How to Reduce Video File Size by OVER 90% without Losing Quality

Big video size makes it hard to share on web, upload to Cloud services, or store on portable devices. For example, it may take hours to upload an HD footage to YouTube. You can't send a homemade video through Gmail smoothly when it exceeds 25MB file size. The hard drive or phone gets occupied soon with 4K recordings. Given this, it is necessary to downsize the video to fit size limitations, thereby fasten transmission speed and save more storage space. How to reduce video file size without losing quality?

Part 2. How to Reduce Video File Size without Losing Quality

Part 2.1. How to Reduce Video Size on Windows (10)

Understanding factors affecting video size helps you know how to reduce large video size without losing quality. To cut down video size, it's recommended to resort to some desktop free video compression software, such as WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe. Follow the steps below to reduce video size on Windows without losing quality.

Before the detailed steps, here you'd better know the maximum file size of different social platforms or email services required for uploading or sending. Check the table bleow for more detailed information.

Step 1. Convert Video to Smaller Formats

Use the following steps to reduce video file size from GB to MB without losing quality via top video compressor, WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe. If you haven't the software installed, free download, install it now and get started with steps below.

1. Import videos. Click the +Video button on navigation bar of the video size reducer to import the HD/4K Video that you want to compress.
2. Select Output Format. Go to General Profiles category and select MP4 Video (h264+aac) if you hope it can be accepted by more devices/websites or HEVC Video (MP4 file format) if you need higher quality and has a computer powerful enough to handle HEVC.
3. RUN to Compress Video. Tap browse button to save video and RUN button to reduce video file size without losing quality.

Step 2. Adjust Resolutions, Bitrates, and other Parameters

1. Lower Resolution. Click on Settings -> Video Options -> Click the drop-down menu of Resolution -> choose a lower resolution, preferrably 1080p or 720p -> OK. Down-converting video resolution is a feasible way to fix many 4K related errors.
2. Reduce Frame Rate. Click on Settings -> Video Options -> click the drop-down menu of Frame Rate -> choose lower framerate, (don't lower fps less than 24) -> OK.
3.  Reduce Bit Rate. Click on Settings button -> Video Options -> Bit Rate (Quality) -> choose VBR -> choose a bit rate option that is lower than the original / manually set the data of Bit Rate to a smaller one (5-8 Mbps) -> OK. Note: 1. HEVC codec will lower bit rate automatically. 2. The reduction of bit rate may result in quality degradation in varying degrees.

Step 3. Cut Unwanted Parts from the Video Clips

Not every frame of video should be preserved. You can discard title sequences/epilogue which presents movie title, production, casting or filming titbits, and About Author segment of videos downloaded online. This versatile video size reducer enables you to trim video and cut out unwanted parts by setting start time and end time to capture the most valuable clip to reduce video size without losing quality.

1. Cut video. Tap Edit -> Trim -> Check "Enable Trim" -> adjust the Start Time and / or End Time to shorten the video duration -> Done
2. Crop video and adjust aspect ratio. Tap Edit -> Crop & Expand -> Enable Crop -> Crop Original -> Choose Crop LetterBox, 16:9, 4:3 or 1:1.

Video Tutorial: 3 Steps to Reduce Video File Size without Losing Quality

Part 2.2. How to Reduce Video File Size on Mac?

To make video size smaller on Mac, the built-in Mac apps can work as free video size reducer. For example, iMovie and QuickTime Player. Both apps provide the ability to shrink the video size when exporting. For example, to reduce video size on Mac with iMovie: 

1. Drag your video to iMovie and edit your movie in iMovie as usual or go to Step 2 directly.
2. Go to File > click on the Share button > select File. 
3. Use the dropdown menus to pick video resolution, quality, and compression. You can check the reduced file size of different settings on the interface. If you're satisfied with the estimated output size, click Next to start to downsize.

Note: The steps to reduce video file size with QuickTime player are quite similar. You're able to select the output quality and size. With Mac apps, you don't have too much control over the output video.

If you want to reduce video size with more flexible settings on Mac, try the open-source video converter such as Handbrake. It's more efficient to make large video files smaller without noticeable quality loss. Users can compress videos to advanced formats like H.265, H.264, VP9, VP8, MPEG4, etc., choose desired compression quality, adjust the video resolution, video bitrate, audio bitrate, etc.

How can I reduce the file size of a video without losing quality on Mac?

1. Download the Mac video size reducer and open it. Click the Source button to select and load your video.
2. Under the Peset, you can select presets for general, web, devices, etc. at different resolutions. The lower resolution and faster speed you select, the smaller size will be but with lower output quality.
3. Under the Summary tab, select a format from MP4, MKV, and Webm. For smaller size, choose MP4 for wider compatibility and Webm if you need to upload the video to the web.
4. Next, in the Video section, change the Video Encoder among H.265, H.264, VP9, VP8, etc. Lower the Constant Quality to 1-2 RF to make the video smaller.
5. Once finished, click the Dimensions button and then you can crop off unwanted portions and adjust the resolution to further shrink the video size. After all the adjustments, click Start.

Part 2.3. How to Reduce Video Size on Android?

If you need to downsize videos for quick upload to Whatsapp, Instagram, TikTok, other social media apps, or send to email, you may want to do it right on your mobile. Search on Google App Store, you can find many compressor apps for Android. Some of the famous ones include Video Compress app, Video Compressor app, Video Compressor Panda, Videos & Movies Compressor... They are the best choice when you want to reduce video file size for playback on mobiles on which you can hardly notice the quality loss.

How do I reduce the size of a video on Android?

Below we'll take the Video Compress app as an example to show you how to reduce video size without losing quality on Android:

1. Download and install the app on your phone. Then open it.
2. Choose the album that contains the video you want to compress on your mobile. Then select and load the video.
3. Once the video is loaded, you can see the options to compress, rotate, play, extract mp3, and share. We select Compress Video.
4. Now there are different resolutions with estimated output file sizes. You can select from the ready options to downsize video size to 90%, 80%, 70%, etc. as you need. Or you can manually adjust the video resolution and bitrate until you're satisfied with the size and quality.

Part 2.4. How to Make Video File Size Smaller on iPhone iPad

To reduce video file size for emailing, or sending to Whatsapp, iMessage, Facebook, Instagram on iPhone iPad, Video Compress - Shrink Vids app is recommended. With the app, you can easily compress 4K video to 1080p, 720p, or convert 1080p to 720p, 480p for much smaller file size. Video Compress - Shrink Vids allows you to customize video resolution and bitrate, preview image quality, and disk space. It also works with 4K videos recorded by iPhone iPad. A wide range of presets is offered to downsize videos for iPhone iPad, covering from 1080P HD to 360p. Here's how to use Video Compress - Shrink Vids on iPhone iPad.

1. Get the video size reducer app for iPhone iPad from App Store. The App requires iOS 11.4 or later on iPhone iPad. It's only 15.7MB.

2. Open Video Compress - Shrink Vids free video compressor app on iPhone or iPad. Tap + to choose a video you want to compress. You can choose a single video, multiple videos, or a video album to load.

3. Customize video bitrate using the bitrate slider bar and choose a preset. Lower bitrate means smaller file size but worse video quality. There are lots of preset options,

• Full HD 1080p (1920x1080 Pixel)
• HD 720p (1280x720 Pixel)
• HD 540p (960x540 Pixel)
• 480p (640x480 Pixel)
• 360p (480x360 Pixel)

The original video size and estimated video size are displayed on the window. Choose a preset, tap CONTINUE, and follow its instructions to completes the compression process.

Tips for Making Videos Smaller on iPhone iPad

If you want to record videos on iPhone or iPad with a smaller file size, use the following steps.

1. Go to Settings on iPhone or iPad. Choose Camera.
2. Tap Record Video and you will see different video resolution and frame rate options.
3. Choose lower video resolution and frame rate, such as 720p HD at 30 fps instead of 4K UHD at 60fps, for decreased video size.

Part 2.5. How to Reduce Video File Size Free Online

It's very easy to cut down video size for Whatsapp, YouTube, Instagram, Email, etc. thanks to free online video compressor tools. For example, Clideo is a very easy to get started needless user guide. The top-rated free video compressor software has a nifty and well-designed interface, allowing users to downsize video files up to 500MB for free. The downside of Clideo is that the max video length that its free version accepts is 60 seconds and the uploading process takes a long time to finish. The compressed video files have a Clideo watermark. To remove the watermark, you need to update to its advanced version. Use the following steps to reduce video file size free online with Clideo.

1. Open Clideo website. Choose a video file from iPhone, Android, Windows, or macOS. You can also upload video files from your Google Drive or Dropbox, or paste a video URL from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
2. Wait for the uploading process to complete. The uploading may be time-consuming, just be patient. The time it takes also depends on the source video file size and your internet connection speed.
3. Download the compressed video to Google Drive, Dropbox, or your device. When the compression process finishes, you'll be told the compression ratio.

Part 3. FAQs on Reducing Video File Size

1. How to reduce video file size without losing quality

To shrink video without losing quality, you can zip your video files. Cutting out unwanted parts is also a way to reduce video file size without losing quality. There's quality loss when video codec format is changed, video bitrate is lowered, and transcoding is involved.

2. How do I make a MP4 file smaller

There are several ways to make a MP4 video file smaller: re-encode the MP4 video using a more efficient codec format such as HEVC, H.264; lower down the MP4 video bitrate and resolution; shorten the MP4 video length, trim out unwanted video parts. Click and learn how to compress and reduce MP4 video size freely >>

3. How to reduce video size on Windows 10

You can make video smaller on Windows 10 using free online tools or video compressor software for Windows 10. Free online tools have file size limits and slow video uploading speed, but it's easy to use. Free video compression software for Windows 10, WinX HD Video Converter Deluxe, is recommended. It provides an easy way to reduce video file size on Windows 10 with little quality loss and 47x faster video compression speed.

4. How to reduce video size in windows movie maker

In Windows Movie Maker, import the video you'd like to compress, perform the video editing task, trim out unwanted parts for smaller file size, then create custom settings before output, choose for email under Settings drop-down list, and the video size should be reduced.