MOV to MP4
Drop a QuickTime .mov from an iPhone or a Mac and get back an H.264 MP4 that plays and uploads everywhere. The conversion runs on your own device — the file is never sent to a server.
Drop a video here, or browse
MP4 · MOV · WebM — compressed right here, nothing uploaded
100% on-device · no signup · no watermark
Loading compressor…
Bigger files take longer — your CPU does the work, privately.
Why a MOV won’t play when an MP4 will
MOV is Apple’s QuickTime container and MP4 is the ISO container almost everything else expects. The confusing part is that both can carry the same video inside, so two .mov files can behave completely differently: one opens fine in a Windows player, the next one shows audio and a black screen.
The difference is the codec, not the extension. Apple lets you choose it: Settings › Camera › Formats offers “High Efficiency”, which records HEVC, and “Most Compatible”, which records H.264 (Apple Support, checked 6 September 2026). A “Most Compatible” recording is H.264 wrapped in QuickTime — the same video an MP4 would carry. A “High Efficiency” recording is HEVC, and HEVC is exactly what older players, Windows without the HEVC extension, and plenty of upload forms refuse.
So “convert MOV to MP4” means one of two very different jobs, and knowing which one you need is the whole trick.
What this converter actually does
This page always re-encodes: your video is decoded and encoded again as H.264 with AAC audio, then written into an MP4. That is the honest description, and it is worth being clear about because a re-encode costs a little quality and takes real time on your CPU.
The upside is that it fixes the hard case. If your MOV is HEVC — the default on every recent iPhone — a container swap alone would give you an MP4 that still refuses to play on the machine you are sending it to. Re-encoding to H.264 produces a file that plays on Windows, Android, old TVs, PowerPoint and Keynote, and every upload form that has ever rejected your footage.
If your MOV is already H.264 and it plays fine everywhere you need it, you do not need this page at all — you need a smaller file, which is what the MOV compressor is for.
Pick the output size while you are here
Because the re-encode is happening anyway, choose how big the result should be before you start rather than converting first and shrinking the MP4 afterwards — that second pass would re-encode your video twice and take the quality hit twice. Set the target high to stay close to the source, or drop it to a platform limit and get a conversion and a compression in one pass.
One caveat stated plainly: at very low targets the encoder reduces the resolution rather than let the picture fall apart — below roughly 1 Mbit/s it steps down to 480p, below 2.5 Mbit/s to 720p. Leave the target high if you want the source resolution kept. The reasoning is spelled out in the guide on keeping quality while compressing.
Long clip? Trim it first with the control above, or on the video cutter. The same target size spread over a shorter clip always looks sharper.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert MOV to MP4 for free?
Drop the .mov file above, pick a target size, and press compress. It is decoded and re-encoded to an H.264 MP4 inside this page and then downloaded. No signup, no watermark, no conversion count, and nothing is uploaded.
Can I just rename .mov to .mp4?
Sometimes, and that is the trap. If the MOV holds H.264 the rename often plays; if it holds HEVC — the default on recent iPhones under Settings › Camera › Formats › High Efficiency — the renamed file will be rejected or play as a black screen on many devices. Re-encoding to H.264 is what actually makes it universal.
Does converting MOV to MP4 lose quality?
A little, because this converter decodes and re-encodes the video rather than copying it across. Keep the target size high and the loss is hard to see. A low target trades more detail for a smaller file, and very low targets also step the resolution down.
Will it work with a 4K iPhone video?
Yes, but 4K is heavy: your own CPU does the work and your browser has to hold the file in memory. If a long 4K clip fails, trim it first, close other tabs, or use a desktop browser with free RAM.
Is my file uploaded to convert it?
No. The conversion runs in your browser with WebAssembly, so the video never leaves your device. Only the engine binary is fetched once from a public CDN — after that the page works with the network off.
Why does my MOV not play on Windows?
Almost always because it is HEVC. Windows does not decode HEVC out of the box, so the file opens with sound and no picture, or not at all. Converting to an H.264 MP4 here removes the problem for good.