How to use it· 4 steps
- Drop your MOV file into the box above — it is read in place, not uploaded.
- Check the summary: it says whether the streams will be copied (seconds) or re-encoded (minutes), and why.
- Leave “Convert to” on MP4, choose an audio track if the file has several, and press Convert video.
- Download the MP4 when it appears. The first conversion also downloads the 32 MB engine.
Step by step
How to use the mov to mp4 converter
- 1Drop your MOV file into the box above — it is read in place, not uploaded.
- 2Check the summary: it says whether the streams will be copied (seconds) or re-encoded (minutes), and why.
- 3Leave “Convert to” on MP4, choose an audio track if the file has several, and press Convert video.
- 4Download the MP4 when it appears. The first conversion also downloads the 32 MB engine.
What is inside a MOV file
MOV is Apple's QuickTime container, introduced in 1991 and the direct ancestor of MP4 — the MPEG-4 file format was standardised on QuickTime's structure, which is why the two are so closely related. An iPhone, iPad or Mac records MOV files holding H.264 or, on any iPhone set to 'High Efficiency' (the default since iOS 11), HEVC video, with AAC audio.
Those codecs are equally at home in MP4. Converting a typical iPhone MOV is therefore a change of wrapper only: the compressed video and audio are copied across untouched, and the job takes seconds even for a long clip.
Where MOV files come from
The MOV files people bring here are mostly an iPhone or iPad video, AirDropped or copied to a computer, a screen recording made with QuickTime Player or the macOS screenshot toolbar, or an export from Final Cut Pro, iMovie or a camera that writes QuickTime. In practice most of these convert by copying the streams, so expect seconds rather than minutes.
The converter does not guess. When you drop the file it reads the container's own description of its streams — codec, resolution, frame rate, audio tracks — and shows you, before you press anything, whether the MP4 will be a copy or a re-encode.
What happens to your MOV
The converter reads the MOV's streams before anything else. When the video is H.264 or HEVC and the audio is AAC — the case for nearly every phone clip — both are copied into an MP4 container bit for bit. Picture quality is identical to the source, and the file size changes by a fraction of a percent.
HEVC is copied with the 'hvc1' tag that Apple's players require, and the rotation flag phones use for portrait video is preserved, so the clip still plays the right way up. Editing-grade MOVs are different: Apple ProRes cannot go into a standard MP4 that browsers and phones will play, so ProRes is re-encoded to H.264, and so is Motion JPEG from older cameras.
How long MOV to MP4 takes
A remux is limited only by how fast the browser can read the file: typically a few seconds for a few hundred megabytes. There is no encoding at all.
A ProRes re-encode is the slow path. Single-threaded H.264 encoding in a browser tab manages roughly 3–4 frames a second of 1080p at the default setting on a recent computer (measured on this build), so a one-minute 30 fps ProRes clip takes around eight minutes, or about three with the 'Fastest' option.
Problems you may run into
The MP4 will not play on an older Windows PC or Android phone — the source was HEVC, which those devices may not decode. Choose 'Always re-encode' to convert it to H.264, which plays everywhere.
Live Photos and special camera modes — the MOV half of a Live Photo is a three-second clip and converts like any other. Extra data tracks that some iPhone modes record alongside the picture are not carried over; the picture and the sound are.
A screen recording has no sound — macOS screen recordings only include audio when a microphone was selected in the recording options. Nothing can be added afterwards.
When not to convert MOV to MP4
If the MOV is going into Final Cut Pro, iMovie or another Apple editor, keep it as MOV — those apps prefer it, and MP4 gains you nothing there.
If the MOV is ProRes from an editing session and you need it smaller for sharing, the Video Compressor gives you direct control over quality and resolution.
Your MOV is never uploaded
Converting a MOV on a website normally means uploading it, waiting in a queue, and downloading the MP4 back — with a copy left behind on the service's storage.
This converter skips all of that. ffmpeg, compiled to WebAssembly, runs inside this tab and reads your MOV straight from your disk; the MP4 is assembled in memory on your machine and handed to you as a download.
Only the engine travels: about 32 MB, fetched the first time you use any of the video tools and kept for the session. Disconnect afterwards and the conversion still runs.
Answers
Frequently asked questions
Does converting MOV to MP4 reduce quality?
Not for a normal iPhone or Mac recording. H.264 or HEVC video and AAC audio are copied unchanged into the MP4, so the picture and sound are bit-identical.
Why is my converted MP4 almost the same size as the MOV?
Because nothing was re-encoded. MOV and MP4 are near-identical containers; only the wrapper changed. To make the file smaller, use the Video Compressor.
Will the MP4 still be portrait?
Yes. Phones store portrait video as landscape frames plus a rotation flag, and the flag is copied with the stream.
Is this MOV to MP4 converter safe for private videos?
Yes. Nothing is uploaded — the conversion runs locally in the page — so the video never leaves your computer or phone.
How large a MOV can I convert?
There is no artificial cap. The practical ceiling is the tab's memory, since the output is assembled there — comfortably a gigabyte or so on a typical computer, less on phones.