1080p to 720p Converter
Drop Full HD footage to 720p and the frame loses more than half its pixels, which takes a big bite out of the file size while still looking sharp on a phone or laptop.
Video Converter
or drop MP4, MOV, MKV … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Lower is better quality and a bigger file. 18 looks identical to the source, 23 is the default, 28 and above shows visible softening.
Frames per second. Keep the source rate unless a platform asks for a specific one; 15–20 fps is plenty for GIFs.
Only used for PowerPoint files and single still images: how long each slide or picture stays on screen.
Auto uses AAC for MP4/MOV and Opus for WebM. Copy keeps the original sound untouched when the new format supports it.
192 kbps is transparent for music; 128 kbps is enough for speech.
Width of the animation in pixels; height follows the aspect ratio. 480 px suits chats, 720 px or more gives a high-quality GIF but a much larger file.
GIF holds at most 256 colors. Fewer colors make a smaller file but cause banding on gradients and skin tones.
Mixes palette colors in a fine pattern to hide banding. Sierra gives the smoothest result; none gives the smallest file.
Whether the animation repeats endlessly or plays one time and stops.
Optional. Seconds (e.g. 75) or minutes:seconds (1:15). Leave empty to start at the beginning.
Optional. Same format as the start time. Leave empty to keep everything up to the end.
The converted file will be at or just under this size.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload 1080p clips
Add up to 20 videos of up to 95 MB each: MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM and most other formats.
- 2
Confirm 720p
Resolution is preset to 720p (HD) and Convert to to MP4. Set Frame rate to 30 fps as well if the source was shot at 60 fps and smooth motion is not the point.
- 3
Convert and download
Press Convert to MP4. Each 720p file can be downloaded on its own or in a ZIP with the rest.
How do I convert 1080p video to 720p?
Upload the clip and press Convert to MP4. This page is preset to the 720p Resolution, so a 1920 × 1080 frame becomes 1280 × 720 with H.264 video; clips already 720p or smaller are not enlarged.
What the step from 1080p to 720p removes
720p was standardized by SMPTE as 1280 × 720 progressive and was the minimum for Europe's HD ready label in 2005; 1080p raised it to 1920 × 1080, one and a half times the lines. The step down to 720p removes 56 percent of the pixels in every frame, and the encoder has that much less detail to describe.
YouTube's recommended upload bitrates show the same gap: about 8 Mbps for 1080p and 5 Mbps for 720p at 24 to 30 fps. On a quality-based encode the saving is often larger than that ratio, because the finest detail, which costs the most bits, is the part that disappears.
1920 × 1080 px
1080p source
2,073,600 pixels per frame
1280 × 720 px
720p result
921,600 pixels, about 44% of 1080p
405 × 720 px
Portrait clip at 720p
Height is fixed, so a 9:16 video gets narrow
ANY V
Any video
This accepts common video formats, including MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI and others. The container and codecs are detected automatically from the file.
MP4
MPEG-4 video
MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14) is a multimedia container standardised by ISO/MPEG and based on Apple's QuickTime format. It usually holds H.264 or HEVC video with AAC audio, and can also carry subtitles, chapters and metadata. It is the most compatible video format in the world, playing on phones, browsers, TVs, game consoles and social platforms. The video inside is almost always lossy, so repeated re-encoding gradually reduces quality.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2001 · Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
Video is taken from 1080p down to 720p when the picture is sharper than the screen or the connection needs: an email attachment, a slow upload or an older laptop gets a file about half the size that still reads as HD.
When to convert 1080p to 720p
Sending by email or chat
A smaller frame is the quickest way to get a clip under an attachment limit without heavy blocking artifacts.
Uploading on a slow connection
Half the megabytes means half the waiting, and most viewers watch on screens where 720p looks sharp.
Older laptops and TVs
Machines from the early 2010s and HD-ready TVs decode 720p H.264 smoothly where 1080p can stutter.
Storing long recordings
Lectures, meetings and webcam footage carry little fine detail, so 720p keeps them readable at a fraction of the space.
Getting a clean 720p result
The 1080-to-720 step is a two-thirds scale, so pixels do not map one to one and very thin lines can shimmer slightly. Screen recordings with small type show it most; keep Quality (CRF) at 20 for those, or record the screen at a larger zoom level next time.
Every upload is limited to 95 MB, so a long 1080p recording may need splitting before it reaches this page. For 4K footage, start with the 4K to 1080p converter; to hit an exact ceiling rather than a resolution, use compress video to 100 MB. The Discord and email compression guide shows which resolution suits each app.
1080p to 720p questions
How much smaller is a 720p video than the 1080p original?
The frame holds 921,600 pixels instead of 2,073,600, about 44 percent of the original. At the same Quality (CRF) the file typically lands at roughly half the size, though grainy or fast-moving footage saves less than calm, clean shots.
Will 720p look blurry next to the 1080p original?
It removes detail, yes: fine textures, small text and distant faces soften. On a phone or a 13-inch laptop the difference is hard to spot, while on a large TV or in a screen recording full of small type it shows. Keep the 1080p original if you may need it later.
What happens to a vertical phone video?
Resolution sets the height, and the width follows the aspect ratio. A 1080 × 1920 portrait clip therefore comes out at about 405 × 720, smaller than a landscape 720p frame. For portrait video choose 1080p instead, which gives roughly 608 × 1080.
Can I convert 720p back up to 1080p later?
The converter never upscales, and upscaling elsewhere cannot restore detail that was removed. If you need both versions, convert a copy and archive the Full HD source.
Should I change the frame rate as well?
Only if you need the extra saving. Going from 60 to 30 fps halves the frames to encode, which helps with long clips, but it makes fast pans and game footage look less fluid. Leave Frame rate on Same as source for sports and gaming captures.
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