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← Creator toolkit · Mission 13 of 13

Video too big for WhatsApp or email? Shrink it in one click

HandBrake is the free, open-source video shrinker with ready-made presets. Pick one, press Start, and a 96MB clip fits in an email at 16MB, still looking good. No account, no watermark, and nothing is uploaded.

25 minBeginnerTools: FreeStep 1 free
Tested 9 Oct 2026 · HandBrake 1.11.2 (app and command line), Intel Core Ultra 7 155H laptop, Windows 11
HandBrake installeda free app that shrinks video with ready-made presets
A 96MB clip turned into a 19MB file that fits in an email, with the quality checked side by side
Vertical phone videos shrunk properly, not squashed down to a tiny size
  • A copy-paste loop that shrinks a whole folder of clips, for Windows, Mac and Linux
Before you start
  • Windows 10 or 11, a Mac, or Linux
  • About 300MB of free disk space (on Windows, that includes Microsoft's .NET Desktop Runtime)
  • A video to practise on. A clip from your phone is perfect.
01/06Install HandBrake0 done
STEP 01 of 06~5 min

Install HandBrake

HandBrake is free and open source, and everything happens on your own computer.

  1. Go to the official download page, handbrake.fr/downloads.php ↗, click Download (exe installer) and run it. Or install it with one command:

    Windows
    winget install --id HandBrake.HandBrake -e
    Mac (or download the .dmg from the same page and drag HandBrake to Applications)
    brew install --cask handbrake-app
    Linux (HandBrake's official Flatpak from Flathub)
    flatpak install flathub fr.handbrake.ghb

  2. On Windows, HandBrake needs Microsoft's free .NET Desktop Runtime 10 (HandBrake's install guide ↗ says so). winget's listing for HandBrake includes it as a dependency. If it's missing, HandBrake tells you when you open it: see the fix below.

    TipRather not install anything? The same page has Download (zip package). Unzip it and double-click HandBrake.exe. Rename portable.ini.template to portable.ini first and it keeps its settings inside that folder. It still needs the .NET Desktop Runtime.

  3. Open HandBrake. The first thing you see is a Source Selection panel with two choices: Folder (Batch Scan) and File.

✓
CheckpointHandBrake opens and shows Source Selection.
If it breaks"You must install .NET Desktop Runtime to run this application."
"You must install .NET Desktop Runtime to run this application."
Windows only. Click Download it now, run Microsoft's installer, then open HandBrake again.
Still stuck? Ask the community
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