Updated
To resize a video, type the frame size you want, for example 1280x720, and download the MP4. The picture is fitted inside that frame without stretching, and the work happens on our servers in Germany.
Pixels drive file size more than anything else. 4K carries four times as many as 1080p and nine times as many as 720p, so a clip meant for a phone screen or a small player can lose most of them without much visible difference.
How to resize videos to a new resolution
- Drop a video, a handful of them, or a whole folder onto the page.
- Set the width and the height of the new frame, for example 1280 and 720.
- Start the resize and let our servers re-encode the clips.
- Download each MP4 on its own or all of them as one ZIP.
Fitting the picture into the frame
The two numbers describe a frame, not a stretch. We scale the video until it fits inside that frame with its proportions unchanged. When the shapes differ, black bars fill the gap, so the output always has exactly the dimensions you entered.
Phone footage is where this trips people up. A vertical clip sent into a 1280x720 frame lands as a slim picture with bars left and right. Enter 720x1280 instead, so the frame stands upright like the video, and no bars appear.
Standard landscape sizes are 1920x1080 for 1080p, 1280x720 for 720p, 854x480 for 480p and 640x360 for 360p.
Quality, sound and output format
Going down in size discards pixels, and the finest detail goes with them. Watched on a phone screen or a small player, the result looks as sharp. Going up is pointless: the file grows and no detail is added.
Every file comes out as MP4, with the picture encoded in H.264 at a sensible default quality, so it plays everywhere. The soundtrack is converted to AAC to suit the MP4 container, and in normal listening it sounds unchanged.
Resizing a batch of clips
A folder of clips that should all end up at 720p is a natural batch. Drop the folder, set 1280x720 once, and collect the results as one ZIP or file by file.
Resizing is a heavy video job. Without an account, the free allowance is 3 videos a day; a free account raises it to 5. Each file can be up to 50 MB. Pro removes the daily allowance and accepts files up to 500 MB in batches of up to 500. Credits cover one big job without a subscription: one credit pays for 25 files in a batch or pipeline, and credits never expire.
Resizing and compressing go well together. A pipeline runs both as one recipe over every file, resizing first and then handing each clip to video compression. Pipelines are free to try on up to 3 files, and Pro runs them on up to 500.
FAQ
Why does the video have black bars on the sides?
The frame you entered has a different shape from the video. Use a size with the same proportions, such as 720x1280 for a vertical clip or 1280x720 for 16:9 landscape footage.
Will the file get smaller?
Usually by a lot, since fewer pixels leave less to encode. For finer control over the size, compress the result afterwards.
Can the tool make a square video by cropping?
No. The tool scales and never crops, so a square frame gives a smaller picture with bars filling the rest.
Where is the video processed?
On our servers in Germany. It arrives over an encrypted connection, and we remove it automatically within two hours.