Compress video
Make videos small enough to share using a genuine FFmpeg engine that runs inside your browser. The first job downloads the engine once (~32 MB) and it is slower than a native app, but your footage never leaves your device.
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Results
How to compress video
- Drop the video you want to compress.
- Choose a quality level and output resolution, and keep or drop the audio.
- Run, and the engine downloads once, then encodes on your device.
- Download the compressed MP4.
What makes a video file large
Video size is driven by four things: resolution (how many pixels per frame), frame rate, duration, and bitrate (how much data is spent per second of footage). Phones record at high resolution and high bitrate because storage is cheap and quality is the priority. A one-minute 4K clip from a recent phone is commonly 300 to 400 MB. That is far more than a chat app, an email, a website or a social feed needs; those platforms will display it at 1080p or lower and recompress it anyway.
How the compressor works
This tool runs a real FFmpeg encoder inside your browser using WebAssembly. FFmpeg is the same open-source engine used by YouTube, Netflix and virtually every video service. On the first run the engine (about 32 MB) is downloaded once and cached; after that, everything is local. Your video is decoded, optionally scaled down, and re-encoded as H.264 in an MP4 container, which plays on every phone, computer, TV and browser made in the last fifteen years.
Choosing settings
| Destination | Resolution | Quality | Result from a 1-minute 4K clip |
|---|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp, iMessage, Telegram | 720p | Medium | ~15 to 25 MB |
| Email attachment | 720p | Medium to low | ~10 to 20 MB |
| Website background or embed | 1080p | Medium | ~30 to 50 MB |
| Instagram, TikTok, YouTube upload | 1080p | High | ~50 to 80 MB |
| Archive a copy that still looks good | Original | High | ~40 to 60% of original |
Dropping resolution from 4K to 1080p alone cuts the file to about a quarter, because there are a quarter as many pixels. Going to 720p cuts it further. The quality setting then controls how much detail the encoder keeps within that resolution.
Removing audio
Audio is a small share of the file, typically 1 to 2 MB per minute, so removing it rarely matters for size. The option is there for muted website backgrounds, product loops and screen recordings where the audio track is silence or noise.
Speed and practical limits
Encoding in a browser is slower than a native app: expect roughly real-time to three times real-time on a laptop, so a two-minute clip takes two to six minutes. Phones are slower and can run out of memory on long 4K files. For clips up to a few minutes it works well; for a 45-minute recording, a desktop application is the better tool. Keep the tab in the foreground while it runs, as browsers throttle background tabs.
Input formats
MP4, MOV (iPhone), WebM, MKV, AVI and most other common containers are accepted. HEVC (H.265) footage from iPhones is decoded and converted to H.264, which solves the frequent "this video will not play on Android or Windows" problem at the same time. Nothing is uploaded at any stage.
Frequently asked questions
Is my video uploaded to a server?
No. Compression uses an FFmpeg engine running inside your browser, so the video never leaves your device.
Why is the first job slow to start?
The FFmpeg engine (~32 MB) downloads once on first use. After that it is cached, and encoding is on-device, so it is slower than a native app.
What format do I get out?
You get a compressed H.264 MP4, which plays virtually everywhere.
Your files never leave your device
Every tool on Squishly Tools is 100% free and runs entirely inside your browser. Your images and documents are processed on your own computer and are never uploaded to a server. There are no accounts, no watermarks and no catch.