Video is arguably one of the best media formats. Creating a video is even more fun and more accessible nowadays. But what if you want to share the video with family, friends, colleagues, or clients?

You should draft a brief note and attach the video to the email. Right! It sounds like a no-brainer, but as you’re about to find out, most email service providers limit the size of attachments that can go into an email. 

One way around this is to chop the video into several smaller file sizes and email each bit, but that would be tiresome or even impossible with some video files.

The ideal method is to make the video smaller to email without affecting any of the video’s primary attributes. Scroll on and learn the top six techniques to make videos smaller to email.

How to Make a Video Smaller for Email

Making videos smaller for email is a great way to share your content with the world, but it can be tricky. Regardless of how you go about it, it could result in the loss of the file contents or quality degradation.

You must ensure that your video is still watchable and keep all vital data on the file.

Luckily, there are several ways for you to do this! Here’s a quick rundown of the top methods:

Method 1: Compress It into a .zip File

Compressing your video into a .zip file is one of the best ways to reduce its size. Zip files are smaller than uncompressed ones, so you can send them by email without worrying about wasting space on your recipient’s computer or making them wait for an unzipped file to download. 

To put it plainly, compressing a video into a .zip file is similar to loading a travel bag. You have to accommodate many items in a limited space. You must expertly fold and fit an item in the bag to succeed. 

Once you’ve compressed the video into a .zip file, you can send it over email, and the receiver only has to download the .zip file and unzip it.

You can compress your videos using an inbuilt compressing tool or free zipping tools like 7-Zip, an open-source tool for Windows and Linux users; the Unarchiver is a good free file compression tool for Mac users. 

Compressing a video into a .zip file using 7-zip is relatively straightforward. You can run the program, select the compress option and follow the wizard prompts.

Alternatively, you can third-party solutions like VideoProc Converter.

It allows you to compress video files by over 90% for an email in seconds while ensuring good quality reserved. Here is a simple guide:

1. Download VideoProc Converter, launch it on your Windows or Mac computer, and import the videos you want to compress. Batch import is supported.
2. Compress videos for email by directly specifying the desired output file size. Find Toolbox at the bottom section > Compress, and directly enter the output file size. Or drag the compression ratio slider to make videos smaller for Email.
3. Click Done to confirm the settings and hit Run to make the video smaller for email.

You can specify the output video size required by your Email program, 25 MB for Outlook and Gmail or 20MB for iCloud Mail.

Method 2: Reduce Resolution

A video’s resolution is one of the factors that determine its size. Higher resolution typically translates to a bigger file size.

However, you should be prepared to deal with a significant drop in the overall quality of the video, especially if you’re looking at a major file size reduction.

These are the best tools to reduce resolution in a video:

Wave.video Online Editor

Here is how to reduce video resolution with Wave.video online editor:

1. Open Wave.video on your browser. Sign up or log in to your free account if you haven’t already. 
2. Upload the video you want to edit on Wave.video.
3. Navigate to the My Projects section and double-click on the video you’ve just uploaded.
4. Click on the Edit Video button to your left.
5. Select the Resize option, scroll down, and click Show more formats.
6. Choose an appropriate display format for the video and hit the Publish button. Again, click on Video in the following menu prompt. 
7. You can select an appropriate or lower resolution and hit the Render button.
8. Once the render is complete, download the video and send it via email.

VLC

VLC is a free, open-source, cross-platform multimedia player for various audio and video formats. You can also reduce a video’s resolution using VLC. Here’s how to do it:

1. First, you must install VLC on your device. It’s free, fast, and available on Mac, Android, iOS, Windows, and Ubuntu. The installation wizard prompts a breeze; you should be done in a few seconds.
2. Next, open VLC on your device.
3. Click on the Media button in the top left corner. This should trigger a drop-down menu.
4. Select the Convert/Save option from the drop-down menu. 
5. Click on Add to load the video to VLC. Next, click Convert/Save at the bottom to continue.
6. Select your desired (lower) output resolution from the Profile section.
7. Click the Browse button to choose where to save the converted video on your device.
8. Finish it off by clicking on the Start button. Give it a while, and you’ll be able to find your new video with a reduced resolution. You can then share it via email. 

iMovie

iMovie is a video editing program for Mac that comes pre-installed on every new Mac. It’s easy to use and has a wide range of intuitive features. Here’s how to use it:

1. Since this is a manufacturer’s built-in feature on Macs, there’s no need to install anything. To begin, load the video you want to modify on the program.
2. Next, click on the Share icon in the top right corner. 
3. Click on the File button in the drop-down list.
4. Now onto the easy part. Look for the resolution settings in the following menu prompt and adjust them to reduce the video file size.

Export the video, and share it via email. 

Shotcut

Shotcut is a free video editor that’s open source and cross-platform. It’s also one of the most powerful video editors available, so you can easily edit any footage.

Here’s how to reduce video resolution with Shotcut:

1. Download and install Shotcut on your device if you haven’t already.
2. Run the Shotcut on your device and click Open File in the application window.
3. Choose the video whose resolution you want to change and hit open to load it up on Shotcut.
4. You can edit the video or proceed as is. Look for the export button at the top and click on it.
5. Hit the Advanced button and adjust the video resolution to a lower version.
6. Once you’re done, click the Export File button and choose where to save your edited video.

Attach your new less-bulky video to your email and send it to your workmates, friends, or family.

QuickTime

Here’s how to reduce video resolution using QuickTime:

1. Install QuickTime on your device if you haven’t already. It’s supported on Mac and Windows, but features are limited on Windows.
2. Next, run QuickTime on your device and click on the File button on the player.
3. Select Open File and follow the prompts to load the video you want to edit on QuickTime.
4. Click on the File button again, but select the Export option. Choose a lower-resolution option and double-click on it.
5. Choose where you want the file to be saved and attach the modified video to your email later.

Method 3: Share a Video Link

It turns out you can have your cake and eat it. Instead of discussing what you can compromise, you can avoid all the work and simply attach a video link to the email.

But to do this, you must first upload the video to a hosting service. Here’s how to go about it.

Use a Cloud Service

Most cloud services have a free file hosting plan for all users. They’re also quite versatile in terms of functionality. Here’s how you can use the three major cloud services to share a video via email:

Microsoft OneDrive

1. First, sign up for a free Microsoft OneDrive account or sign in if you have one. Look up Microsoft OneDrive on your browser.
2. Once you’re all set up, look for the Upload button and click on it.
3. Proceed to upload the video by following the prompts.
4. Please scroll down to find the video you’ve uploaded and click on it.
5. On the page that comes up next, click on the Copy Link button at the top left corner of the page.
6. Adjust file access permissions if you’d like to restrict it to the email recipient, copy the link and send it via email.

Google Drive

1. Go to Google Drive, and you may have to sign up for a free Google account or sign in to an existing account.
2. Once you’re in, click on New.
3. This should trigger a drop-down menu. For this tutorial, click on File Upload.
4. A file explorer prompt should come up, and you can choose the video you’d like to share in your email. Follow the prompts to upload the video on Google Drive.
5. Once the upload is complete, double-click on the video. Move the cursor to the three vertical dots at the top right corner of the page and hit the left-click button.
6. Proceed to select the Share option.
7. Change the file access setting from restricted to anyone with a link, or add the recipient(s) in the dialog box as shown below.
8. You can copy and share the link via email with the access settings updated.

Use the Wave.video Free Hosting

Wave.video offers free hosting to all users; the only requirement is to sign up for a free account. Here is how to use Wave.video to host your video and generate a shareable link.

1. First, type Wave.video into your browser, or click here to go to Wave.video.
2. Sign up for a free account or sign in if you already have one.
3. Depending on your browser, you may be redirected to the My project page. However, if this isn’t the case and you’re still on the homepage, move the cursor to the Tools button at the top of the screen.
4. Click on Free video hosting.
5. Click on the Upload video button.
6. Upload the video to Wave.video.
7. Once the upload is complete, click on the video.
8. Look for the share button on the next page and click on it.

You can then paste the link to your email and send it. The person on the other side only has to open the link, and they’ll be able to view the video as it is on your device.

Method 4: Download the Video in Lower Quality

This is by far the simplest option. 

Visit the site where you got the video and download its low-quality version. This way, you’ll have a less bulky video that you can share easily via email without breaching the file attachment size cap.

Alternatively, upload the video to free video hosting platforms and download it but in a lower quality. 

Method 5: Trim and Crop Your Video

It’s also possible to reduce a video file’s size by trimming your video at the beginning or end so that it starts with only what you want before sending it out in an email. 

You can also cut out unnecessary footage within the clip to reduce the video’s size.

Here’s how to do it using Wave.video online editor:

1. Upload the video you want to trim on Wave.video. To proceed, you may have to sign in or sign up for a free account.
2. Once the upload is complete, click on the video. Follow this up by clicking on the Edit video button on the next page, which should open up the Wave.video editor.
3. Navigate to the right side and choose from the Trim or the Crop & rotate features.
4. Make the necessary changes, and when you’re satisfied, you’ve removed the unnecessary footage, hit the Publish button. Follow this up by selecting Video.
5. Download the trimmed or cropped version and share it via email.

Method 6: Make a GIF

If you’re looking for a fun way to share your video with friends and family, consider making a GIF. A GIF is an animated image that can be viewed as a still or moving pictures. GIFs are also significantly less bulky in size compared to MP4 versions of the same file.

Here’s how to make a GIF on Wave.video editor:

1. Upload the video as above, and proceed to the editor.
2. However, when you get to the Publish part, select GIF instead of video as in the previous tutorial.
3. You can adjust the video’s dimensions and even pick the start and end times for the GIF.
4. Once everything looks good, hit the Generate button. 
5. Give it a few seconds, and when the editor is done creating the GIF, click on the Download button to export the GIF to your device.

You can now send the lighter GIF version via email.

FAQs

What affects video sizes?

The size of a video file is determined by the following: bitrate, video length, resolution, and frame rate. 

Here is a bit of background to help you understand this. All digital content, whether an image, a gif, a video, or music, is stored in the form of bits. So, bitrate refers to the number of bits processed in a given time, usually per second.

Resolution relates to the number of pixels per inch in a video file. A high-resolution video has more pixels per inch, giving the audience more clarity and a better viewing experience. Higher resolutions are also bulkier compared to low-resolution files.

Frame rate is another metric that influences the size of a video file. A video’s frame rate refers to the number of frames displayed or sequenced on display—a high frame rate results in better video quality, increasing its size. 

Find out more about this and how you can compress a video file.

Which video format is best for email?

Given that most email services limit the size of file attachments sent over email, video in a compressed format like .zip or a similar option should be ideal.

Additionally, the MP4 or MPEG4/H. 264 format is highly recommended since numerous platforms and devices support it; hence it can be played on virtually any player

How do you compress a video on iPhone?

You can use the inbuilt video editor to compress the video.

Alternatively, you can use a free online video editor tool like Wave.video. Upload the video to Wave.video, compress it, and export the compressed file to your device.

How do I send a video that is too large on Android?

You can do any of the following:

• Share a video link.
• Download the video in lower quality and share the less bulky version.
• Make a GIF that may take up less space.
• Trim and crop unnecessary parts in the video to reduce its size.
• Reduce the resolution using either free or paid editing tools.

What is the video size limit for email services?

Each email service provider has a limit. Here’s a summary of some of the primary email services and their limitations:

Email service	Maximum file size (In Megabytes MBs)
Gmail	25MB
AOL mail	25MB
Outlook	20MB
Yahoo	25MB

Final Thoughts

Video is and will remain the media format of choice for a long time. The perfect marriage of audio and visual components enables it to pass information, entertain, or even nurture creativity in ways no other format can.

However, everything has a catch to it, and with video, it’s size. But that shouldn’t be a concern for you now that you know how to make smaller videos to email.

The best part is that all these methods are free and become easy to execute the more you use them.