Most email services cap attachments at 20–25 MB, and a minute of phone video is often 100 MB or more. You have two options: compress the video until it fits, or send a link to it instead. This guide covers the limits for Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, how to shrink a video to fit, and when a link is the better choice.
Email attachment size limits
| Service | Attachment limit | What happens with bigger files |
|---|---|---|
| Gmail | 25 MB | Gmail offers to upload the file to Google Drive and sends a link |
| Yahoo Mail | 25 MB | Refused |
| Outlook.com | about 20 MB | Outlook offers to share it from OneDrive |
| iCloud Mail | 20 MB | Mail Drop sends files up to 5 GB as a link |
| Work email (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace) | Varies | Set by your organisation’s administrator |
Two catches. First, the limit covers everything attached to one email, so two 15 MB videos won’t go together. Second, attachments are encoded as text on the way, which makes them about a third bigger in transit. If a file just under the limit bounces, especially when you’re emailing someone at a different provider, aim lower: under 15 MB gets through almost anywhere.
How to compress a video to send by email
- Open the video compressor. It works in your browser on your own device, so the video isn’t uploaded to anyone.
- Pick a target: Under 25 MB for Gmail or Yahoo, Under 20 MB for Outlook.com or iCloud, or Under 10 MB to be safe with anyone.
- Set the resolution to 720p. On a phone or laptop screen it looks almost the same as 1080p, and at email sizes it looks better, because each frame gets more data.
- Drop in the video (MP4, MOV from an iPhone, MKV, WebM or AVI) and download the MP4.
- Attach the MP4 to your email as usual.
Shrink a video to under 25 MB for Gmail or 20 MB for Outlook. Free, and nothing is uploaded.
The result is an H.264 MP4, which opens in every email app, phone and computer without anything extra installed.
How long a video can you email?
At 25 MB you have about 200 megabits to spend. Divide by the length in seconds to get the bitrate:
- Up to 1 minute: about 3 Mbps, which looks good at 720p and fine at 1080p.
- 2 minutes: about 1.5 Mbps, which looks good at 720p.
- 5 minutes: about 0.6 Mbps. Watchable at 480p, but soft.
- 10 minutes and longer: too little data for a picture anyone would want to watch. Send a link.
If the video only matters for what’s said, a talk or a meeting, turn the resolution right down and keep the audio: speech stays clear at very low bitrates.
Sending a link instead
For long or important videos, a link beats an attachment: the recipient gets the original quality and their inbox doesn’t fill up.
- Gmail: attach a file over 25 MB and Gmail uploads it to your Google Drive and inserts a link. Check the sharing setting it asks about, so the recipient can open it.
- Outlook: attach from OneDrive, or let Outlook upload it, and the email carries a link.
- iPhone and Mac Mail: Mail Drop sends attachments up to 5 GB. The link lasts 30 days.
- Anything else: upload the video to YouTube as “Unlisted”, or to Google Drive, OneDrive or Dropbox, and paste the link.
Compressing first still helps when you share a link: a 30 MB file uploads and downloads far faster than the 400 MB original.
What about photos?
Photos are the same problem on a smaller scale. A dozen 4 MB phone photos won’t fit in one email. Resize them to about 2000 px on the long side and save them as JPEG, and each drops to a few hundred kilobytes with no visible difference on screen. The image compressor can also hit an exact size such as 1 MB per photo.
Frequently asked questions
What is the maximum attachment size in Gmail?
25 MB for all attachments in one email combined. Larger files are sent as a Google Drive link.
How do I make a video small enough to email?
Re-encode it to a target size under the limit, lower the resolution to 720p, and keep it short. A video compressor that targets a file size does the bitrate maths for you.
Why did my 24 MB video bounce?
Attachments grow by about a third when they’re encoded for email, and some receiving servers apply their own, lower limit. Compress to under 15–20 MB and try again.
Will compressing the video reduce its quality?
Some, but at 720p and a few megabits per second the difference is hard to see on a phone or laptop. The shorter the video, the closer it stays to the original.
Is it safe to compress a private video online?
It depends on the tool. Many upload your file to their server. The Lumiave Tools video compressor encodes it in your browser on your own device, so the video never leaves your computer or phone.
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