Compress Video for Discord

Discord refuses uploads above its size limit — 20 MB on a free account since August 2026, 10 MB before that — and most game clips and phone videos are far bigger. This tool works backwards from the limit: it measures the video, works out the highest bitrate that still fits, picks a sensible resolution for that bitrate, encodes an H.264 MP4 that plays right in the chat, and checks the result, re-encoding a little smaller if it overshot. Trim the clip to the moment that matters for the best picture. It runs in your browser with the ffmpeg engine (about 30 MB, downloaded the first time); nothing is uploaded.

How to use this tool

1. Choose the limit: Discord free (20 MB), the earlier 10 MB, Nitro Basic (50 MB), Nitro (500 MB), e-mail (25 MB) or a custom size.
2. Optionally keep only part of the video and remove the sound.
3. Choose the video; compression starts right away.
4. Check the final size against the limit and download the MP4.

Formula

Total kbps = limit (bytes) × 8 × 0.95 ÷ length (s) ÷ 1000; video kbps = total − sound kbps − 2

The 5% reserve covers the MP4 container and encoder variation. Sound gets 128 kbps when there is plenty of room, 96, 64 (mono) or 48 kbps when it is tight. The resolution follows the picture bitrate: 1080p from about 2.5 Mbps, 720p from 1.2 Mbps, 480p from 600 kbps, 360p from 300 kbps, otherwise 240p, and frame rates above 30 fps are reduced below 1.5 Mbps. If the encoded file is over the limit, it is encoded again at a proportionally lower bitrate (up to three attempts).

Example

A 90-second clip for the 20 MB free limit: 20,000,000 × 8 × 0.95 ÷ 90 ÷ 1000 = 1,689 kbps in total, minus 128 kbps of sound and 2 kbps of overhead = 1,558 kbps of video, which is encoded at 720p. Trimming the clip to 45 seconds doubles that to 3,248 kbps and allows 1080p.