How to compress a video for Discord without Nitro
Discord’s free tier caps uploads at 10MB. Without Nitro you cannot raise that — but you can shrink the video to fit. Here is how to do it in your browser, without paying and without handing your clip to an online compressor that uploads it to their servers first.
Open fqfit →Why 10MB, and what actually fits
The free-tier limit is 10MB per file. How much video that buys depends on length and resolution: roughly 30–60 seconds at 720p, or a shorter clip at 1080p. The trick is to set the size as a hard target and let the encoder pick the bitrate to match — rather than guessing and re-exporting.
Trim first, then fit
Open fqfit, drop your clip, and click the 10MB preset. Trim to just the part you want with the waveform timeline — less footage means more bitrate per second, which means it looks better at the same 10MB. For long clips, drop to 720p or 480p; fqfit shows how many seconds fit at good quality for each resolution.
Guaranteed under the limit
fqfit calculates the bitrate that fits your trim into 10MB and re-encodes to H.264 + AAC. A correction pass nudges the bitrate if the first attempt overshoots, so the output is guaranteed at or below 10MB — it will upload to Discord on the first try.
How to do it, step by step
- Open fqfit. Go to yarimati.com/fqfit — no signup or install.
- Drop your video. Drag the clip onto the page. It is read locally and never uploaded.
- Pick the 10MB preset. Click 10MB for the Discord free tier.
- Trim and downscale if needed. Cut to the part you want; pick 720p or 480p for long clips.
- Compress and save. Click Compress and save; the file downloads guaranteed under 10MB.
All compression runs in your browser via FFmpeg.wasm and WebCodecs. Your video never leaves your machine, and you never need a paid Discord plan to fit the file.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Discord upload limit without Nitro?
On the free tier it is 10MB per file. Nitro Basic raises it to 50MB and Nitro to 500MB, but you can simply compress the file to fit 10MB instead.
Does compressing for Discord need an account or payment?
No. fqfit is free, requires no signup, and runs entirely in your browser.
Will my video upload to a compression server?
No. fqfit has no backend that touches your video — the encode happens locally on your own machine.