Compress video for WhatsApp
WhatsApp limits a video sent in a chat to 16 MB. That's about a minute of phone video at sensible quality, and far less than most recordings: a minute of 1080p from an iPhone is around 60 MB. Drop your video here and Wave is already set to 16 MB: it works out the bitrate the clip's length allows, lowers the resolution if it needs to, and re-encodes it to an MP4 that WhatsApp accepts, all in your browser. Trim it in the same panel if you only need part of it.
What actually changes
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.
How much fits in 16 MB depends on the length. With Wave's 5% safety margin, a 30-second clip gets about 4,000 kbps in total - comfortably 1080p. A 1-minute clip gets about 2,000 kbps, which Wave encodes at 1080p with tight compression; for busy footage, choosing 720p under Resolution gives a cleaner picture. A 3-minute clip gets about 680 kbps, which means 480p. A 10-minute recording gets about 200 kbps, which only works for a talking head at 360p, and Wave will tell you when a target is too small to be watchable. The general maths is in Video bitrate explained.
WhatsApp also compresses videos itself when you send them from the gallery, and it offers a choice of quality for each send: the HD option keeps more detail than Standard. Starting from a clean file at the right size helps, because WhatsApp has less to throw away. If you need the original quality to arrive untouched, attach the video as a document instead (the paperclip, then Document): documents can be up to 2 GB, aren't re-compressed, and arrive as a file to download rather than a video that plays in the chat.
Status updates have their own limit on length rather than size: a Status video can now run up to 90 seconds (until 2024 the limit was 30). For a clip that's too long, use the Trim fields in Wave's Options panel, or WhatsApp's own trimmer when you post.
The format matters as well as the size. WhatsApp handles MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio most reliably; MKV and WebM files are much less predictable. Wave's output is always H.264 + AAC in MP4, so converting a screen recording or an OBS file through Wave fixes the format and the size in one go. When the source is an iPhone HDR clip, Wave also converts the colours to standard range, so the video doesn't look washed out on the other person's phone.
Three steps.
-
01
Step 1
Drop the video onto Wave above. On this page the size target is already set to 16 MB.
-
02
Step 2
Optional: open Options to trim the clip to the part you want; the shorter it is, the better it looks at 16 MB.
-
03
Step 3
Select Convert to MP4, save the file, and send it in WhatsApp as a normal video.
Answers, specifically.
Why does my video look worse after sending it on WhatsApp?
WhatsApp re-compresses videos sent from the gallery to save data, and the Standard quality option compresses hardest. Choose HD when you send, and start from a file that already fits the limit, so WhatsApp has less to cut. For untouched quality, send it as a document instead.
What resolution should I aim for?
Let the length decide. Under about a minute, 1080p fits comfortably in 16 MB; from one to three minutes, 720p looks cleaner than a starved 1080p; beyond that, 480p. Wave makes this choice for you when it compresses, and shows it in the plan.
H.264 or HEVC for WhatsApp?
H.264. It plays on every phone the recipient might have, including older Androids without HEVC support. Wave always produces H.264, and turns an iPhone's HEVC into it during the compression.
My video is 10 minutes long. Can it fit in 16 MB?
Only as a small, soft picture: 16 MB over 10 minutes leaves about 200 kbps, enough for a talking head at 360p and not much else. Trimming to the part that matters, or sending it as a document (up to 2 GB), will look much better.
Does WhatsApp accept .mov files from an iPhone?
When you share from the iPhone's own gallery, yes - WhatsApp converts on send. A .mov file sent from a computer or forwarded from somewhere else is less predictable. Converting to MP4 first removes that uncertainty.
Is the video uploaded anywhere when Wave compresses it?
No. Wave runs entirely in your browser: the video is decoded and re-encoded on your device, and the only copy that goes anywhere is the one you send in WhatsApp yourself.