Question 1

Is 20MB really Discord's free limit now?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Discord raised the free upload limit from 10MB to 20MB on August 13, 2026, announced on its official X account and documented in the File Attachments FAQ on support.discord.com. The same change moved mobile apps to the pre-compression size check desktop always used, so the file size you see before sending is the number that counts on every platform.

Question 2

Why do other sites say the limit is 10MB or 25MB?

Accepted Answer

Both numbers are old. Discord's free cap was 8MB for years, rose to 25MB in 2023, was cut back to 10MB in 2024 when the company cited storage costs, and returned to 20MB in August 2026. Most guides were written for one of those earlier eras and never updated. A guide with no date on it is usually a guide about a limit that no longer exists.

Question 3

Does the 20MB limit include audio and container overhead?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Discord compares the whole file, video plus audio plus the MP4 container, against 20MB. That is why naive calculators that spend all 20MB on video bitrate produce files that get rejected. This compressor reserves the audio track and a safety margin first, then spends the rest on video, which is why its output passes.

Question 4

What does a 20MB video look like?

Accepted Answer

Depends on length. At 60 seconds you can hold 1080p if the footage has little motion, and 720p if it is busy gameplay. At three minutes, expect usable 720p for talking-head or desktop content and 480p for fast action. The before/after preview shows the result before you download, and if quality disappoints, trimming five seconds beats dropping the resolution a step.

Question 5

What is Discord's upload limit right now?

Accepted Answer

As of August 2026, Discord's official File Attachments FAQ states the free upload limit is 20MB (raised from 10MB), with Nitro Basic at 50MB and Nitro at up to 1GB. Discord also switched to checking file size before compression, which makes desktop and iOS uploads more predictable than before. Because limits change over time, the tool includes a custom-size box. Always check Discord's official FAQ for the latest numbers.

Question 6

Does compressing a video reduce its quality?

Accepted Answer

Any compression trades some quality for size, but BitSized keeps the damage small by computing the highest bitrate that still fits your target size, rather than using a fixed aggressive preset. For most gameplay clips at 720p to 1080p and normal length, the result looks close to the original on Discord's player. If a target is very tight (say, a 60-minute video squeezed into 10MB), drop the resolution to 480p and mute the audio for the best-looking result.

Question 7

Is my video uploaded anywhere?

Accepted Answer

No. Compression runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly. The file is read into your browser's memory, processed on your own CPU, and saved directly back to your disk. You can even disconnect from the internet after the page loads and the compressor will keep working. That's the simplest proof there is no server involved.

Question 8

Why is the first compression slower?

Accepted Answer

The first run downloads the ffmpeg.wasm engine (about 25MB) from a CDN and caches it in your browser. After that one-time load, videos start compressing immediately, even in future sessions. Nothing blocks the page before you add a file, so the site itself stays fast.

Question 9

What formats can I compress and what comes out?

Accepted Answer

You can drop MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, and AVI files. By default the output is MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio, the combination Discord plays inline in chat most reliably, with optional WebM output if you prefer it.

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