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Platform sizes

Email attachment size limits

By Updated How we write these

1 min read

The short answer

Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Proton Mail allow 25 MB of attachments per email; Outlook.com and iCloud Mail allow 20 MB. The limit is for all attachments together, and email encoding adds about a third, so aim well under it.

Get any file under 25 MB Compress a video for Gmail Compress photos for email

Attachments per email

Attachments per email
Gmail — attachments you send (all files combined) 25 MB total
Outlook.com — attachments per email 20 MB
Yahoo Mail — attachments per email 25 MB
iCloud Mail — attachments per email 20 MB
iCloud Mail — with mail drop up to 5 GB, sent as a link
Proton Mail — attachments per email (all together) 25 MB

When a file is too big to attach

Gmail swaps an attachment over 25 MB for a Google Drive link, and Apple Mail offers Mail Drop for files up to 5 GB. Otherwise the email bounces. Photos, videos and recordings can almost always be compressed under the limit without a visible difference; documents and ZIP files usually can’t, and a cloud link is the answer for those.

Remember the limit covers every attachment together. Five photos in one email share the 25 MB, so give each about a fifth of it — and a receiving server may be stricter than the sender’s.

Questions

What is the maximum attachment size in Gmail?

25 MB for all attachments together. Over that, Gmail uploads the file to Google Drive and sends a link instead. The Gmail walkthrough covers both routes.

Why does my email bounce when the file is under 25 MB?

Email encoding adds about a third to attachments, and the recipient’s server may have a lower limit than yours. Aim for 18 MB or less to be safe.

How do I email a large video?

Compress it under the limit with Compress Video, or send a cloud link. For a long video, a link keeps the quality that compressing to 25 MB can’t.

Where these numbers come from

Checked against these sources on 2026-09-28. Platforms change their rules; if one has, the upload limits page changelog says so.

Other platform sizes

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