Compress Video to 10MB
10 MB is Discord's free attachment limit, which is why it is the most asked-for number on this site. It is already filled in: choose a clip and the bitrate is worked backwards from its own length, then the finished file is measured against 10 MB before you are handed it.
What to know about 10 MB
Where the number comes from
Discord raised its free attachment cap from 8 MB to 10 MB when it restructured the Nitro tiers, and said little about it — which is why so many guides still tell people to aim at 8. It applies per attachment rather than per message, and the limit that counts is the uploader's, not the reader's.
A size target is a bitrate budget
Ten megabytes is about 84 million bits, and every second of video spends some of them. That is why the length of the clip decides the picture far more than any quality slider does: the same 10 MB spread over two minutes has a quarter of the bitrate it has over thirty seconds.
If it comes back soft, trim before you compress
Cutting the dead air at the start gives every remaining frame more bits, and it is the one edit that improves a fixed-size export at no cost at all. Dropping a soundtrack nobody listens to frees the audio allowance on top of that.
What fits in 10 MB
| Clip length | Video bitrate | Resolution it picks |
|---|---|---|
| 15 seconds | 5026 kbps | 1920×1080 |
| 30 seconds | 2449 kbps | 960×540 |
| 1 minute | 1160 kbps | 720×406 |
| 3 minutes | 301 kbps | 480×270 |
| 5 minutes | 130 kbps | 480×270 |
These rows come from the same planner the tool runs, so they are what it would actually choose — not a rule of thumb. Your own clip has its own length, resolution and audio track, and the plan is recomputed against those before anything is encoded. Where a row says the target is out of reach, dropping the audio or trimming the clip changes the arithmetic in your favour; the bitrate calculator does the same sum for a target you type yourself.
Frequently asked questions
Will the file actually come out under 10 MB?
That is the whole point of the tool. The bitrate is computed from your clip's own duration and audio track with a margin taken off the top, and then the finished file is measured. If it landed over 10 MB it is re-encoded lower automatically; if 10 MB is not reachable at a watchable bitrate you are told before the encode rather than after it.
Why did my 1080p clip come back at 720p?
Because the same bits look better spread over fewer pixels. At 10 MB a longer clip has so little data per frame that 1080p breaks into visible blocks, while 720p still looks clean. The plan shows the resolution it picked before you commit, and 'Keep the original resolution' overrides it when the output has to stay 1080p.
Is 10 MB still Discord's limit?
For a free account, yes. Nitro Basic raises it to 50 MB and full Nitro to 500 MB, and posting into a boosted server raises it as well. If you have any of those, aim higher and keep the quality the extra room buys — the page for Discord covers which limit applies to whom.
How long a video fits into 10 MB?
Longer than most people expect, at a resolution lower than they hoped. The table on this page is computed by the same planner the tool runs, so it shows the real answer for a 1080p source: short clips keep their resolution, and past a few minutes the ladder steps down to hold the picture together.