MP4 to HEVC Converter
Re-encode H.264 MP4 files to HEVC, the codec that keeps a similar picture at a much lower bitrate, so a phone, a NAS or a cloud backup holds more footage in the same space.
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 H.264 MP4 files
Add up to 20 MP4, MOV or MKV files, 95 MB each. Clips from screen recorders, older phones and editing exports are the usual candidates.
- 2
Check the codec and CRF
Video codec is set to H.265 / HEVC and Quality (CRF) to 28. Move the slider down toward 22 for footage you will edit again.
- 3
Convert and compare
Press Convert to MP4, download the HEVC files and compare their sizes with the originals before deleting anything.
How do I convert an H.264 MP4 to HEVC?
Upload the MP4 and press Convert to MP4. This page is preset to the H.265 / HEVC codec at Quality (CRF) 28, so the file keeps the .mp4 extension but the video inside is HEVC and usually much smaller.
Why re-encode an H.264 MP4 as HEVC
"MP4 to HEVC" is really a codec change: MP4 is the container, H.264 and HEVC are two ways of compressing the picture inside it. HEVC, standardized by ITU-T and ISO/IEC MPEG as H.265, uses larger coding blocks of up to 64 × 64 pixels and more prediction modes than H.264's 16 × 16 macroblocks, which is where its bitrate savings come from.
The savings matter most for material you keep rather than send: a phone gallery that is running out of space, a folder of 1080p screen recordings, a NAS full of family videos. Apple moved iPhone recording to HEVC by default with iOS 11 in 2017 for the same reason.
Picking a CRF for H.265 (it is not the H.264 scale)
- CRF 20
Close to the source; for camera originals you will edit
- CRF 24
Clean on a large TV, still well below the H.264 size
- CRF 28
x265 default; looks like H.264 at CRF 23
- CRF 32
Fine for a phone screen; texture starts to smear
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)
HEVC
HEVC / H.265 video
HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding, also called H.265) is a video codec standardised by ITU-T and ISO/MPEG in 2013. It delivers roughly the same quality as H.264 at about half the bitrate, which makes it standard for 4K, HDR and iPhone video. A .hevc or .h265 file is a raw video stream without a container or audio. Patent licensing has slowed support, so some browsers, older PCs and editors cannot decode it.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2013 · ITU-T VCEG and ISO/IEC MPEG
MP4 goes to HEVC to buy back storage: H.264 libraries, screen recordings and old phone clips take roughly half the space as H.265 while still looking the same on the devices that store them.
The FFmpeg project's own H.265 guide sets the x265 default at CRF 28 and notes that it corresponds visually to x264 at CRF 23 while producing roughly half the file. That is why this page starts at 28 rather than the 23 used for H.264 elsewhere on the site: the same number on the two scales does not mean the same quality.
Size still depends on content. Static screen recordings and talking-head clips shrink dramatically, while handheld footage with noise or confetti shrinks less. If you need a hard ceiling instead of a quality level, compress video to 100 MB sets one, and the video compression guide walks through resolution and bitrate choices.
Playing an HEVC MP4 on phones and computers
iPhone and iPad
- 01Any device on iOS 11 or later plays HEVC.
- 02Save the MP4 to Files, then use Save Video to add it to Photos.
- 03Older 32-bit iPhones need the H.264 original.
Android
- 01HEVC decoding is part of Android since version 5.0.
- 02Open the MP4 in Google Photos or VLC.
- 03Budget phones may stutter on 4K HEVC; 1080p plays smoothly.
Windows and Mac
- 01macOS High Sierra and later play HEVC in QuickTime.
- 02Windows usually needs the HEVC Video Extensions from the Microsoft Store.
- 03VLC plays HEVC on both without extra software.
MP4 to HEVC questions
How much space does converting MP4 to HEVC save?
For a camera or screen recording encoded as H.264 at a generous bitrate, the HEVC copy is often around half the size at a similar look. Clips that were already squeezed hard, such as videos saved from a messaging app, gain much less and can even grow.
Is converting MP4 to HEVC lossless?
No. The H.264 picture is decoded and compressed again, so any artifacts in the source stay and a little more detail is lost. Start from the highest-quality copy you have, never from a file that was already shared and recompressed.
Why does HEVC encoding take longer than H.264?
H.265 compares many more block sizes and prediction modes to find its savings, which costs processing time. A one-minute 1080p clip that converts quickly to H.264 can take several times as long as HEVC, especially at lower CRF values.
Can I put the HEVC video in an MKV or MOV instead?
Yes. Video codec stays available when Convert to is MP4, MOV, MKV or M4V, so choose MKV for a Plex or Jellyfin library or MOV for Final Cut Pro. For WebM, AVI or GIF outputs the codec menu is hidden.
Will YouTube accept an HEVC MP4?
Yes, YouTube lists HEVC among its accepted upload codecs and re-encodes every upload anyway. A smaller HEVC file simply finishes uploading sooner on a slow connection; quality on the watch page depends on YouTube's own encode.
What if someone I send the HEVC file to cannot open it?
Send them an H.264 copy instead; HEVC to MP4 converts it back. Keep HEVC for your own storage and devices you know decode it, and share H.264 when you cannot check the recipient's hardware.
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