How to send large files on WhatsApp, Telegram and email (past the size limits)

You try to attach a video to an email and get told the file is too large. You try WhatsApp and it refuses, or silently crushes your video into a blurry mess. Every messaging app has a ceiling, and the file you actually want to send is usually just above it.

The workaround is always the same: stop attaching the file, and send a link instead.

What the actual limits are

These are the caps you keep running into:

• Gmail — 25 MB per email. Above that it converts the attachment to a Drive link automatically.
• Outlook / Hotmail — 20 MB, with no automatic fallback.
• WhatsApp — 2 GB per file for documents, but photos and videos are re-compressed and lose quality.
• Telegram — 2 GB for free accounts, 4 GB with Premium.
• Facebook Messenger — 25 MB.
• Discord — 10 MB free, 50 MB with Nitro Basic.

Two separate problems hide in that list. One is the hard size cap. The other is quality: WhatsApp and Messenger recompress images and video even when they fit, so a 30-second clip arrives looking noticeably worse than it left.

Why a link solves both

When you send a link instead of an attachment, the file never enters the messaging app at all. It sits on a hosting server, and your recipient downloads the original bytes directly.

That means:

• No size ceiling. A 10 GB archive travels as a link that is a few dozen characters long.
• No recompression. The video your friend downloads is bit-for-bit the file you uploaded.
• No mailbox bloat. You are not filling anyone's inbox quota with a 2 GB attachment.
• It works everywhere. A link pastes into WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, SMS, or a printed QR code equally well.

How to do it in practice

1. Open the upload page and drop your file in. Leave the host on "Automatic" so the system picks a server that accepts your size.
2. If the file matters, set Backup copies to 2 so it lands on two servers at once.
3. When the upload finishes, copy the short link.
4. Paste it into WhatsApp, your email, or wherever you were going to attach the file.

Whoever receives it clicks through to a clean download page. No account, no app install, no waiting counter.

Sending something private

For contracts, ID scans, medical records or anything you would not want a stranger reading, switch on end-to-end encryption before uploading. The file is encrypted inside your browser, so the hosting server stores data it cannot read.

One important habit: the decryption key lives in the part of the link after the #. Copy the link whole. Some apps shorten long links in the preview — always paste rather than retype, and check the pasted text still contains the # section.

More detail in what end-to-end encryption means.

A note on video quality

If you are sending video specifically, this is the biggest practical win. WhatsApp's compression can turn a 200 MB clip into a 15 MB one, and the difference is obvious on any screen larger than a phone.

Uploading the original and sending a link sidesteps the compression entirely. Your recipient gets the file your camera produced.

Common questions

Does the recipient need an account? No. They open the link and download.

Will the link expire? It depends on the host, from one day to permanent. Each server shows its retention before you upload, and mirroring across two servers keeps the link working if one drops the file.

Is there a limit on how many people can download it? No. A link can be shared with one person or a thousand.

In short

Every messaging app has a size ceiling, and none of them are going to raise it for you. Uploading once and sharing a link removes the ceiling, preserves quality, and works in every app you already use. Try it — free, no signup, and it takes about as long as attaching a file would have.