Discord's free upload limit is 20 MB per file. It has been since 13 August 2026, when Discord doubled it from 10 MB. If that surprises you, it's because the number has moved a lot: guides written in 2023 say 25 MB, guides from late 2024 and 2025 say 10 MB, and the "compress video for Discord 8mb" tutorials that still top search results date from before April 2023.
#The current limits
- Free accounts: 20 MB per file.
- Nitro Basic: 50 MB per file, for you, everywhere.
- Nitro: 500 MB per file, for you, everywhere.
- Server boost Level 2: 50 MB per file for everyone posting in that server. It doesn't apply to your DMs or other servers.
- Server boost Level 3: 100 MB per file for everyone posting in that server.
#How the free limit got here
For years the free limit was 8 MB. On 10 April 2023 Discord raised it to 25 MB for everyone. In September 2024 it cut it to 10 MB, saying storage was expensive and almost all files people sent were smaller than that. On 13 August 2026 it raised it again, to 20 MB, and at the same time changed the mobile apps to measure a file before compressing it rather than after, so a file that uploads from your computer now behaves the same way from your phone.
#What fits in 20 MB
File size is bitrate times length: size ≈ (video bitrate + audio bitrate) × seconds ÷ 8. With 128 kbps AAC audio, a 20 MB file leaves the video roughly this much to work with:
- 30-second clip: about 5.2 Mbps - comfortable 1080p.
- 1-minute clip: about 2.5 Mbps - fine for 1080p talking or screen content, tight for fast game footage, where 720p looks cleaner.
- 2-minute clip: about 1.2 Mbps - 720p.
- 5-minute clip: about 400 kbps - 480p, and only for slow content.
- 10-minute clip: about 140 kbps - a small, soft picture at best. Trim it or send a link.
In short, 20 MB is generous for a 30-second highlight, workable for a minute or two, and wrong for anything long. Nitro Basic's 50 MB gives two and a half times the bitrate at every length, which is enough for a minute of clean 1080p or five minutes of 720p.
What a file size buys the picture
- Video
- Audio 128 kbps
- 5% kept in reserve
Pick a size and a length to see the resolution Wave would choose.
#Bitrate by tier and length
If you're compressing yourself, these are the video bitrates each size allows, with 128 kbps left for the audio:
Video bitrate for a given size × length (H.264, AAC 128 kbps)
| Length | 20 MB (free) | 50 MB (Nitro Basic) | 500 MB (Nitro) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 s | 5.2 Mbps | 13 Mbps | no practical limit |
| 1 min | 2.5 Mbps | 6.5 Mbps | no practical limit |
| 2 min | 1.2 Mbps | 3.2 Mbps | 33 Mbps |
| 5 min | 400 kbps | 1.2 Mbps | 13 Mbps |
| 10 min | 140 kbps | 540 kbps | 6.5 Mbps |
Wave's Discord page does this arithmetic for you: it's preset to 20 MB, keeps 5% in reserve so the file lands just under, and drops the resolution when the bitrate is too thin for the original size. For Nitro Basic, type 50 in the Custom size box.
#When the clip is longer than the limit can hold
- Trim first. Most recordings have dead time at the start and end, and most highlights are 10-20 seconds of a longer capture. Cutting to the part that matters gives every remaining second more bits.
- Split it. Three 1-minute uploads look far better than one 3-minute upload squeezed into the same limit.
- Send a link. For anything long, upload it somewhere else - YouTube (Discord embeds a player), Google Drive, OneDrive - and post the link, so people get the full quality.
#Why the source file is always too big
Phones and capture software record at high bitrates so there's room to edit. An iPhone recording 4K at 60 fps in HEVC produces about 400 MB a minute, so about three seconds of it fills the free limit. An OBS recording at 1080p60 with typical settings runs to around 100 MB a minute. Even a short clip needs compressing before Discord will take it.
#Format matters as much as size
Discord plays MP4 files with H.264 video inline in the chat. It doesn't preview MOV files, which arrive as attachments to download, and it doesn't preview HEVC or AV1 video even inside an MP4. MKV files, OBS's default, don't play inline either. So an iPhone clip can be small enough and still not play in the chat, because it's HEVC in a MOV.
Re-encoding to H.264 in MP4 fixes both problems at once. When Wave compresses a clip to a size, the output is always H.264 + AAC in MP4, so it previews and plays straight away on desktop and mobile.
#The takeaway
The free limit is 20 MB as of August 2026: enough for a 30-second 1080p clip or a minute or two at 720p. Nitro Basic's 50 MB and Nitro's 500 MB push those numbers up, and boosted servers raise the limit inside that server only. Match the bitrate to the length with the table above, keep the format to H.264 in MP4 so it plays inline, and trim or link anything long.