Compress video for YouTube
Upload to YouTube faster without a giant file. This preset re-encodes to an efficient, upload-friendly MP4 with the frame’s short side capped at 1080 px — all in your browser.
Drop a video here, or browse
MP4 · MOV · WebM — compressed right here, nothing uploaded
100% on-device · no signup · no watermark
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Bigger files take longer — your CPU does the work, privately.
YouTube doesn’t need a tiny file — it needs an efficient one
YouTube accepts files up to 256 GB, so size isn’t the blocker — upload time and storage are. A phone or screen recording is often far larger than it needs to be. Re-encoding to an efficient H.264 MP4 cuts upload time without YouTube noticing a quality difference, because YouTube re-encodes everything on its side anyway.
The YouTube preset uses a quality-targeted encode rather than a hard size cap, and keeps your resolution whenever the frame’s short side is 1080 px or less, so a 1920 × 1080 upload stays 1920 × 1080 and a vertical 1080 × 1920 Short stays 1080 × 1920. Bigger frames are scaled down to a 1080 px short side: 3840 × 2160 becomes 1920 × 1080.
Shorts and quick uploads
A leaner file uploads in seconds even on slow connections, and vertical Shorts are safe with this preset: the 1080 px cap is on the short side, so 1080 × 1920 stays 1080 × 1920 and only bigger phone footage (1440 × 2560 or vertical 4K) comes down to 1080 × 1920. If the Short must also fit a size limit at full resolution, switch to Custom and pick a target that gives the video at least 2,500 kbps — 20 MB for a one-minute clip. Trim first if you only need part of it.
What the quality preset outputs: 3840 × 2160 → 1920 × 1080
No size target here, so the file size depends on the footage: H.264 at CRF 26 with 128 kbps AAC, and any frame whose short side is over 1080 px scaled so that side is 1080 px — the height of a landscape frame, the width of a vertical one, the other side rounded to an even number: 3840 × 2160 → 1920 × 1080, while 1920 × 1080 is kept as it is.
| Source frame | Output in this preset |
|---|---|
| 3840 × 2160 · landscape | 1920 × 1080 |
| 1920 × 1080 · landscape | 1920 × 1080 |
| 2560 × 1440 · landscape | 1920 × 1080 |
| 1280 × 720 · landscape | 1280 × 720 |
| 1080 × 1920 · vertical | 1080 × 1920 |
Official limits
YouTube
- Largest upload
- 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less
- Account not verified
- up to 15 minutes
Source: YouTube Help — “Upload videos longer than 15 minutes” — checked 26 September 2026
Frequently asked questions
Does compressing hurt YouTube quality?
Barely, for frames whose short side is 1080 px or less — YouTube re-encodes every upload on its servers, so a well-encoded H.264 MP4 from this tool looks much the same after processing while uploading much faster. Bigger frames are scaled down first, which does cost detail: 4K becomes 1920 × 1080, while a vertical 1080 × 1920 Short is left at full size.
What’s the best format to upload to YouTube?
An H.264 MP4 with AAC audio is the safe, universally accepted choice — exactly what this compressor outputs.
Is there a size limit for YouTube?
YouTube allows up to 256 GB or 12 hours. The real benefit of compressing is faster upload and less storage, not fitting a cap.
Is my video uploaded to your server?
No. It’s compressed locally in your browser and only you upload the result to YouTube.