How to Compress a Video for Discord (Under 10 MB)

What the Discord limits actually are

The upload cap depends on who is uploading and where (numbers as of mid-2026; Discord adjusts them occasionally, and the upload error message always shows your current cap):

• Free account: 10 MB per file, in any server or DM.
• Nitro Basic: 50 MB. Nitro: 500 MB. These follow your account everywhere.
• Boosted servers raise the cap for everyone in that server: 50 MB at boost level 2 and 100 MB at level 3, but only inside that server.

So the honest target for a video you want to share anywhere, with anyone, is under 10 MB. Aim for 9.5 MB rather than 9.99: some tools measure megabytes slightly differently than Discord does, and a small margin avoids a second attempt.

Why hitting 10 MB is harder than it looks

File size is roughly bitrate × duration. Ten megabytes is about 80 megabits, so a 60-second clip can spend ~1.3 Mbps on video and audio combined, a two-minute clip ~0.65 Mbps, and a ten-minute recording ~0.13 Mbps, which is less than a 1998 dial-up stream. That is the whole game:

• Short clips compress fine. Under a minute of 1080p gameplay at ~1.2 Mbps looks acceptable.
• Long videos cannot look good at 10 MB. No encoder setting fixes the arithmetic. If the video is more than a few minutes, trim it or upload it somewhere without the cap (YouTube unlisted, a Drive link) and paste the link in Discord instead.

Step 1: trim before you compress

Every second you keep costs bitrate everywhere else. Before compressing, cut the video down to the moment that matters: the kill, the bug, the goal, the reaction. The built-in Windows tools are enough: open the file in the Photos app (or Clipchamp) and use Trim, then save the shorter copy. Ten seconds of sharp video beats two minutes of smear.

Three ways to get under the cap

All three of these produce an MP4 (H.264 + AAC), which Discord plays inline on every platform.

1. FastCompress (one-click preset). Pick the file, choose the Discord preset, press Compress. It calculates the bitrate from the clip's duration to land under the 10 MB default, and the target is editable if you have Nitro or a boosted server. Runs locally through FFmpeg, no watermark, no account.
2. HandBrake (free, manual). Solid if you are comfortable choosing settings yourself. There is no target-size mode, so you have to do the bitrate math yourself: (target size in kilobits ÷ seconds) − audio bitrate, entered as Avg Bitrate in the Video tab.
3. FFmpeg (free, command line). The classic two-pass recipe for a 60-second clip targeting ~9.5 MB:
   ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v libx264 -b:v 1100k -pass 1 -an -f mp4 NUL && ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v libx264 -b:v 1100k -pass 2 -c:a aac -b:a 96k out.mp4
   Recalculate -b:v for every different duration.

The FastCompress workflow

1. Open FastCompress and select the video (MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, WebM, FLV, or WMV).
2. Choose the Discord preset. The default target is 10 MB; edit the target number if your account or server allows more.
3. Press Compress. FFmpeg runs locally on your machine; nothing is uploaded anywhere.
4. Check the result summary (for example: 212.4 MB → 9.8 MB), then drag the new file into Discord.

The free version does one video at a time with every preset and no watermark. Batch compression and GPU encoding are planned for a one-time Pro license.

Troubleshooting

• Discord still rejects the file. You are probably a fraction over the cap. Re-run with a lower target (9.5 MB) so rounding differences cannot bite.
• The result looks blocky or smeared. The clip is too long for the budget. Trim harder, or lower the resolution: 720p at a starved bitrate looks better than 1080p at the same bitrate.
• Audio matters more than video? For music or voice clips, a lower resolution buys back audio quality inside the same 10 MB.
• The video is 20+ minutes. Do not compress it to 10 MB at all; upload it somewhere without the cap and share the link. For email limits specifically, see compressing a video for email.