4, etc.
For Your Reference: :
MP4 (H264), MOV (H264), MKV (AVC) best formats for video uploading, SNS sharing or E-mailing, making a good balance among file size, compatibility, and quality.
MP4 (H265/HEVC) High Efficiency Video Coding with minimum quality loss. Best output format for saving on your iPhone, Android Galaxy Note 21/21 edge, Sony Xperia XZ, Huawei Mate 10, Xiaomi Mi 6, etc. latest flagship mobile device with HEVC/H265 playback supported.
3GP and WMV (wmv2) offer the best compression ratio, but it's at the cost of video quality.
How to Compress Videos More Efficiently
Step 1: Free download this video compressor on PC, or download its Mac version. Load video file by clicking "Add File" button.
Step 2: Choose output format. To compress video online to much smaller file size, select MP4 with H264 codec as output format and uploading to WhatsApp, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Facebook, email etc. Or choose MP4 (HEVC) from "Mac General Video" profile as output format for iPhone 12 - iPhone 5s video storage with 50% smaller file size.
Step 3: Cut video files in the advanced settings. Adjust various parameters to a proper degree, e.g. lower resolution, frame rate, bit rate, etc. or cut, crop, and trim videos to remove unwanted parts. You have to notice that lowering resolution/frame rate will degrade video quality, though this may speedup emailing or uploading.
Step 4: Click "RUN" button and this software will go into action to start to reduce video files size online with original quality kept.
Comparison of Top 4 Online Video Compressors and Desktop Software
We tested each online tool, as well as the desktop program and shared some basic info listed below. It's worth mentioning that nearly all the online video size converters give bad performance in 4K video reduction. Common problems with online tools include stuttering, "failed to load", time-consuming upload process etc. We recommend you to use desktop software if you need to compress large 4K UHD videos clips.
| Tool | MacX VCP | Clipchamp | VideoSmaller | Videograbber | Zamzar |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Free/Paid |
Free Trial |
Free |
Free |
Free |
Free |
Size Limit |
No limits |
5 videos/Month |
500MB |
100MB |
50MB |
Quality Loss |
Not noticeable/No |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Speed |
5x faster |
Medium |
Medium |
Medium |
Medium |
Compression Ratio |
Up to 90% |
50% |
65% |
40% |
40% |
Batch Compression |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
Ease of Use |
Easy |
Easy |
Easy |
Easy |
Easy |
Video Editing |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
No |
No |
