Before you start
- It is slower than a site that uploads. Your machine does the encoding rather than a server farm, so a few minutes of video takes a few minutes. That is the trade for the file never leaving.
- One video at a time. A batch would hold every decoded frame of every file in memory at once.
- Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari 16.4 and newer. It needs WebCodecs. If your browser cannot encode video, this page says so instead of handing you a broken file.
- MP4 comes out, whatever went in. The audio is re-encoded to AAC at the source rate or lower, so it never comes back bigger than it went in.
- Length is limited by your device, not by us. A phone will manage a short clip and struggle with a long one. Keep the tab open while it runs.
VIDEO -> SMALLER VIDEO · Local tool
Compress video
Make a video smaller without uploading it anywhere.
Last updated
How do I compress a video without uploading it?
filetity compresses video inside your browser tab using WebCodecs, the video engine the browser already ships, so the file never goes to a server. Pick a size, press once, and the new MP4 is handed back to your device. It is slower than a site that uploads, because your own machine is doing the encoding rather than a rack of servers, and that is the entire trade: minutes of your time instead of your video sitting on someone else's disk. Most useful on a phone recording that is too large for WhatsApp, for an email attachment, or for an upload form with a cap.
01 / Your device
the file stays here
02 / Browser memory
the work runs locally
03 / Back to you
saved on this device
When you would use this
Situations, not settings.
- A phone video WhatsApp will not send
- Phones record at a far higher bitrate than watching needs. Sending something already near the size WhatsApp wants means it has less left to squeeze, so what arrives looks better.
- A screen recording for a bug report
- Jira, Linear and GitHub all cap attachments. A two minute capture at retina resolution clears the cap easily once it is re-encoded.
- Footage you would rather not upload
- A recording of a call, a document on camera, or anything filmed at home. Every other online compressor takes a copy of it first.
How it works / no cloud
A conversion engine, not an upload form.
filetity decodes the video with WebCodecs, the browser's own video engine, scales the frames down and re-encodes them at a lower bitrate, then writes a new MP4. The audio is re-encoded to AAC at the source rate or lower. Your machine does the encoding, which is why a long video takes real time here and why there is no queue and no upload.
- Offline ready
- Installable app
- No file limit queue
Straight answers
No accordion. Nothing hidden.
- Is it free?
- Yes, with no watermark and no page limit.
- Does it need an account?
- No. There is no account system.
- Is my file processed on my device?
- Yes. The file is read by your browser and never uploaded. There is no server to send it to.
- What formats are supported?
- MP4, MOV and WebM in. MP4 out, H.264 video and AAC audio.
- What are the limits?
- One video at a time. It needs WebCodecs, so Safari must be 16.4 or newer; Chrome, Edge and Firefox all have it. Length is limited by your device rather than by us, and a phone will be slower than a laptop at the same file.
- Does it work on mobile?
- Yes, on any modern mobile browser. Large files are limited by the memory the phone gives the browser.
- Does it work offline?
- Yes, once the page has loaded. The tool keeps working with no network connection.
- Is my video uploaded anywhere?
- No. The file is read from your disk into the tab and encoded there by the browser's own video engine. There is no server to send it to. Turn the network off after the page loads and it still works.
- Why is it slower than other online video compressors?
- Because the work happens on your machine instead of on a rented server farm. A site that finishes a 200 MB video in ten seconds uploaded it, encoded it on hardware you are sharing with everyone else on the site, and sent it back. That is genuinely faster, and it means your video sat on someone else's disk. This trades minutes for that.
- How much smaller will it get?
- The page shows an estimate from the arithmetic before you start, and the real number when it finishes. A phone video is usually several times smaller at 1080p, because phones record at a much higher bitrate than anything needs for watching. A video that is already compressed will barely move, and the tool says so rather than making it bigger.
- Does the audio get worse?
- Slightly, because it is re-encoded to AAC rather than copied. That was measured rather than assumed: a track that arrived at 156 kbps came back at 196 kbps when the encoder was left to choose, which is both worse and bigger, so the tool now asks for the source rate or 128 kbps, whichever is lower. On speech and screen recordings the difference is inaudible. If you need the original audio untouched, keep the original file.
- Why does it say my browser cannot encode video?
- WebCodecs is the browser API that does the encoding, and not every build has it. Safari added it in 16.4, and some Linux builds of Chromium ship without an H.264 encoder. Rather than hand you a broken file, the tool says so and stops.
- Can I compress a video for WhatsApp?
- Yes, and that is the common reason people arrive. WhatsApp re-compresses what you send anyway, so sending it something already close to the size it wants means it has less left to take away, and the video that arrives looks better than one squeezed twice.
Keep working locally
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