WhatsApp Video Formats & How to Convert Video for WhatsApp

With 2 billion monthly users globally, WhatsApp has become one of the most widely used apps in the world. People use it to send messages, images, videos, and voice notes. When sending a video, we need to choose one in WhatsApp video format, otherwise, we will fail to upload but get the "WhatsApp: The file format is not supported" error message.

Therefore, this article will tell you all the video file formats supported by WhatsApp, and show you how to convert video for WhatsApp for uploading.

Can’t Send Videos to WhatsApp? Convert Video for WhatsApp First.

WhatsApp only supports limited file formats including MP4, AVI, FLV, 3GP, MKV, and MOV in H.264 or MPEG-4. Formats like HEVC and VP9 need to be converted first. So, Winxvideo AI is recommended to help convert video formats for WhatsApp.

Table of Contents

• Part 1. WhatsApp Video Format Support
• Part 2. How to Convert Video for WhatsApp
• Part 3. FAQs

Part 1. WhatsApp Video Format Support

Only specific video file formats, including MP4, AVI, MOV, etc. are supported by WhatsApp at present. A 4K video with advanced codecs like HEVC, AV1, or VP9, which are popular codecs, will not be supported by WhatsApp.

Video file format supported by WhatsApp: MP4, AVI, FLV, 3GP, MKV, and MOV.

Video and audio codecs supported by WhatsApp: H.264 or MPEG-4 video codec, AAC or AC3 audio codec.

Obviously, WhatsApp video format support is very limited. Specific video formats like WMV, SWF, WebM, VOB, etc. are not in the list. To send videos on WhatsApp successfully, MP4 (H.264 + AAC) is claimed as the best video format for WhatsApp. You are suggested to convert unsupported video to MP4 (H.264 + AAC) before sending.

Notice: Besides the video format, you also need to know the WhatsApp file size limit is 2GB. This means you should reduce the video file size as well. The below words are about how to convert and compress video for WhatsApp.

Part 2. How to Convert Video for WhatsApp

Now that you know WhatsApp video formats, you can convert your video to WhatsApp if you have an upload error. Winxvideo AI is a GPU-accelerated 4K video converter that you can make use of to convert any video to a video file supported by WhatsApp. Also, it helps compress large videos to 2GB to match the WhatsApp file size limit. If the video length is too long, this WhatsApp video converter can also shorten the video to 90 seconds to 3 minutes for successful uploading to WhatsApp.

Get ready? Let’s convert and compress videos for WhatsApp with Winxvideo AI.

Step 1. Download Winxvideo AI, install and launch it.

Step 2. Select "Video Converter", then click on the "+ Video" button to add your video.

Step 3. Choose a video format supported by WhatsApp at the "Target Format" section. MP4 (H.264 + AAC) should be the best option.

Step 4. Optionally, you can click on the settings to adjust video resolution, FPS, bitrate, etc. to reduce the video file size to 2GB. Or, click on the Edit icon to trim your long video to less than 3 minutes.

Step 5. Now, choose a destination folder to save the converted video, and hit the "RUN" button to convert video for WhatsApp.

Part 3. FAQS

1. Which video format is supported on WhatsApp?

It is easy to directly save OBS recordings in MP4 format.

In specific, MP4, AVI, FLV, 3GP, MKV, and MOV formats along with H.264 & MPEG-4 video codecs, AAC & AC3 audio codecs are supported by WhatsApp at present.

2. How can I convert MP4 video to WhatsApp?

You can use a WhatsApp video converter like Winxvideo AI to convert MP4 video to WhatsApp.

Step 1. Download the WhatsApp video converter from its official website, install and launch it.

Step 2. Add the MP4 video you want to convert to the software.

Step 3. Choose a WhatsApp video format as the output format.

Step 4. Hit the RUN button to start converting your MP4 video to WhatsApp.

3. What is the video size for WhatsApp?

In May 2022, WhatsApp updated its media sharing limit, which previously allowed files up to 16MB. Now, the maximum file size is 2GB with the length of 90 seconds to 3 minutes for people to send a video to WhatsApp.

4. How do I send a large video on WhatsApp?

If your video file size has exceeded the WhatsApp file size limit, you can try the following ways to send a large video on WhatsApp.

• Share the video via cloud storage by providing a link to files stored on Dropbox or a similar service.
• Use a large file transfer application, such as Dropbox Transfer, to provide a separate downloadable copy.
• If sending a link isn't possible, you can try to send a compressed file. In this way, you need to compress video for WhatsApp in advanced with a video converter like Winxvideo AI.