Compress 4K Video
From 4K to a shareable 1080p file, on your device. Nothing is uploaded.
The compressor opens set to 1080p at Balanced quality — the setting that turns a 4K phone or camera clip into a file about one-sixth the size with no visible change on a phone, laptop or TV smaller than 55 inches.
Open the compressor → Opens the compressor set to 1080p.- 100% freeNo account, no daily quota, no paid tier.
- Nothing is uploadedFiles are processed on your device and never reach a server.
- No catch on the outputNo watermark, no forced downscaling, no size cap.
- Updated in the openEvery fix and every new tool is written down on the changelog page.
Why 4K files are huge, and why 1080p is usually enough
A 4K frame has four times the pixels of 1080p, and phones and cameras record it at 50–100 Mbps: 400–750 MB per minute. That is the right choice for footage you will edit or crop, and the wrong one for anything you will send or watch once. On a phone, a laptop or a TV viewed from across a room, 4K and a well-encoded 1080p are indistinguishable — the extra pixels are smaller than the eye can resolve at that distance. Downscaling to 1080p cuts the pixel count by four and, because a 1080p frame also needs fewer bits per pixel to look clean, the file usually shrinks by five to seven times at the same visual quality.
This page presets Resolution to 1080p and quality to Balanced. Frame rate, aspect ratio and audio stay as they are. If the clip is 4K60, capping the frame rate at 30 in Advanced halves the size again for anything that is not sport or gameplay.
What happens when you press Compress
The 4K stream is decoded by your device's hardware decoder — this is the slow part for 4K, and it is why compressing 4K in a browser without hardware support used to be impractical. Each frame is scaled to 1080p with a high-quality filter and handed to the hardware encoder, which writes H.264 at the bitrate the 1080p frame needs. The output is streamed to disk as it is produced, so a 20 GB 4K file does not need 20 GB of memory; the input is read in place and never uploaded. On a recent laptop a minute of 4K30 takes roughly 20–40 seconds; phones are slower but work.
HEVC 4K from an iPhone or a modern camera decodes natively in Safari, Chrome and Edge. The 10-bit HDR variant (Dolby Vision, HLG) is decoded and tone-mapped to standard range on the way down, which is what you want for a file that will be viewed on ordinary screens. For the highest quality per byte on the output side, pick H.265/HEVC in Advanced; H.264 remains the default because it plays everywhere.
When to keep 4K
Keep the original if you might edit, crop or stabilise the footage later — every one of those benefits from the extra pixels — and if the destination is a 4K TV viewed up close or a video platform that serves 4K. Set Resolution to Keep original and quality to High in that case, and the compressor still removes the real-time encoder's over-spending, typically 30–40% off with no visible change. The original file on disk is never modified either way; the compressed version is a new file. Shorten first with Trim Video ↗ if only part of the clip matters — it cuts 4K without re-encoding.
Frequently asked questions
How much smaller does 4K get at 1080p?
Usually five to seven times smaller at the same visual quality. A 700 MB minute of 4K60 becomes roughly 100 MB at 1080p60, or about 50 MB at 1080p30.
Will 1080p look worse on my TV?
On a TV of 55 inches or less at normal viewing distance, no. On a large 4K TV viewed up close, slightly softer in fine detail. On a phone or laptop, identical.
Can my browser decode 4K HEVC?
Safari on Mac and iPhone, and Chrome and Edge on most machines, yes. Firefox and Windows PCs without the HEVC extension cannot; the page will tell you.
Does it handle HDR / Dolby Vision clips?
They decode and are converted to standard dynamic range in the output, which is correct for sharing to ordinary screens. HDR metadata is not preserved.