How to dramatically reduce video file size using ffmpeg
Updated 9 months ago
Sometimes you want to upload a video, but you can’t because its file size is too large. When that happens, you can use ffmpeg
to shrink the video size with one command.
Steps to shrink a video file
1. If you’re on a Mac and haven’t already, install Homebrew:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
2. Install ffmpeg
using Homebrew (or download ffmpeg for your OS):
brew install ffmpeg
3. Run ffmpeg
on your file:
# General pattern
ffmpeg -i path/to/original/file path/to/new/file
# Example
ffmpeg -i "Desktop/Screen Recording 2022-11-08 at 4.30.40 PM.mov" Desktop/code-walkthrough.mp4
That’s it — I was able to shrink a 10-minute macOS screencast from 1.4 GB
to 148 MB
just by running that command and waiting 6 minutes.
Where to go from here
This approach works best when your final video quality doesn’t need to be very high.
If you’re creating high-resolution content, you’ll want to dive deeper into ffmpeg
’s configuration options or use a tool like Handbrake to help you select the quality you need.