Compress Video to 8MB
8 MB was Discord's free attachment limit for years, and it is still what most of the internet tells people to aim for. It is pre-filled here — but read the first note before you use it, because if the file is going to current Discord you have 10 MB to spend and no reason to throw the difference away.
What to know about 8 MB
This limit is retired and the internet has not noticed
Discord's free cap moved to 10 MB with the Nitro restructure, but 8 MB survives in guides, forum answers and a good half of the compressor sites that copy them. Aiming at 8 when 10 is allowed spends a fifth of your bitrate on nothing at all.
Where 8 MB is still a genuine ceiling
Older forum software, self-hosted chat, and any upload form whose limit was configured a decade ago and never revisited. If a service is refusing a 9 MB file without explaining itself, this is the target that usually gets it through.
What the missing 2 MB actually costs
A fifth of the bitrate, which is invisible on a screen recording of static interface and obvious on anything with grass, confetti, water or a gradient in it. If your clip is the second kind and the destination allows 10 MB, use the 10 MB page instead.
What fits in 8 MB
| Clip length | Video bitrate | Resolution it picks |
|---|---|---|
| 15 seconds | 3995 kbps | 1440×810 |
| 30 seconds | 1934 kbps | 960×540 |
| 1 minute | 903 kbps | 720×406 |
| 3 minutes | 216 kbps | 480×270 |
| 5 minutes | — | Not reachable — trim first |
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
Should I still be using 8 MB for Discord?
Only if something specific requires it. A free Discord account can attach 10 MB, so the extra 2 MB is free quality that most guides are still telling people to discard. The 8 MB target remains useful for older forums and upload forms whose limits were set back when Discord's was 8 as well.
Why do so many guides say 8 MB?
Because it was correct for a long time, and because guides copy each other. Discord changed the free limit quietly during a wider tier restructure, and the pages ranking for the old number never had a reason to update — which is also why so many people arrive here looking for exactly this figure.
Is 8 MB visibly worse than 10 MB?
It depends on the footage. Detailed, moving content — foliage, confetti, water, film grain, gradients — shows the missing fifth of the bitrate as blocking or banding. A screen recording of mostly static interface will look the same at either target, because there is little for the extra bits to describe.
What if my clip cannot reach 8 MB?
You are told before anything is encoded rather than after the wait. Below about 100 kbps video stops being watchable at any resolution, and when your clip's duration puts the target under that floor the plan says so up front. Trimming the clip is the fix that works; compressing harder is not.