Shrink a video by choosing how many bits per second it may use. Pick a quality level to let the frame size decide, or enter a target size to have the bitrate worked out for you.
Quality or target size
Quality sets bits per pixel per frame, so a bigger frame or a higher frame rate gets a proportionally higher bitrate. High keeps most footage close to the source, Medium softens fine texture, and Low is where fast motion starts to show blocks.
Target size works backward from a file size in MB. The size is spread over the whole duration, the audio’s share comes off first, and the remainder becomes the video bitrate. The rail shows the resulting bitrate and the estimated output before you export.
Codec
- H.264 (MP4) plays on every device and most machines have a hardware encoder for it, so it is the fastest to export.
- VP9 (WebM) needs about 30% fewer bits for the same quality. Every current browser plays it.
- AV1 (MP4) needs about 45% fewer, but it encodes slowly without hardware support and older phones cannot play it.
The quality levels account for this: VP9 and AV1 get lower bitrates than H.264 for the same setting.
Resolution
Scaling the frame down is often the biggest saving. At a fixed bitrate, fewer pixels each get more bits, so a 720p export at 1.5 Mbps looks cleaner than a 1080p export at the same rate. The frame is never scaled up, and both sides are kept even, as H.264 requires.
Audio
Keep source audio copies the soundtrack when the output container plays its codec, and re-encodes it otherwise. The fixed rates re-encode it to AAC in MP4 or Opus in WebM at that bitrate: 128 kbps suits music, 64 kbps is enough for speech. Remove audio drops the track, and its share of a target size goes to the picture.
Frame rate and length
The frame rate and duration are unchanged. To cut the clip shorter, trim it first; the size scales with the duration.