Compress a video for WhatsApp — no app, no upload
WhatsApp re-encodes large videos aggressively and refuses very big files. Shrinking the file yourself first keeps it sharp and sends faster. havenConverter does this in the browser tab. Nothing is uploaded: the file is read from your disk, processed in the browser tab and saved back to your device.
What size works for WhatsApp
Keep the file under about 64 MB for a normal chat and well under 2 GB for “send as document”. For a 1-minute phone clip, 720p at a medium quality preset lands around 15–30 MB, which WhatsApp leaves mostly untouched.
Steps
- Open the studio and drop the video in.
- Resolution: choose 720p (or 480p for very long clips). Codec: H.264, container: MP4 — the most compatible pair.
- Quality: pick “Small” (or set a custom bitrate around 2–3 Mbps for 720p).
- Export. The file is encoded on your device — the badge tells you whether it used hardware.
Why it stays private
There is no server in the loop. WebCodecs decodes and encodes with your machine’s own media engine; on browsers without a suitable encoder, a self-hosted ffmpeg.wasm build does the work on the CPU. Either way the video never leaves the tab.
Frequently asked questions
- Will WhatsApp compress it again?
- It may re-encode, but a 720p H.264 file at a sensible bitrate is close to what WhatsApp produces anyway, so the visible loss is small.
- Does this work on a phone?
- Yes in Chrome or Safari on a recent phone; long 4K clips are slower on mobile because the encoder has less headroom.
Tools used in this guide
More guides
Updated 2026-09-06