Convert to and from MOV, free.
MOV is Apple’s QuickTime container. It is what an iPhone and Final Cut hand you, and it can hold anything from ordinary H.264 to enormous ProRes masters, which is exactly why it travels badly outside the Apple ecosystem.
Convert something else to MOV
Pick what you have. Each page opens the editor with MOV already selected as the output.
Convert MOV to something else
Pick where it is going. Windows and Android often refuse to play MOV files, or play the picture with no sound.
MOV next to the formats it converts with
Where each one plays, what it is for and how heavy it is, so you can pick the target before you open a converter.
MOV
MP4
WebM
AVI
MKV
WMV
3GP
M4V
GIF
MP3
WAV
FLV
MPEG
VOB
| Format | Best for | Plays on | File size |
|---|---|---|---|
| MOV | Editing on a Mac, footage straight off an iPhone | macOS and iOS natively, patchy elsewhere | Large, especially ProRes |
| MP4 | Sharing anywhere, uploads, web embeds | Every phone, browser, TV and editor | Small for the quality |
| WebM | Web embeds and browser recordings | Chrome, Firefox and Edge; hit and miss elsewhere | Very small at the same quality |
| AVI | Opening archive footage from the 2000s | Desktop players with the right codec pack | Very large for the quality |
| MKV | Archiving with multiple audio and subtitle tracks | VLC and desktop players; rarely anywhere else | Depends entirely on the codec inside |
| WMV | Legacy Windows workflows and old PowerPoint decks | Windows; almost nothing else | Moderate, but dated compression |
| 3GP | Clips off pre-smartphone handsets | Old phones and some desktop players | Tiny, because the quality is tiny |
| M4V | Video bought or exported from Apple apps | Apple devices; often fine elsewhere after a rename | Same as MP4 |
| GIF | Short silent loops in docs, chat and email | Everywhere an image can be shown | Huge for anything over a few seconds |
| MP3 | Podcasts, voice notes, music you need to send | Every device made in the last 25 years | Roughly a tenth of uncompressed audio |
| WAV | Editing, mastering, voiceover work | Every desktop and audio tool; large for phones | About 10 MB per minute in stereo |
| FLV | Nothing new: Flash reached end of life in 2020 | Desktop players only, with effort | Moderate, heavily dated |
| MPEG | DVD rips and old camcorder tapes | Desktop players; not phones or browsers | Very large for the picture quality |
| VOB | Ripping the contents of a DVD you own | DVD players and VLC | About 1 GB per chunk, several per disc |
What MOV actually is
Apple QuickTime
H.264, HEVC or ProRes
Editing on a Mac, footage straight off an iPhone
macOS and iOS natively, patchy elsewhere
Large, especially ProRes
Keeps the file native to macOS, iOS and Final Cut Pro.
Preferred by some Apple-first editing and motion tools.
Windows and Android often refuse to play MOV files, or play the picture with no sound.
ProRes MOV files from a camera or Final Cut can be ten times larger than the same footage as MP4.
Some upload forms reject the extension even when the video inside is ordinary H.264.
Since iOS 11 an iPhone records HEVC (H.265) by default, and Windows only plays HEVC with an extra extension from the Microsoft Store. Converting to MP4 re-encodes it to H.264, which plays everywhere.
A macOS screen recording (Cmd-Shift-5) is also a MOV, so a clip that plays fine on the Mac that made it can still be refused by a Windows colleague or an upload form.
Questions about MOV
What is a MOV file?
MOV is Apple’s QuickTime container. It is what an iPhone and Final Cut hand you, and it can hold anything from ordinary H.264 to enormous ProRes masters, which is exactly why it travels badly outside the Apple ecosystem. It is the Apple QuickTime container, usually holding H.264, HEVC or ProRes.
Is converting MOV free?
Yes. Convert and preview free, and a free account downloads the result. Free exports and share pages include a small REQO badge. Go Pro to remove it. Nothing is installed.
Will converting to MOV lose quality?
Some, whenever the codec changes: every re-encode discards detail. Where the container can simply be rewritten around the existing streams it is lossless, and where it cannot the default settings are chosen so the loss is not visible at normal viewing size.
Other formats
Convert it, then keep editing.
Every converter opens the full editor, so you can trim, caption and share without uploading the file twice.