Compress a video for WhatsApp
WhatsApp refuses most videos over 16 MB. Add yours and it will be re-encoded to fit, already set to the smallest preset so a phone clip usually lands well under the limit.
MP4, MOV, WebM and most other formats — up to 200 MB and 10 minutes
Trimming copies the stream rather than re-encoding, so it finishes in seconds.
Why WhatsApp rejects your video
WhatsApp caps shared video at 16 MB on most accounts. A minute of 1080p footage from a modern phone is typically 60 to 150 MB, so almost anything you film goes over. WhatsApp will sometimes compress a video for you, but it does so aggressively and without asking, which is how a clip arrives looking far worse than it did in your camera roll.
What the smallest preset actually does
It caps the picture at 480p and re-encodes with H.264, the codec every phone can play without installing anything. Dropping the resolution does the real work: a 1080p frame holds four and a half times as many pixels as a 480p one, so most of the file disappears before the encoder has to start discarding detail. On a phone screen the difference is far smaller than the numbers suggest.
If it is still too big
Length is the other half of the equation, and the one people forget. A three-minute video cannot reach 16 MB without looking rough, whichever preset you pick. Cut it down to the part that matters using the trim option, then compress. Thirty seconds at decent quality beats three minutes of mush.
Frequently asked questions
What is the exact WhatsApp video size limit?
Sixteen megabytes for video sent as media, which is what happens when you pick a video from your gallery. Sending the same file as a document raises the ceiling considerably, but the recipient then has to download it manually and it will not play inline in the chat.
Will the video still play on an iPhone?
Yes. The output is standard H.264 video with AAC audio in an MP4 container, which iPhones, Android phones, Macs and Windows have all played natively for years.
Why does WhatsApp make my video blurry even when I do not compress it?
Because it compresses on your behalf when the file is over the limit, using settings tuned for speed rather than quality. Compressing it yourself first means you choose the trade-off instead of WhatsApp choosing it for you, and the result is usually noticeably better at the same file size.