How to Reduce Video File Size for Free: A YouTube Hack

How to Reduce Video File Size for Free: A YouTube Hack

If you've ever tried resizing or compressing a video, you've likely encountered a number of tools and software that promise to reduce file size but often come with limitations. Some make you pay for premium features, while others might offer a free version - at the cost of adding a watermark across your video. But what if there was a completely free way to compress your video files without any strings attached?

Enter the YouTube upload hack, a simple yet effective trick that uses YouTube’s processing power to reduce video size. Here’s how it works and why it could save you both time and money.

The Problem: Bloated Video Files

Video files, especially ones shot in high definition (HD or 4K), can take up enormous amounts of storage. If you're dealing with file sizes of 100MB, 500MB, or even gigabytes, this can quickly become a headache. Whether you’re sending videos via email, uploading them to cloud storage, or adding videos to your website, you often need to shrink them down without sacrificing too much quality.

Most video compression tools charge a premium for advanced compression features or remove watermarks only with a paid subscription. The free versions, while usable, often fall short - adding watermarks or limiting how much you can reduce the file size.

The Hack: Compressing Video Files Using YouTube

One lesser-known but highly effective method for reducing file size is uploading the video to YouTube and then downloading the compressed version. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it:

• Login to your YouTube Account
• Upload Your Video to YouTube (As an unlisted or private video)
• Once uploaded, visit the 'Studio' section of YouTube (https://studio.youtube.com)
• Click the 'Channel Content' tab
• Click the'...' more icon next to your video and click the 'Download' button.
• Voila! You have a vastly reduced MP4 file, which is compressed brilliantly.

You can, of course, reduce the file size further using other tools, but I feel YouTube offers a great happy medium between file size and quality.

Conclusion

With so many paid tools available, finding a simple, free, and effective solution to compress your videos is refreshing. Using YouTube's processing power saves space and maintains quality without adding any watermarks. Plus, there is no CPU/GPU processing power used to compress the file on your local machine (i.e. exporting/rendering with applications like Adobe Premiere). Next time you need to reduce a video's size, try this hack! You’ll be surprised at how well it works.

Here is a file we compressed recently for the WA Property Marketing website:
https://www.wapropertymarketing.com/services/property-videography

From 147mb down to just 10mb: