Compress MOV
iPhone and camera MOV files, made smaller and playable everywhere. Nothing is uploaded.
MOV files from an iPhone or a camera are large because they are recorded for editing, not sharing. Opened from here, the Balanced default halves them and outputs an MP4 that opens on any device.
Open the compressor → Opens the compressor with the quality preset applied.- 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 MOV files are so big
MOV is Apple's QuickTime container, and it is what every iPhone, iPad and most cameras produce. The size comes from the recording settings: a 1080p60 iPhone clip in "High Efficiency" (HEVC) runs about 90 MB a minute; in "Most Compatible" (H.264) about 130 MB; 4K60 reaches 400 MB a minute. Those bitrates make sense for footage you might edit, but they are far more than a video that will be watched once on a phone or laptop needs. Re-encoding at a sensible bitrate typically cuts a MOV by half to two-thirds without any change you can see on a screen.
Two other things make MOV awkward to share: HEVC video does not play in every browser or on older Windows machines, and some services refuse the .mov extension outright. Compressing here fixes both at once — the output is an MP4 with H.264 video, the combination that plays on everything, and the audio is carried across unchanged.
Compressing an iPhone video
Drop the MOV onto the page, or pick it from Files or Photos on the phone itself — this works in Safari on iPhone as well as on a Mac or PC. The compressor reads the clip's resolution, frame rate and bitrate without uploading it, and shows a preview frame. Leave Balanced selected for a general-purpose result, or set a size in MB for a specific limit (WhatsApp's 16 MB, email's 25 MB — there are buttons for those). For 4K clips, setting Resolution to 1080p in Advanced is almost always right: a phone or laptop screen cannot show the extra detail, and the file drops by two-thirds.
Press Compress. Decoding and encoding both use the device's hardware, which is why a two-minute 4K HEVC clip compresses in well under a minute on a recent Mac. Portrait clips stay portrait: the rotation flag is carried across. Slow-motion clips from an iPhone (120 or 240 fps) are a special case — keeping the original frame rate preserves the ability to slow them down later, while capping at 30 fps in Advanced makes them a normal video at a fraction of the size.
MOV versus MP4, and what to keep
MOV and MP4 are close relatives (MP4 was standardised from QuickTime), so nothing is lost in the change of container. What changes is the codec, from HEVC to H.264 by default, at a lower bitrate. If the file is going to other Apple devices only, choose H.265/HEVC in Advanced: it keeps the smaller-file advantage and every iPhone and Mac plays it. If you want to keep the original untouched for editing and only share a smaller copy, that is exactly what happens — the source file on disk is never modified. For a clip that only needs shortening, Trim Video ↗ cuts a MOV without re-encoding at all.
Frequently asked questions
Will the output be MOV or MP4?
MP4 by default, because it plays on more devices and services. The video inside is H.264, or HEVC if you choose it in Advanced.
My MOV is HEVC and my browser cannot decode it.
Safari, Chrome and Edge decode HEVC on Mac, iPhone and most Windows machines. Firefox, and Windows PCs without the HEVC extension, cannot. Try Chrome or Edge, or a Mac.
Does it keep the recording date and location?
Creation date and rotation are carried across. Location tags are not written to the output, which is usually what you want for a file you are sharing.
Can I do this on the iPhone itself?
Yes, in Safari 17 or later. Pick the video from Photos when the file chooser opens; the compression runs on the phone and nothing is uploaded.