Summary: latest list of 2021 best free video compressor software is shared here. Easily reduce video (4K) size by up to 90% while keeping the highest possible quality!
Thisis one of the simplest tools to use for reducing the file size of various videos. IMovie is another software program to reduce MP4 file size on Mac. You can reduce the size by changing the output file format, reducing the resolution, frame rate, and bit rate. Select the slightly less values for each, and the video’s size will. UniConverter is a great video compressor that can help you compress a video on Mac by changing bit rate, video resolution, file size, frame rate, etc. It supports MP4, MOV, WMV, FLV, AVI, MPG and 1,000+ formats for conversion. Just download and install it to your Mac and try to compress a video on Mac easily! Freemake Compressor for Windows for PC. And install Free video compressor by Freemake. Learn how to reduce the file size of a video on a Mac with the built in software quicktime player. This is a very simple thing to do and will help you to be.
With the popularity of HD and 4K videos and the arrival of 8K videos, the demand for reducing video file size is growing rapidly. To share large videos on Whatsapp, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, webs, and emails, and save storage space on computer or phone, we need to shrink video size. Here we list 2021 best Mac video compression software to compress MP4 HD/4K/8K without losing quality.
Compress Videos from GBs to MBs on Mac without Losing Quality
MacX Video Converter Pro - Compress HD 720P, 1080P, 4K, 5K or even 8K videos by 40%-90% smaller without quality loss. Easily shrink videos from GBs to MBs for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Whatsapp, FaceBook, webs, emails, etc.
[Updated] Best Free Video Compressors for Mac
1. MacX Video Converter Pro
Sum: Best video compression software for Mac to make videos by up to 90% smaller without qulaity loss.
MacX Video Converter Pro - 100% safe & professional. It is specially designed for Mac users to reduce videos with large size, for example, HD 720P, 1080P, 4K, 5K or even 8K videos.
- Compress videos to more advanced codecs like HEVC, H.264, MP4, FLV, VP9, WebM, any other formats you need.
- Change encoding format, resolution, bit rate, trim off unwanted footage, crop black bars, etc.
- 40%-90% compression ratio. Reduce video file size on Mac without noticeable quality loss.
- Ready compression options to shrink videos for YouTube, Apple iPhone, FaceBook, webs, mobiles, TVs, etc.
- GPU-accelerated video compression on Mac with 5X faster than similar Mac video compressors.
- Convert video. Edit video. Download videos online. Record screen/webcam.
We once compressed an MKV video (1920x1080), 2h23min to MP4 format from 8GB to 2.72GB. The whole video shrinking process costs 23min53s. This Mac compression software reduces MKV video size 56% off. The whole video compression process took place on a 27-inch iMac (2011 Middle) with OS X Yosemite operating system, powered by 2.7GHz Intel Core i5.
How to compress a video on Mac with MacX Video Converter Pro
Step 1. Free download the video compressor to your Mac (Big Sur incl.) and run it. Click the + video button to load the video files you want to downsize.
Step 2. Choose an output format from the pop-up window:
- To compress 4K or HD videos on Mac, choose HEVC which format provides a high compression rate.
- To compress a large video file to mobiles, here are 420+ readymade profiles for mobiles, which means you can compress video to iPhone iPad Android with a small file size and high quality in one click.
- To shrink video for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Vimeo, other websites, or reduce video for e-mail, go to Web Video Profile column and select a streaming video format like FLV, 3GP, WMV, etc. These formats are specially set for uploading video to website barely with the smallest size yet the highest possible quality.
Tips: You can adjust the slidebar of LQ-HQ or click 'Use High Quality Engine' in the advanced setting area to improve your compressed video quality.
Step 3. Click the icon to adjust the video parameters, like Resolution and Bit Rate to make your file smaller. Generally, frame rate and frame size don't much affect the file size.
You can adjust or lower the video resolution (such as downscale 4K to 1080P, 1080P to 720P), and lower the video/audio bit rate by 20-50% compared with its default one. Normally, the smaller video you want, the lower bit rate.
Step 4. Click the icon to edit the video where it is allowed to crop the black bars, remove commercials from video/movie and freely set up the Start Time/End time to get favorite clips, in such a way the video file will be downsized with nary a quality loss (no video conversion involved).
Step 5. Click the 'Browse' button to choose the destination folder and click the 'RUN' button to start to compress video files without losing quality.
2. Finder
Sum: An easy way to free compress a bunch of video files in a folder.
Before you try third-party video compression software on Mac, you should know that some of Mac's built-in free compressor apps have some basic video compression features for different purposes. The first we would like to recommend to you is Finder. If offers video compression and decompression on Mac in the ZIP format. That means videos can be compressed without losing quality on Mac during the compression.
However, in other words, the output file size of the compressed video won't be too much smaller than that of the original video, though the actual amount of compression will depend on the type of your file.
How do I compress video files in Mac Finder?
Step 1. Open Finder and select the video or video folder in the Finder. Right-click on it and select 'Compress file name'.
Step 2. The Mac will begin to compress the video. Once finished, a .zip file with the same name will be displayed next to the file you selected.
Step 3. The zip file contains the compressed video and your original video is untouched. Double-click on it to decompress the zip file and the Mac will extract the files right next to it. For information on Finder compressing video on Mac here.
3. QuickTime Player
Sum: Suitable for very simple and quick video compression on Mac
Apple's default media player actually can help free compress videos on Mac. There are options to adjust the video resolution to 4K, 1080P, 720P, and 480P to make your videos smaller. The drawback to it is that it offers only a few options to reduce the file size on Mac, but it gets the results done. Another thing to note is the compressed output video will be encoded in MOV format, regardless of the import format.
How do I compress video on Mac with QuickTime Player?
Step 1. To make a video smaller for free, open the app from your Applications folder. Click File > Open File to navigate to the video that you want to compress and open it.
Step 2. Next, click File > and select Export. Then you can see 4k (if applicable), 1080p, 720p, 480p, or exporting audio only options. To downsize your video on Mac without noticeable quality loss, you're suggested to compress video to a resolution slightly lower than the original quality. For example, you can compress 4K to 1080P to get a relatively good result.
Step 3. Then set the file name and output folder. Click Save to start to compress.
4. iMovie
Sum: Best free Mac video compression software with editing features
If you want a more versatile free video compressor for Mac, don't miss iMovie. Like Finder and QuickTime, iMovie is pre-installed on Mac computers. It has more editing features to make videos smaller on Mac. To be specific, it lets you split a long video into shorter clips, cut off extra parts from the video, change the video dimensions, and adjust the output resolutions. All the features can shrink a video to your desired size.
How do I reduce the size of a video in iMovie?
Step 1. Open the iMovie app on Mac. Select the Create New icon to create a new project and click Import Media to load your video into the app. Then drag the video to the timeline.
Step 2. On the timeline, right-click on the video and click Split Clip so as to split it into shorter clips. This is suitable for compress a very long and large video without losing quality. You can also select Show Clip Trimmer to trim the unwanted length by drag the edge toward the clip's center.
Step 3. To further downsize a video on Mac, click the Crop button on the menu bar above the video window. Then you can remove portions like the black bar from the video image. This will also result in a smaller file size.
Step 4. If you don't want to make any changes to your video, you can skip Steps 2 and 3. Simply drag your video to the timeline, and click the Share button on the upper right hand corner. Select File and lower the resolution & quality of the video to make it smaller.
Step 5. Check the final sizes of different settings on the left hand below the video preview window. If it's OK for you, simply click Next.
5. Handbrake
Sum: Best free video compressor for Mac with flexible options
HandBrake is a free and open-source compressor running on Mac, Windows, and Linux. It can rip DVD, Blu-ray, convert video, and compress videos. It has a wide range of features to help you easily compress a video to different sizes for Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, email, etc.
- Support compressing videos in any video format & resolution.
- Downsize video by changing the codec, lowering video resolution, bit rate, cropping, trimming, etc.
- Provide a lot of advanced features. It's great for tech-savvy users, but can be overwhelming for novices.
- Output formats are MP4 and MKV.
How to compress video on Mac with HandBrake
Step 1. Launch the free compression software on Mac and click the Open Source button to import the video you want to shrink.
Step 2. Under Preset, you can select an output with different qualities. The faster and lower preset will result in a smaller video size but lower quality. So you need to balance it.
Step 3. Under the section below, there is a slew of settings to change to compress the video on Mac. Under Summary, select MP4 for wider compatibility and Webm for web usage.
Step 4: Under the Video tab, you can change the video codec to H.265 or VP9 to get better compression. Lower the Quality by 1-2 RF to get a smaller video without noticeable quality loss.
Step 5. Under the Dimensions tab, resize the video to a lower resolution and crop the image if necessary. After all the settings, hit the Start button to begin reducing video file size. Learn detailed steps to compress video using Handbrake >>
6. VLC
Sum: An easy and fast video compressor alternative to Mac QuickTime
VLC is another popular video player among Mac users. But it is quite an unknown fact that even the VLC media player can be used as a free video compression software for Mac. In fact, you can find more compression options in VLC than in QuickTime Player. With VLC, you can select a smaller-size format like MP4, WebM, FLV, others in H.265, H.264, MPEG4, etc., adjust the audio and video bitrate, and resize the video with one click.
How do I reduce the size of a video in Mac VLC?
Step 1. Open VLC, click File > select Converter/Stream. Then use the Open Media to load your video.
Step 2. Next, in the Choose Profile section, click Customise. First, click the Encapsulation button from the popping-up window. Select a smaller format like WebM, MP4, or FLV bsed on your need.
Step 3. Then click on the Video Codec button. Here you can select a more advanced codec for the video like H.265 for smaller output results. Lower the bitrate and resolution a little bit if necessary. You can also open the dropdown menu of Scale and select a value below 1 to downscale the video.
Step 4. Click Apply and back to the main interface. Click Save as File to set an output folder and click Go to start.
7. Avidemux
Sum: An open-source editor for Mac to compress a video to a specific size.
Avidemux is a free non-linear video editor for Mac to compress, cut, edit, filter and encode easily. It allows Mac users to compress the video to a smaller size for Instagram, TikTok, Whatsapp, YouTube, etc. in different ways. Users can downsize the video to a smaller video format like HEVC, VP9, x264, FLV, etc., adjust the bit rate & resolution, crop and resize to make the video smaller, and split a long and large video. The best part of the free Mac compression software is that users are allowed to set a desired output size.
How to compress video on Mac with Avidemux?
Step 1. Download Avidemux and open it. Click the Open Video button to load in the video you want to compress.
Step 2. Under the Video Decoder, select Video Output to HEVC x265, Mpeg4 AVC (x264), or VP9 for smaller output size. Set the Audio output to AAC (FDK) to ensure the best results. And then select an output muxer like MP4, MOV, WebM, etc.
Step 3. Next, click Configure in Video Output. Under the General tab, navigate to Encoding Mode -> select Two Pass – Video Size in the list. Then you can enter the video size you want to shrink the video into the box Target Video Size (in MB).
Step 4. If you want to further compress the video on Mac, click Video on the top menu of the main interface > Filters > click swsResize or Crop to adjust the resolutions and crop off unwanted parts from the video.
Step 5. Back on the main interface, you can use the buttons marked A and B under the timeline to split a long video into smaller clips.
8. FFmpeg
Sum: A powerful Mac video compressor for advanced users.
FFmpeg is a collection of free libraries and tools to process multimedia content such as audio, video, subtitles on Mac and other platforms. It's a very advanced and powerful compression software free for Mac that can easily reduce the file size of a video, like a 720p video from 1.7 GB to 67 MB without changing resolution or any quality loss! The only drawback is that it requires a steep learning curve.
How do I compress videos using FFmpeg on Mac?
Step 1. Install FFmpeg on Mac using Homebrew: in Terminal, type the command 'brew install ffmpeg' and hit Return.
Step 2. First, put the video you want to compress on your Desktop, Movies folder, or somewhere FFmpeg can get at it.
Step 3. Open a new Terminal window and you may see something like 'yourname@yourcomputer ~ %', change the ~ to the folder containing your video file, and hit Return. You should now be in the folder that contains your original video file.
Step 4. Now you can use the commands and flags to compress videos on Mac. For example, -c:v specifies the video codec; -b:v specifies video bitrate; -c:a specifies audio codec; -b:a audio bitrate; ; -filter:v specifies a filter... There are many command lines on FFmpeg official site and various forums, below are some simple measures to shrink videos on Mac:
- Compress videos to smaller formats: ffmpeg -i input -c:v libx265 -crf 26 -preset fast -c:a aac -b:a 128k output.mp4
- Change the bitrate:ffmpeg -i input -c:a copy -c:v libx265 -b:v 1M output.mp4
- Compress 4K video to 720P:ffmpeg -i input -c:a copy -s 1280x720 output.mp4
9. Final Cut Pro X Compressor
Sum: Apple's Compressor for Mac that can export Final Cut Pro videos to a smaller size.
The Compressor is designed to work with Final Cut Pro to provide more power and flexibility to the output. It provides high support to compress 4K videos, HDR, and 360° videos. Users can compress videos on Mac by encoding the output to HEVC, H.264, MPEG-4, etc., and adjusting parameters and choose from a variety of frame rates and resolutions. It offers an one-click solution to compress and upload videos for popular video websites, including YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook.
How do you use Mac Compressor to compress videos?
Step 1. Apple Compressor is not free. You need to install and purchase FCP first. Open Compressor and add media files from your computer or a connected storage device. Each media source file in Compressor is called a job.
Step 2. Under the Settings, select to compress your video to Apple Devices in 4K HEVC, HD, SD, YouTube & Facebook, or others. Then set a save location from the pop-up menu.
Step 3. If necessary, adjust the video properties such as resolutions, bitrate, etc. Customize the final cropping, sizing, and aspect ratio using the Cropping & Padding properties in Compressor. Set the encoder type to faster for a faster codec, standard quality, and smaller size.
10. Clipchamp
Sum: A convenient online tool if you don't want to install a video compressor on Mac.
If you don't want to download desktop-based video compression software on Mac, you can simply use free online video compressors, just like Clipchamp. When an internet connection is available, simply open a browser on your Mac, get access to Clipchamp utility, and then you can import a video for compressing.
- Reduce MP4, AVI, MOV, WebM, and more video formats.
- Support batch processing.
- Provide presets for web (Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo), Windows, and Mobile.
- Allow you to downsize videos to a desired resolution (240p, 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, 1440p, and 4K) and quality.
- Available output formats include MP4, WebM, and FLV.
How to compress video with Clipchamp on Mac?
Step 1. Open a web browser on your Mac computer, and access Clipchamp online video compressor.
Step 2. Drag target video into the dotted box.
Step 3. Choose what you want to optimize for, web, Windows, Mobile, or Animation. You can also hit Customize settings to specify resolution, format, and quality.
Step 4. Hit Start to begin processing your video.
Summary :
Is video too large to send? Need to reduce video size? How to make a video smaller in size? How to reduce video file size without losing quality? Don’t worry! This post lists the best way to easily and quickly reduce video size on Windows, Mac, Android, and iPhone and shows how to reduce video size online.
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Video has become the vogue. We watch videos every day, and we even can make money on YouTube video. Sometimes, however, we need to make a video smaller in size when we want to send videos via email or upload videos to YouTube or other video-sharing platforms.
How to reduce video file size? How to reduce video size without losing quality?
In this article, you will learn how to reduce the size of a video in Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.
Part 1. Reduce Video Size on Windows
To reduce video file size in Windows 10/8/7, you can try the following different ways.
Fix 1. Turn to Free Video Size Reducer
Here, we will show 2 video size reducers to help you reduce video size free.
#1.VLC
VLC media player not only can play video and audio but also can compress video size. Follow the steps below to compress MP4 video to smaller size via its compression function.
- Download, install VLC Media Player and open it.
- Go to Menu and click on Media > Convert/save.
- Click on Add to select the video you need.
- Click Convert/Save when you were done.
- Select the type of profile you want to convert the video.
- Select the Start button to start VLC video compressing.
VLC Media Player is a good choice for you to reduce video size free. But, if you have high-level requirements to reduce video size, you had better try other video size reducer.
#2. MiniTool Movie Maker
MiniTool Movie Maker, a free video editing tool, can help you create cool movies with your own pictures and videos. Besides, this free tool offers 3 features to helps you compress video size easily. Below is the detailed tutorial on how to reduce video size free.
Step 1. Launch MiniTool Movie Maker, and click the Full-Feature Mode to enter its main interface.
Step 2. Click Import Media Files button to import your video file to this tool.
Step 3. Drag and drop this video file to the storyboard. Then, you can try the Trim feature to compress video size. (Here, if you don’t want to trim video, you can directly move to step 4 to compress video file size.)
Option 1. Trim Video
Now, you are able to use the Trim feature to remove the unwanted part from your video to reduce the video file size.
Select the video in the storyboard, and then click the scissor icon to get the Split/Trim window.
In the Trim window, move the Vertical Line along the track to the point where you wish a clip to begin (or end), and then click the scissor icon.
The detailed steps can be found in How to Trim Video Easily (Step-by-Step Guide with Pictures).
Step 4. Click the Export button to get the following window.
In this window, you have another 2 options to reduce video file size free.
Option 2. Change Video Format
Some formats like MKV and AVI occupy too much space. Some users including me want to convert this video to small size formats like WMV, FLV, etc. This free video editing software enables you to convert video files without watermark. Detailed steps can be found in this post: How to Change Video Format? Try The Best 6 Free Video Converters.
Option 3. Change Video Resolution
To reduce video file size, you can choose a smaller video resolution. Choose a suitable video resolution from the drop-list of Resolution.
Related article: How to Change Video Resolution Easily on Different Platforms.
Step 5. Finally, type a name of your video file, and choose a place to store it, and click Export to reduce video file size.
With MiniTool Movie Maker, you can quickly and easily reduce video size by trimming video, changing video format or changing the video resolution. In general, this free and simple video size reducer has other excellent features waiting to be found.
- It allows you to make photo slideshow without watermark. You even can use it to create a Facebook slideshow.
- It lets you split a large video into different small video parts.
- It lets you combine videos into one.
- It offers cool movie templates. Even users with no previous experience of video editing can easily make cool videos. Just choose a template, import files and then save this cool movie.
- It offers 98 video transitions to add a unique flavor to your videos.
- It enables you to easily change the brightness, contrast, and saturation of your videos.
- It allows you to add a different style of texts to your videos. (If you like, you can read this post “Need to Add Subtitles to Video Free? Try 2 Simple Ways” to find detailed information.)
- It lets you export video in different video formats like MP4, AVI, MOV, MKV, MP3, GIF, etc.
Want to experience more cool features of this video? Now, you can click the following button and you will get the installation package quickly.
Fix 2. Reduce Video Size Online
If you want to compress video size without downloading any software, you can reduce video size online. There are some video size reducers online can help you compress video to smaller size online. It is recommended to choose one which can reduce video file size without losing quality.
YOUCOMPRESS, free online file compressor, lets you quickly compress files online, and it supports MP4, MOV, MP3, PDF, PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF files. More important, no registration is required, and you can compress unlimited files.
To compress MP4 video to smaller size online, free, you can click the Select file... button to select the MP4 video you want to change, and click Upload File & Compress. After that, this video size reducer starts compressing video file size online.
This free online file compression tool lets you quickly compress MP4 video to smaller size online, free, and it doesn’t add any kind of watermark on compressed files.
Part 2. Reduce Video Size Mac
Mac users also can reduce video file size free.
Fix 1. iMovie
iMovie, a piece of video editing software included with the Mac operating system, can help you quickly reduce video size Mac. Below is the detailed steps.
Step 1. Open iMovie.
Step 2. Click the + button, then click Movie, choose No Theme, click Create, type a name for the new file.
Step 3. Open the folder containing your video file.
Step 4. Drag the video file into the timeline of the iMovie window.
Step 5. Click the File menu, choose Share, and select File.
Step 6. Click Resolution menu and choose a smaller resolution, decreasing the actual size of the video frame as well as the file size. On smaller screens, reducing resolution will not be noticeable.
Step 7. Click the Quality menu and select a lower quality. This will reduce the visual quality of the video and result in a smaller file.
Step 8. Click the Compress menu and select Smaller File.
Step 9. Click Next.
Step 10. Type a name for the file, and click Save. Then, iMovie will begin to reduce video size Mac. This may take a while for larger video files.
Fix 2. QuickTime Player
When it comes to compressing video size on Mac, you can try QuickTime player.
QuickTime player, the most preferred and default media player for Mac system, also works as a decent video editing tool with support for the feature to reduce size. It lets you trim the unwanted parts of the video to reduce its size.
Moreover, a number of preset formats with varied resolution and device supports are also available with the tool that facilitates changing the video size.
Solution 1. Trim video to reduce video file size
- Play the video in QuickTime player, and choose Edit > Trim. The yellow trimming bar appears, with handles on each end.
- Drag the handles to select the part to keep, and click Trim.
Solution 2. Change video resolution to reduce video size Mac
QuickTime Player offers a number of preset formats with varied resolution. You can choose a suitable one to reduce video size.
Part 3. Reduce Video Size Android
How to reduce video file size on Android phone?
Video Compress app can reduce video size without losing quality on Android. This app can compress video to to make it much easier to share video on social networks such as Facebook, WhatsApp, etc.
- Download Video Compress from the Play Store on your Android, install it and launch it.
- Click Allow when you receive this message, Allow Video Compress to access photos, media, and files on your device.
- Select the video you want to compress.
- Select Compress Video. After that, select the final size you want to get. Then, you will see the new resolution and file size of the video displayed for each option.
Now, Video Compress start compressing video file size. The compressed video will have the same name as the original with 'video compress' appended to the front. You can find the compressed video in the Super Video Compressor folder on your device's storage.
Part 4. Reduce Video Size iPhone
Is iPhone video too large? How to resize an iPhone video? How to reduce video file size without losing quality?
VideoProc can reduce video size on iPhone. It even can reduce up to 90% of the original file size yet with the best possible output quality for compressed videos.
This video size reducer offers versatile features to make iPhone videos smaller.
- You can trim, cut, crop and split a large video to reduce video size.
- You can convert large-size iPhone H.264 video to H.265, WMV, FLV, 3GP format, etc. which have smaller file size?
- You can downscale 4K to 1080P, and adjust video settings (resolutions, bit rate, frame rate, etc.) to reduce video file size.
Now It’s Your Turn
Different ways to reduce video size on Windows/Mac/Android/ iOS are discussed in the above parts of the article. Choose one which can meet all your requirements best to reduce your video size.
Do you have other tricks to reduce video file size without losing quality? Share them using the comments below. Thanks in advance. And, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. We will help you as soon as possible.
Reduce Video Size Windows 10 FAQ
Compress Video On Mac
- Launch MiniTool Movie Maker.
- Import video file, and drag and drop it to timeline.
- Split video into small parts.
- Deleted the unwanted parts.
- Save the video with low quality.