Compress a Video to 16MB
Made for WhatsApp's video limit — compressed on your device, not our servers.
Runs entirely in your browser. Your videos never leave this device.
16MB is WhatsApp's long-standing cap for videos sent as regular media, and the same ceiling applies to Status videos (now up to 90 seconds on updated apps). This page compresses your video to just under 16MB, computed from its real duration.
How do I compress a video to under 16MB for WhatsApp?
Drop the video into the compressor, choose the 16MB target, and send the resulting MP4 through WhatsApp as normal media — the whole process runs in your browser with no upload. The encoder computes the exact bitrate from your video's duration, and if the first pass lands over 16MB it automatically retries at a lower rate.
The facts that matter
| Who caps at 16MB today | WhatsApp videos sent as media (inline playback), WhatsApp Status (16MB, up to 90 seconds on updated apps) |
|---|---|
| The document loophole | WhatsApp accepts files up to 2GB sent as documents — full quality, but no inline preview or autoplay |
| 60 seconds at 16MB | ≈2.1 Mbps — looks good at 720p |
| 3 minutes at 16MB | ≈710 kbps — acceptable 480p |
| 5+ minutes at 16MB | ≈430 kbps or less — soft; trim if quality matters |
| Output | MP4 (H.264 + AAC), aspect ratio and frame rate preserved |
Get a better result
- Trim the video first — every second you cut leaves more bitrate for what's left.
- For Status, trim to your app's duration limit first (up to 90 seconds on current versions) — the duration limit is separate from the 16MB one.
- Need original quality? Send the file as a document in WhatsApp instead — up to 2GB, no recompression.
- Vertical phone clips under two minutes are the happy case at 16MB — they'll look close to the original.
- Batch mode compresses a queue of clips one by one — useful before a trip's worth of videos goes to the family group.
Frequently asked questions
How long a video fits in 16MB with decent quality?
Roughly one to three minutes. A one-minute clip gets about 2.1 Mbps and looks good at 720p; at three minutes you're near 710 kbps, which is acceptable at 480p; past five minutes the picture goes noticeably soft. WhatsApp's own guidance of about 90 seconds to 3 minutes per 16MB matches this math.
Will WhatsApp still compress my video after this?
WhatsApp applies its own compression to anything sent as media, and you can't control its settings. Getting under 16MB is what makes the video sendable as media in the first place. If you need the original quality untouched, send the file as a document instead — WhatsApp allows up to 2GB that way, at the cost of inline preview.
Does this work for WhatsApp Status?
Yes — Status shares the same 16MB cap, with a duration limit of up to 90 seconds on updated apps (older versions allow 30–60s). A 90-second clip at 16MB has about 1.4 Mbps to work with, which still looks clean at Status resolutions.
What about long videos?
The tool will fit any length under 16MB, but a 10-minute video ends up around 200 kbps and looks rough. For long videos, either trim to the moment that matters or use WhatsApp's document option and skip compression entirely.
What if the result comes out just over 16MB?
It won't reach you that way — the tool checks the finished file's size and automatically re-encodes at a lower bitrate if the first pass overshot. You just get a file that's actually under the limit.
Is my video uploaded anywhere?
No. Compression runs inside your browser using FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly, so the video stays on your device from start to finish. The ~32 MB engine downloads once on first use and is cached afterward.