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Convert Video to MP4, WebM or MOV

MOV, MKV and WebM to MP4, or MP4 to WebM: streams copied without re-encoding when the file allows.

  • Free
  • No sign-up
  • No watermark
  • Runs in your browser

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Which format should you use?

A video file is a container (MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV) holding compressed streams, usually one video codec and one audio codec. A player has to understand both, which is why a file can open on your laptop and fail on your phone. If you are not sure which row you need, MP4 with H.264 and AAC is the safe answer.

Common video formats, the codecs they carry and where they play
FormatVideo / audio codecsPlays onBest for
MP4H.264 + AAC from this converter; the container also allows HEVC and AV1Every current browser, iPhone and Android phones, smart TVs, desktop playersSending to anyone, social apps, importing into editors
WebMVP9 + Opus from this converter; also VP8, AV1 and VorbisWeb browsers; patchy on TVs, editors and older Apple devicesVideo embedded on your own web pages
MOVH.264 + AAC from this converter; cameras also write ProRes and HEVC in itQuickTime and Apple devices; most editors import itFinal Cut Pro, or any tool that asks for a .mov
MKVAlmost any codec, plus several audio and subtitle tracksDesktop media players and many TVs; support in browsers, phones and editors is unevenKeeping a recording with all its tracks; convert before sharing

MP4 and MOV here carry the same H.264 + AAC, so moving a file between them is usually a copy. A stream is copied only when its codec fits and its timing starts at zero; many exported files start their audio a few milliseconds earlier, and then that audio is re-encoded while the video is still copied. The converter writes one video and one audio track: a second language track or the subtitles inside an MKV are not carried over. Resolution and frame rate stay as they were.

How it works

  1. Open the video. Drop a MOV, MKV, WebM or MP4 onto the box, or tap it to pick a file. The converter reads the headers and shows the container, codecs, resolution and length it found.

  2. Pick the output. Choose MP4, WebM or MOV. Before anything runs, the page says whether the streams can be copied or must be re-encoded, and why. A file already in that format is flagged instead of converted into itself.

  3. Convert and check. Press Convert and follow the progress bar, or cancel at any point. The finished file plays on the page so you can check picture and sound before you download it.

What you get

A copy when a copy will do
When a stream already fits the target, it moves byte for byte into the new container instead of being recompressed: no generation loss and no wait for every frame. The decision is per stream, so a clip whose audio must be redone still keeps its original video.
It reports what it actually did
The result says, for the video and for the audio, whether it was copied without re-encoding or re-encoded, according to what the conversion did with each stream, not a guess made before it started.
Rotation carried over
Phones often store a clip on its side with a flag telling players to turn it. The converter keeps that flag's orientation in the new file, so a portrait clip still plays portrait.
Honest about dead ends
An AVI, WMV or FLV is refused by name the moment you pick it, and a codec your browser cannot decode is named in plain words as soon as you press Convert, before a single frame is processed.

Straight to the pair you need

Questions people ask

How do I convert a video to MP4?

Drop the video here, leave MP4 selected and press Convert. A video that already holds H.264 and AAC is copied into the MP4 without re-encoding when its timing allows, and anything else, such as HEVC or VP9 video, is re-encoded to H.264. The result says what happened to the picture and to the sound. In our tests in Chrome on one desktop computer, a 10-second 1080x1920 H.264 MOV became an MP4 this way in under a second.

Which video files can this converter open?

It opens MP4, MOV, M4V, WebM and MKV files that hold H.264, HEVC where your device can decode it, VP8, VP9 or AV1 video. AVI, WMV, FLV and MPEG files are refused by name, because the in-browser engine has no reader for them: export the video as MP4 from the app that made it and drop that file instead. Browsers cannot decode ProRes video, and most cannot decode Dolby Digital or DTS sound.

Does converting a video lose quality?

Not when the file is repackaged: the streams are copied unchanged, so picture and sound are identical to the original. A re-encode is lossy like any H.264, VP9 or AAC compression. Video is re-encoded at a high quality setting, so the loss is hard to see, but converting the same file back and forth adds it up each time.

Should I use MP4 or WebM?

Use MP4 unless the video is going on your own website. MP4 with H.264 and AAC plays on essentially every phone, TV, editor and browser. WebM with VP9 and Opus is a web format: browsers handle it well, but many TVs, older Apple devices and editing apps do not.

Will the new file be bigger or smaller?

A repackaged file comes out almost exactly the same size, because the streams are the same bytes in a different wrapper: our 10-second test MOV of 5,038,029 bytes became an MP4 of 5,032,103 bytes. A re-encode can be larger or smaller than the original, because the encoder's quality setting decides its size, not the source.

Can I convert a video on my iPhone or Android phone?

Yes, in a mobile browser with WebCodecs, such as a current Chrome on Android or Safari 26 or newer on an iPhone: open this page there, pick the video and save the result. Earlier Safari versions can decode the picture but not always the sound, which matters whenever the audio has to be re-encoded. A repackage does little work; a re-encode compresses every frame, so on a phone it takes longer and needs the page open and in front until it finishes.

Converted. Now make it vertical.

This converter changes the file format and leaves the frame alone. GPT-Video takes a landscape video, reframes it to 9:16 by following the speaker's face, and cuts it into captioned short clips. That runs on our servers as part of the paid product, not in this tab.

Related

Your file is processed on your device and never uploaded.