Compress Video to 20 MB Online
Twenty megabytes is where today’s practical limits meet: Discord’s free uploads and the size an email attachment can actually be once encoding overhead is counted. This page lands your video just under it.
Choose your file
Pick a quality mode
Compress
Download
Need a different size?
Discord’s current limit, email’s real one
Two of the most common “file too large” moments share this number. Discord’s free tier accepts uploads to 20 MB — the days of the 8 MB cap are over — and email services that advertise “25 MB attachments” actually deliver about 20, because attachments are base64-encoded in transit and grow by a third. A video compressed to 20 MB clears both gates on the first try.
The encode aims a few percent under the cap so container overhead never pushes you over, and a corrective second pass runs automatically in the rare case the first lands high. The Discord guide and email guide cover each destination’s quirks.
The quality 20 MB buys you
20 MB is 160 megabits — a meaningfully better canvas than the tight single-digit caps. A minute of footage gets around 2.5 Mbps, comfortably sharp 720p or clean 1080p for calmer content; three minutes still runs near 900 kbps, respectable 540p; a ten-minute screen recording at 260 kbps remains legible because screen content compresses gently.
You do not have to guess where your file falls: the planner reads its duration and resolution, chooses the ladder rung that keeps the picture clean, and shows predicted size, resolution and a plain-language quality level before you upload. The worked 20 MB example shows a real file going through.
Sharing game clips and screen recordings at 20 MB
This is the everyday Discord case, and two automatic decisions do the heavy lifting: 60 fps gameplay drops to 30 when the budget demands it — half the frames, nearly twice the bitrate for each one that remains — and the codec switches to H.265 when that trade buys visible quality (with H.264 kept while compatibility is free; see H.264 vs H.265).
Screen recordings and tutorials fare even better: static regions cost almost nothing, so a surprisingly long demo fits 20 MB in perfectly readable shape. If the voice-over does not matter, removing audio in the advanced options frees another slice of budget.
Above and below the 20 MB line
If your gate is stricter — an older bot, a legacy form — the 10 MB page and 8 MB page pin those exact targets. Sending by WhatsApp instead? Its video messages cap at 16 MB: use the 16 MB page.
And when nothing enforces a number, skip hard caps entirely: the video compressor in Balanced mode finds the natural size for your footage, which is often smaller than you expect at better quality than a forced target.
Three steps, no account
Drop your video in
Any common format up to 2 GB. The tool reads duration and resolution instantly.
Confirm the 20 MB plan
Predicted output, resolution and quality appear before anything uploads.
Compress, then attach anywhere
The MP4 lands under 20 MB — ready for Discord, Gmail, Outlook or any portal.
Frequently asked questions
How do I compress a video to 20 MB for Discord?
Upload the clip here — the target is pinned to 20 MB, matching Discord’s free-tier limit. The tool predicts the result first, then two-pass encodes to land safely under the cap, so the upload never bounces.
Is 20 MB small enough to email a video?
Yes — deliberately so. “25 MB” email limits shrink to about 20 MB of real attachment once transport encoding is added, which is why this page targets 20 rather than 25. The output MP4 plays directly in Gmail and Outlook previews.
What does a 10-minute video look like at 20 MB?
At about 260 kbps it stays legible for screen recordings and static content but motion-heavy footage will visibly suffer. The prediction panel tells you honestly beforehand; for long footage a larger target like 50 MB keeps quality intact.
Does compressing to 20 MB remove my video’s audio?
No — audio is kept by default at a bitrate scaled to the budget. Removing it is an explicit choice in the advanced options, useful when a silent clip should spend every bit on the picture.