At a glance
- Cost
- Free, no signup
- Longest video
- 2 minutes
- Guest videos stay up
- 14 days (a free account keeps them)
- Works with
- Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, any text app
On this page
How to send a video through email
Record or upload your video
Use the recorder at the top of this page: hold to record with your camera, or upload a video file, up to 2 minutes. No signup.
Copy the link and the preview
You get a link to a page where the video plays, plus an email-ready preview image of the video that opens that page when clicked.
Paste them into your email
Open Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail or any email app, paste the preview and the link into a new message and send it. The file never rides along, so no size limit applies.
Keep it, or let it expire
Guest videos stay up 14 days. Make a free account to keep them for good.
Why a video is too big to email
Email was built for text, and every service caps how big a message can be. A phone video runs large fast, so even a short clip can be more than an email will carry:
- Gmail: 25 MB for personal accounts. Over that, Gmail swaps the file for a Google Drive link. Google's help page.
- Outlook: 20 MB by default for internet email accounts in the desktop app; work accounts use whatever limit the company's server sets. Microsoft's help page.
- iPhone Mail: Mail Drop sends attachments up to 5 GB as a link through iCloud, and the recipient has 30 days to download it. Apple's help page.
And even when a big file sends, the person you sent it to can still bounce it: their email service has its own limit.
Why a link beats an attachment
- No size limit. The email holds a link and a small preview, not the video file.
- It plays right away. The page streams the video on any phone or computer; nobody downloads a file first.
- It fits every inbox. The receiving side's size limit can't bounce a message that only carries a link.
- A moving preview gets the click. The preview shows the video's first seconds, so people see it's a video before they open it.
- Captions come with it. Every video gets automatic captions the viewer can switch to their language.
How to send a large video through email
Keep the video under 2 minutes and send it as a link. If you shot something longer, trim it on your phone first (on iPhone and Android, open the video in Photos and tap Edit), then upload the trimmed clip above.
Other ways people send big videos, and the catch with each:
- Google Drive or OneDrive link: works, but the viewer may hit a sign-in or a "request access" screen if sharing isn't set right.
- iPhone Mail Drop: up to 5 GB, but the download link expires after 30 days and the viewer downloads a file.
- Compressing the file: shrinks it, but the picture gets worse and it may still be over the limit.
Sending a video by text instead
Texts are even tighter than email: picture messages (MMS) have small size limits set by the carrier, so phones shrink a video before it sends and it arrives blurry. Paste the link from this tool into your text instead. It shows a preview in most messaging apps and plays at full quality.
For car salespeople: send this to every lead
Car dealers use the same idea every day: a 30-second video at the car, sent to the shopper who asked about it. CarShots Video messages adds watch alerts, captions in the shopper's language, your logo and the car's page under the video. Free for 1 salesperson, $19 a month for the whole store.