MailPossum: Compress Video, Photo & PDF Attachments for Gmail

Overcome Gmail's 25MB attachment limit. Make videos, photos and PDFs smaller right in Gmail, then attach them in one step.

"MailPossum is a Chrome extension that makes large email attachments smaller. It compresses videos, photos and PDFs inside the Gmail compose window and attaches them to your email in one step – so your files are more likely to go as real attachments instead of a Google Drive link, without compressor websites, video editing apps or splitting files across several emails. Click the possum button instead of the paperclip, drop in your files, and MailPossum shrinks each one and adds it to your message. Smaller attachments are quicker to send and easier to open, whether it's one long video or a whole batch of holiday photos. 📏 GMAIL'S 25 MB LIMIT – AND WHY DRIVE LINKS AREN'T ALWAYS THE ANSWER Gmail's maximum attachment size is 25 MB per email. When files add up to more than that, Gmail uploads them to Google Drive and puts a link in the email instead. A single phone video or a handful of high-resolution photos can easily go over the limit, and some places that accept files by email – for example court filing addresses – set even lower limits, such as 10 MB. A Drive link is sometimes fine. But it often creates new problems: • Your recipient lands on a sign-in page or sees a ‘request access’ button. • You get an email asking for permission, and the job you thought was done stays open. • The file now sits in your Google Drive, using your storage. • If you tidy your Drive later, old links stop working. • Some recipients can't open Drive links at all – for example when their company IT blocks shared-drive links. • Bookkeeping apps, e-readers and ticketing systems that read attachments often ignore links completely. MailPossum shrinks your files before they're attached, so they're more likely to go as regular attachments. It doesn't check the limit itself: if an email is still too big, Gmail creates a Drive link as usual – and the linked file is much smaller for your recipient. 📌 WHEN AN ATTACHMENT WORKS BETTER THAN A LINK A link says ‘here's the file we'll keep working on’. An attachment says ‘here is the exact file I'm sending you’. Attachments tend to work better when: • The file is final – a signed contract, an invoice, a receipt, a quote, a CV or a report. • You need proof of what was sent. A linked file can change after sending; an attachment fixes the exact version to the email. • The recipient needs a real file to save, archive or upload into another system. • The recipient isn't confident with technology and just wants to open the photos. • You want the file in their inbox, not living in your cloud storage indefinitely. 🎬 HOW TO SEND A VIDEO THAT'S TOO BIG FOR EMAIL Videos are usually the biggest files people try to email. To send one with MailPossum: 1. Open a new email in Gmail and click the possum button. 2. Drop in your video. 3. MailPossum compresses it and attaches it to the email. In our test, a 221.4 MB video became 11.5 MB – about 95% smaller – in 2 minutes 39 seconds. A 1920×1080 video became 960×540, which is fine for watching on a screen. Videos can take a few minutes, and MailPossum shows a message while it works. No need to trim the start and end of your clip in an editing app or send it through a messaging app instead. 🖼️ HOW TO SEND LOTS OF PHOTOS IN ONE EMAIL Trying to email 20 or 30 photos usually means hitting the limit after just a few. With MailPossum, drop the whole batch in at once. In our test, 25 iPhone photos totalling 112.7 MB became 21.8 MB – about 81% smaller – and went in one email instead of 5 or 6. Compressing took 35 seconds, attaching another 7. Photos are resized (a 4032×3024 photo became 2016×1512), but they're still wider than a Full HD screen, so they look fine for viewing. All popular file extensions are supported, including HEIC photos from iPhones. 📄 HOW TO MAKE A PDF SMALLER FOR EMAIL MailPossum compresses PDFs before attaching them, and keeps them as PDFs with the same filename. How much a PDF shrinks depends on what's inside: • Scanned documents shrink the most. In our test, a 6.5 MB scan of 6 typed pages became 736 kB in around 4 seconds. • Text-heavy files shrink less. A 25.9 MB slide deck with text, graphs and images became 19.2 MB – just enough to go under Gmail's 25 MB limit and be sent as an attachment. That's useful for scanned contracts, receipts, bank statements, application forms and reports. 🏠 AT HOME • Applying for a flat: a letting agent asks for payslips, bank statements and ID as attachments. Phone scans are big – compress them and send everything together. • Insurance claims: your kitchen flooded and the insurer wants photos and a video sent to the claims email address. Their system needs files, and you want proof of what you sent. • Photos for family: twenty holiday photos for a parent who has no Google account and gets stuck on sign-in pages. Shrink them and send them attached. • Family history and keepsakes: a large PDF for relatives that you'd rather have in their inbox than in ‘the cloud’. • Send to an e-reader: some e-reader services only accept attachments, so a link does nothing. • Job applications: a CV plus portfolio PDF that a recruiter can open straight from the email. • Expenses and receipts: expense and bookkeeping apps that read attached files but ignore links. • Mortgage, loan and tax paperwork: financial proof that needs to arrive as files. • Club and committee paperwork: annual accounts full of scanned receipts, sent to members who use many different email providers. • Academic assignments: files with a time-stamped paper trail. 💼 AT WORK • Bookkeeping: clients email receipts and invoices to apps that can't read links. Attachments get processed; links get ignored. • Legal: court email filing can have limits as low as 10 MB. Compress a scanned bundle so it fits and stays readable. • Contracts: send the final signed version as a fixed copy, dated in both inboxes – the record of what was agreed. • Estate agents: property brochures that buyers can open in the email instead of hitting a sign-in screen. • Agencies and freelancers: final artwork, quotes and proposals for clients whose IT blocks shared-drive links. • Building and trades: thirty site photos for the client and the insurer, sent in one go at the end of the day. • Recruitment: CVs and portfolios for a hiring manager who won't click through links. • Consulting: final reports that live in the board's inboxes, not in a folder that might be tidied away next year. • Support tickets: screenshots attached to an email that a ticketing system turns into a ticket. • HR: formal job offers and official policies sent as files. ⚙️ HOW IT WORKS 1. Install MailPossum from the Chrome Web Store. 2. Open a new email in Gmail. A button with a possum on it appears in the compose window. 3. Click the possum button instead of the paperclip. 4. Select files, or drag and drop them into the popup. You can mix videos, photos and PDFs in one go. 5. MailPossum compresses each file and attaches it to your email. Then just hit send. Other file types, such as Word documents, are ignored, so you can drop a whole folder's worth of files without sorting them first. 📂 SUPPORTED FILE TYPES - Videos - Images - Documents: PDF Other file types, such as Word files, are skipped, so you can drop a whole batch. There's no limit on the number of files or their size, though bigger files take longer to compress. 🔍 WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR FILES • Every file goes through the compressor. • Files keep their format: a MOV stays a MOV, a PDF stays a PDF. • Filenames stay exactly the same, so your recipient sees the names you chose. • Resolution is reduced. In our tests, width and height were halved: a 4032×3024 photo became 2016×1512, and a 1920×1080 video became 960×540. • Compressed photos are still wider than a Full HD screen, so they look fine for viewing on a screen. • They're not meant for printing large or for professional editing. When the highest-quality original matters, send the original. • PDFs shrink most when they contain images, such as scanned documents. 🗜️ WHY ZIPPING AND OTHER WORKAROUNDS FALL SHORT • Zipping: photos, PDFs and videos are already compressed, so a zip file is often barely smaller – and some recipients can't open zips on a phone, while some email filters flag them. • Splitting files across several emails: slow, and your recipient gets ‘1 of 4’, ‘2 of 4’… and may miss one. • Separate online compressors: download, upload, download again, find the file, attach it. • Cutting a video shorter: needs an editing app and time – and it's often still too big. • Sending fewer photos: your recipient doesn't get everything. MailPossum compresses the files themselves and keeps everything inside Gmail: click, drop, send. 📬 SMALLER FILES ARE EASIER FOR YOUR RECIPIENT TOO Even when a big file could be sent somehow, it causes trouble at the other end: slow downloads on mobile data, full phone storage, overflowing mailboxes and upload portals – for jobs, universities, insurers or government services – that reject large files. Often the recipient only needs to look at the file, and a sensibly sized attachment simply looks more professional. ℹ️ GOOD TO KNOW • MailPossum works in Chrome with Gmail on desktop and laptop computers. It doesn't work on phones or tablets. • There are no compression settings to choose – it just compresses. • MailPossum doesn't check Gmail's 25 MB limit or what's already attached to your email. • If the email is still too big, Gmail decides what happens and turns files into Drive links as usual. Even then, the linked file is much smaller for your recipient. • Videos can take a few minutes to compress. MailPossum shows a message while it works. 🆓 FREE & PREMIUM Try it free: 3 compressed emails every rolling 30 days, as many files as you like, no credit card. For unlimited use, choose a Monthly, Yearly or Lifetime plan. Checkout runs through Stripe in a separate tab, and MailPossum never sees your card details. 🔒 PRIVACY FOR PERSONAL DOCUMENTS Sending ID scans or contracts? Files are processed by our own service in the European Union and deleted immediately afterwards (automatic cleanup within 24 hours). MailPossum never reads your emails, subject lines, recipients or contacts and doesn't use the Gmail API. Your data isn't sold, shared for marketing or used for ads. Google sign-in is optional. Full policy: https://farluner.com/mail-possum-privacy-policy ❓ FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS What is the maximum attachment size in Gmail? 25 MB per email. Larger files are sent as Google Drive links. How do I send a video through email if it's too big? Compress it with MailPossum in the Gmail compose window. In our test, a 221.4 MB video became 11.5 MB and could be attached. How do I make a video file smaller to email? Drop it into MailPossum. It reduces the resolution (in our tests, a 1920×1080 video became 960×540) and attaches the smaller file. How do I send large files in Gmail? For videos, photos and PDFs, compress them with MailPossum before attaching. For other large files, Gmail offers Google Drive links. How can I send a lot of photos in one email? Add them all to MailPossum at once. In our test, 25 photos went from 112.7 MB to 21.8 MB and fit in one email. How do I make a PDF smaller to send by email? Use MailPossum's compress button in Gmail. Scanned PDFs shrink the most; text-heavy PDFs shrink less. Why is my file too big to email? Phone photos and videos are high resolution, so they're large. A few of them quickly add up to more than 25 MB. My zip file is still too big to email. What can I do? Zipping barely shrinks photos, videos and PDFs. Compressing the files themselves, as MailPossum does, usually saves much more. Does MailPossum always get files under 25 MB? No. It shrinks files, but it doesn't check Gmail's limit. If the email is still too big, Gmail sends a Drive link with the smaller file. How long does compression take? It depends on the file and your connection. In our tests: 25 photos in 35 seconds, a scanned PDF in about 4 seconds, a 221 MB video in about 2.5 minutes. Does MailPossum work in Outlook or other email services? No. It works in Gmail in the Chrome browser. How much smaller will my files get? It depends on the file. In our tests: photos about 81% smaller, a video about 95% smaller, a scanned PDF from 6.5 MB to 736 kB, and a text-heavy PDF about 26% smaller. Why does Gmail turn my attachment into a Google Drive link? Because the files in the email add up to more than 25 MB. MailPossum shrinks videos, photos and PDFs first, which makes this less likely. Will my recipient need a Google account to open the files? Not for files sent as regular attachments – they open them like any other attachment. Does MailPossum work with HEIC photos from an iPhone? Yes. HEIC is supported, and files keep their format. Will my files lose quality? Resolution is reduced – in our tests, width and height were halved. Photos still look fine on a screen, but compressed files aren't meant for large prints or professional editing. Does MailPossum change my file names or formats? No. Filenames stay exactly the same and files stay in the same format. Can I choose how much to compress? No. There are no settings – MailPossum just compresses. Does MailPossum read my emails? No. It only processes the files you choose to attach through it and never reads your email content, recipients or contacts. Can I attach compressed files and regular files to the same email? Yes. MailPossum adds compressed files to the email; you can still use the paperclip for anything else. It doesn't know what's already attached, so keep an eye on the total size. Who is MailPossum for? Anyone who sends files from Gmail on a computer and needs them to arrive as attachments – for applications, insurance claims, bookkeeping, contracts, client work or family photos. Can I use it to send ID scans and bank statements for a rental application? Yes. Compress the scans in Gmail and attach them to one email. Files are processed by our own service in the EU and deleted right after compression. Can I send photos and a video to my insurance company? Yes. You can mix photos and videos in one go; MailPossum compresses each file and attaches it. My parent can't open Google Drive links. Will this help? If the compressed photos fit within Gmail's limit, they're sent as regular attachments, so your parent just opens them in the email. Can I send receipts to a bookkeeping app that only reads attachments? Yes – compress the receipts and send them as attachments to the app's email address. A court filing address has a 10 MB limit. Can MailPossum help? It can shrink a scanned bundle a lot – scanned PDFs shrink the most – but it doesn't check the limit, so check the final size before sending. Can I send a final contract as a fixed copy? Yes. Compress the PDF and send it as an attachment, so both inboxes hold the same dated version. Is MailPossum free? Yes, for 3 compressed emails per rolling 30-day window, with any number of files. Monthly, Yearly and Lifetime plans offer unlimited use. Is it safe for ID scans and contracts? Files are processed by our own service in the EU and deleted right after compression (within 24 hours at the latest). MailPossum never reads your emails. Single purpose: MailPossum compresses attachments before they're sent from Gmail – nothing else."