File Size Limits for Popular Apps and Email

Please note: these are commonly published figures and services change their limits from time to time. Always check each service's own help pages for the current numbers.

Email providers limit the total size of a message. Gmail typically allows about 25 MB of attachments and Outlook.com about 20 MB. Attachments are encoded when sent, which makes them a bit larger, so a file close to the limit can still be rejected.

If your attachment is too large, send a download link instead. Our guide to fixing the attachment too large error walks through it step by step, and there are dedicated guides for Gmail and Outlook.

WhatsApp typically lets you share documents up to about 2 GB, but videos sent through the normal media option are usually compressed to save data. Sending a video as a document keeps more quality, though the recipient then gets a file rather than an inline clip.

iMessage handles attachments up to roughly 100 MB. Telegram allows much larger files, about 2 GB, or about 4 GB with Premium. Discord free accounts are limited to around 10 MB, which rules out most videos.

Step-by-step guides: WhatsApp, Telegram and Discord. For phone videos, see our guides for iPhone and Android.

Slack typically accepts files up to about 1 GB, although your workspace may set tighter rules or retention policies. For client deliveries or very large video files, many people prefer to post a download link in the channel instead of the file itself. Free workspaces also only show the most recent 90 days of messages and files. See how to send large files in Slack.

1. Go to the homepage and add your file, up to 20 GB.
2. Choose Link and wait for the upload to finish with the tab open.
3. Paste the link into WhatsApp, iMessage, Discord, Slack, Telegram or an email.

The recipient downloads the original file with no compression. The link expires after 1 day, and you can add a password or have the file deleted after its first download. Sending video? Read how to send large video files.

Every service has to pay to store and deliver files, and chat and email systems are built around small messages that arrive instantly. Setting a size limit keeps those services fast and affordable. Compression serves the same goal: shrinking a video before sending means less data for everyone.

Video is affected more than any other kind of file because its size grows with resolution, frame rate and length. A short phone clip may fit under most limits, but a few minutes of 4K footage can be several gigabytes, well beyond email attachments and many chat apps. Photos taken in RAW format and uncompressed audio run into the same problem.

That is why a download link is the usual answer. Instead of pushing the file through the chat or email system, you upload it once and send a short link, which every app can carry without trouble. The recipient downloads the file directly, in its original quality. If you work with high-resolution footage, our guide on sending 4K video includes typical file sizes per minute, so you can estimate what you are dealing with before you start.