Compress a video for email on Mac
Gmail's attachment cap is a number, and the native tools do not take one. QuickTime Player's Export As lets you choose 4K, 1080p, 720p, or 480p and writes .mov. Finder's Encode Selected Video Files has a similar list of H.264 and HEVC settings, also as .mov. Both leave you guessing which tier fits. Press's Email preset aims at 14.5 MB, which still fits iCloud Mail's 20 MB message limit once the attachment is encoded for sending, works out the bitrate for the clip's length, and writes H.264 MP4. The file stays an attachment instead of becoming a Google Drive link, and plays on a Windows PC at the other end.
- Drop the video onto Press. A folder works too, if you have several to send.
- Under Video, select H.264 and choose Email under Size limit. Press picks the frame size that fits the budget, down to 720p.
- Click Convert, then attach name (Press).mp4 from the same folder as the original.
What you get
- Container
- .mp4, saved beside the source.
- Codec
- H.264 video and AAC audio, which the stock players on Windows and phones handle without extra software.
- Quality
- Press sets the video bitrate from the byte budget and the clip's duration and aims 10 percent under 14.5 MB. It starts at the largest frame size that bitrate can carry, checks the real file size after each pass, and encodes again at a lower rate or a smaller size when the file is over, up to four passes. The full duration is kept, so long clips look softer because the same budget is spread over more seconds.
- Metadata
- Metadata is not carried over on size-limited exports, which are written through AVAssetWriter rather than the export presets.
What we measured
The same 60-second 4K clip with the Email preset, resolution left at Original. In H.264 a minute at this budget is too little for 1080p, so Press wrote 720p. HEVC needs fewer bits for the same picture and held 1080p. Both files fit iCloud Mail's 20 MB once encoded for sending.
| Source | Setting | Output | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4K HEVC .mov, 153.5 MB | Email, Original | 13.2 MB .mp4, H.264 at 720p | 5 s |
| 4K HEVC .mov, 153.5 MB | Email, HEVC, Original | 14.0 MB .mp4, HEVC at 1080p | 7 s |
Measured on 2026-10-08 with Press 1.0, and with Press 1.0.1 for the size-preset rows at Original, on a MacBook Air (M5, 24 GB) running macOS 27.0.1. The video source is a 60-second 4K HEVC .mov at 30 fps with AAC audio: a slow pan across a photograph, with grain added. The H.264 source is the same clip encoded to 1080p. The photo is a 12-megapixel iPhone HEIC. Sizes are decimal megabytes, as Finder shows them. Times are for one file.
Why 14.5 MB?
Mail carries an attachment as base64 text, which makes it about 37 percent larger on the way out. Apple lists 20 MB for incoming and outgoing iCloud Mail messages, so the encoded message is what has to fit. A 14.5 MB file encodes to about 19.8 MB and leaves room for the text. Gmail's limit for personal accounts and Outlook.com's are both 25 MB, so the same file goes through either. Gmail replaces a larger attachment with a Google Drive link, and on a work or school account the administrator sets the limit. For a bigger file, choose Custom, or let Mail offer Mail Drop, which Apple says takes attachments up to 5 GB.
Will the recipient need anything installed?
An H.264 MP4 with AAC audio plays in the stock players on macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android, and in every current browser.
Is this free?
Size presets are in Press Pro. The free download writes H.264 MP4 at 1080p or 720p without a size target. At 720p our test clip came to 57.2 MB a minute, so roughly 15 seconds of it fits in 14.5 MB.
Press converts video and images on your Mac. The download is free, and Press Pro is a one-time $14.99 unlock for batch conversion, size presets, and WebP.