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Compress a video to a smaller size

Shrink an MP4 or WebM for chat, email or the web — re-encoded entirely on your device, with nothing uploaded.

Video files balloon fast — a one-minute phone clip can be a hundred megabytes, far past what chat apps and email accept. This tool re-encodes the clip at a lower bitrate and, if you want, a smaller resolution, cutting the file down to a fraction of its size.

Pick the Small-file quality tier for the biggest saving, cap the size at 720p, and trim away the seconds you don't need — every step runs in your browser, so the video is never uploaded anywhere.

Why compress with ClearBG

Small-file mode

A dedicated low-bitrate tier roughly halves the balanced size — made for sharing in chat.

Resize & trim

Cap the resolution at 720p or 480p and trim to just the part you need before encoding.

Nothing uploaded

The whole re-encode runs on your device — private, free and watermark-free.

Related free tools

Convert, resize or strip metadata — all on your device.

More ways to compress

Why video files are large and what actually shrinks them

Bitrate is the number that matters

A video's size is essentially its bitrate multiplied by its duration. Resolution, frame rate and codec all matter because of how they push the bitrate needed for a given appearance, but the file size follows the bitrate.

This is why a short 4K clip can dwarf a long, low-resolution one, and why trimming is such an effective saving: it reduces the multiplier directly, with no quality cost at all.

Resolution is usually the honest cut

Halving the width and height quarters the pixels the encoder has to describe, and for footage destined for a phone screen or a chat window the difference is frequently invisible.

Most footage is captured at a resolution chosen by the camera rather than by the use. A clip shot in 4K and destined for a messaging app is carrying four times the pixels of a 1080p version that would look identical at its viewing size.

Audio is a bigger share than people expect

Uncompressed or high-bitrate audio can account for a surprising portion of a short clip. Reducing it to a sensible compressed bitrate, or dropping it entirely for a silent demonstration, is a quick and visually free saving.

Dropping audio has a second benefit on the web, where autoplay policies are far more permissive for silent video than for anything with a soundtrack.

Working within the browser's limits

Encoding video in a page is genuinely demanding, and being realistic about the ceiling saves frustration.

  • Trim first so the encoder only processes what you are keeping.
  • Drop the resolution to the viewing size before adjusting anything else.
  • Remove the audio track when the clip is a silent demonstration.
  • Keep the tab in the foreground; background tabs are throttled and the encode stalls.

Frequently asked questions

How do I compress a video without uploading it?
Open the video tool, drop in your MP4, WebM or MOV, choose the Small-file quality tier and convert. The re-encoding runs in your browser — the clip never leaves your device.
How much smaller will my video get?
The Small-file tier targets roughly half the bitrate of a typical phone recording, and capping the resolution at 720p shrinks it further — together they commonly cut a clip to a quarter of its size or less.
Will there be a watermark or a time limit?
No watermark and no arbitrary clip limit — it's free and unlimited. Long clips simply take about as long as the trimmed clip runs, because the browser re-encodes in real time.

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