Compress a video to 10 MB
A 10 MB ceiling is the most common default in web upload forms, and it is just loose enough to change what is possible. This page sets the target, shows the budget, and explains where the extra two megabytes actually go.
Drop your video here
or click to browse — MP4, MKV, MOV, WebM, AVI and more
The compressor above is already set to a 10 MB ceiling. It solves the bitrate from the length of your clip, encodes on your own CPU, weighs what came out, and runs again at a corrected bitrate if the first pass missed 10 MB. Nothing is uploaded.
Where the 10 MB limit comes from
Ten megabytes is a round number, which is exactly why so much software picked it. It is the default or near-default attachment cap on a long list of web forms, ticketing tools, learning platforms, internal wikis and self-hosted chat servers, and it is a common value for the maximum upload size a shared web host will allow through PHP or nginx before it returns an error.
It is also the ceiling people hit when a platform quietly changed its rules. If an upload used to work and now does not, the limit is more often the thing that moved than your file — which is exactly what happened with Discord.
What 10 MB buys over 8 MB
Twenty-five percent more budget sounds marginal, and for a thirty-second clip it is. Where it matters is at the boundaries: a clip that only just failed to hold 480p at 8 MB will usually hold it comfortably at 10 MB, and the point at which you are forced down to 360p moves out by about a fifth.
The table below is the same arithmetic the compressor runs, with the audio allowance already subtracted from the total.
| Clip length | Video bitrate budget | Realistic resolution |
|---|---|---|
| 15 seconds | 5,240 kbps | 1080p or original |
| 30 seconds | 2,556 kbps | 1080p |
| 1 minute | 1,214 kbps | 720p |
| 2 minutes | 575 kbps | 480p |
| 5 minutes | 204 kbps | 360p |
| 10 minutes | — | Not viable |
| 30 minutes | — | Not viable |
Work the same arithmetic for any size with the video file size calculator.
Getting under 10 MB without guessing
Set the mode to Target size and leave the ceiling at 10 MB. The tool reads the clip length from the file, divides your byte budget by it, subtracts the audio, and encodes to the bitrate that falls out. If the finished file comes in over — which happens on footage the encoder finds hard to predict — it corrects the bitrate and runs again.
If you want to leave yourself room, set the target slightly under the real limit. 9 MB against a 10 MB cap costs you almost nothing visually and means you are not relying on the platform measuring bytes the same way you do.
Resolution is the lever that actually works here
At 10 MB the temptation is to keep the resolution and let the bitrate fall. That is almost always the wrong trade. A 1080p frame has 2.07 million pixels; a 720p frame has 0.92 million and a 480p frame has 0.41 million. Encoding 1080p at 600 kbps spends your entire budget describing detail the encoder then has to throw away, and the result is a soft, blocky 1080p file that is worse than a sharp 480p one.
Use the table to pick the resolution the budget can actually carry, set it in the resolution row, and let the target-size mode handle the rest. The bitrate guide explains why the relationship is not linear.
Questions about the 10 MB target
What resolution should I use for a 10 MB video?
It depends entirely on length. Under about 40 seconds, 720p is realistic. Between roughly 40 seconds and two minutes, 480p. Beyond that, 360p or trim the clip. The table on this page gives the exact bitrate at each length.
Can I compress a 1GB video to 10 MB?
Only if it is short. The source size barely matters — what matters is duration, because that is what your 10 MB has to be spread across. A 1 GB thirty-second 4K clip compresses to 10 MB and still looks fine at 720p. A 1 GB twenty-minute recording does not, at any resolution.
Will the tool tell me if 10 MB is impossible?
Yes. Once you choose a file it shows the solved bitrate for your target and length before you encode anything, and it refuses to start if the budget leaves under 40 kbps for the video stream.
Other size targets
- Compress to 5 MB The tightest ceiling here. Past about three minutes it stops being possible at all.
- Compress to 8 MB The classic chat and forum attachment wall. Tight enough that duration decides everything.
- Compress to 16 MB The WhatsApp video ceiling — and the one target where the platform re-encodes after you.
- Compress to 20 MB The default in helpdesks, CMS media libraries and upload widgets. Rarely announced.
- Compress to 25 MB The Gmail attachment limit — with the base64 overhead that makes 25 MB less than it looks.
- Compress to 50 MB Roomy enough that 1080p survives on short clips. The first target that stops hurting.
- Compress to 100 MB Generous enough for real 1080p. Also GitHub's hard per-file push limit.
- Compress to 200 MB Big enough that the real question is your viewer's patience, not the platform's limit.
- Compress to 500 MB Discord Nitro's per-file ceiling, and the point where the browser becomes the bottleneck.
Compressing for a specific platform instead? Discord, WhatsApp and email each have their own page.
Or start from the file you have. Whether 10 MB is a stretch or a formality depends on what is already inside the container: MP4 , MOV , MKV , WebM , AVI , WMV , FLV , M4V and MTS / M2TS .