How to reduce the size of a PDF and a video to send by email

By Marcelo Amantino · published October 5, 2026 · 2 min read · who we are

You attach the file, click send and the email refuses it for size. The limit varies from service to service (Gmail, for example, accepts attachments of up to 25 MB), and video files and PDFs with photos exceed it easily. The good news: you can almost always shrink them a lot without losing what matters, as long as you understand what is making them heavy.

First, find out what makes the file heavy

Each type of file is heavy for a different reason:

PDF: it is almost always the images. A text-only PDF is light; a PDF of scanned pages or full of photos is heavy.
Video: the weight comes from the resolution, the length and the amount of information stored per second. Phone recordings are usually far more detailed than needed to watch on a small screen.

How to reduce a PDF

The most direct way is to compress the document’s internal images:

Open the PDF tool and choose compression.
Select the quality level. The stronger it is, the smaller the file and the less sharpness in the images.
Compare the final size with the original and open the result to check that the text and images are still legible.
If it came out bad or is still too big, repeat with another level. Always keep the original.

If the PDF has many unnecessary pages

Before compressing, ask whether the recipient needs all the pages. Extracting only the needed range reduces the file and also avoids exposing the rest of the document. The same PDF tool does this.

How to reduce a video

For video, the procedure is similar:

Open Video Compression and select the file.
Choose the output format (MP4 is usually the most compatible) and the compression level.
Compress and compare the final size with the original.
Watch the result, especially the scenes with movement, where the loss shows up first.

Extra tip: cut what you do not need

Often the video has seconds of setup at the start and leftover at the end. Cutting those ends before compressing makes the file smaller without losing quality in anything that matters. The WebFaz video editor lets you cut and export as MP4.

Why do this in the browser

Both the PDF and the video are usually personal or work files. The tools mentioned run in your browser: the file is not sent to WebFaz. A practical consequence is that the processing effort is your device’s, so long videos take longer on phones than on computers. Keep the tab open until it finishes.

And if it still does not fit?

Not every file compresses enough without losing too much quality. In those cases, instead of insisting:

Send a link: upload the file to a cloud storage service and share the address.
Split it into parts: a PDF into two files; a video into two clips.
Reduce the need: ask the recipient what quality they really need.