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Send a long video on WhatsApp without it being butchered

WhatsApp squeezes anything you send as media, and it refuses video over about 16 MB. If you compress it yourself first, you control the trade-off instead of letting the app crush it.

  • Nothing is uploaded. Your browser does the compression, so the file stays on your device.
  • Lands under the real limit. We aim a little below it, so the upload goes through first time.
  • Fast. A 30 second 1080p clip fits into 10 MB in about two seconds on a desktop.
Where are you sending it?

Typical limit 16.00 MB. We aim for 15.20 MB, 800 KB of safety margin. Typical size, not an official limit, checked November 2026. WhatsApp does not publish this number on its help pages; 16 MB is the long-standing figure for photos and videos sent from the gallery. Documents go up to 2 GB.

Sent to our servers: 0 bytes. It all happens in this tab.

How the WhatsApp limit works

When you send a video as a normal attachment, WhatsApp re-encodes it and enforces a cap of about 16 MB. If you send it as a Document instead, the cap is far higher, but the recipient gets a file rather than a playable preview.

Our 16 MB preset leaves a margin below the cap. A shorter clip will keep a higher resolution, and a long one will be scaled down to stay under the line.

Because WhatsApp re-compresses, avoid compressing something that is already small. If your file is already under the cap, we will tell you so and leave it alone.

Sizes we target

  • WhatsApp video and photos, 16 MB: WhatsApp caps videos and photos sent from the gallery at 16 MB (documents can be up to 2 GB, but they arrive as files, not playable media). (typical size, not an official limit) (checked 2026-11-09)

We aim below each limit by the margin shown. Use the menu above to switch.

Tips

  • Vertical video from a phone stays vertical. We keep the orientation.
  • If quality matters more than the preview, send the original as a Document.
  • For a Status update, shorter is better than smaller. Trim to under 30 seconds first.

Questions people ask

What is the WhatsApp video size limit?

About 16 MB for videos and photos sent as media. Documents can be much larger. Check WhatsApp's help page for the current rule.

Will the sound still work?

Yes. Audio is kept and encoded at a sensible rate for the space available.

Does this work on my phone?

Yes, in a current mobile browser. Compression runs on your phone, so very long clips can take a few minutes and will drain some battery.

Related

Limits change. We link the official page wherever there is one, and the safety margin means a small change is unlikely to matter. Last updated 2026-11-09.