How much space does 4K video use on iPhone?

About 170MB per minute at 30fps and 400MB per minute at 60fps. Ten minutes of 4K60 is roughly 4GB — more than a thousand photos.

How do I find my biggest videos?

Sort by file size instead of scrolling. Odoa's video filter with biggest-first sorting surfaces them instantly; in Photos, check Settings > General > iPhone Storage > Photos for the total.

Should I shoot in 4K or 1080p?

For everyday clips, 1080p at 30fps looks great on phones and uses a quarter of the space. Save 4K for footage you'll edit or watch on a big screen.

Does deleting videos free up iCloud too?

Yes, if you use iCloud Photos: deleted videos leave iCloud after 30 days in Recently Deleted. See our iCloud vs iPhone storage explainer for the details.

Can I compress a video without deleting it?

Yes. Duplicate it, export the duplicate at 1080p via iMovie or a compressor, verify it plays, then delete the 4K original.

4K Videos Filling Up Your iPhone? How to Shrink Them (2026)

One minute of 4K at 60fps: ~400MB. Ten minutes: ~4GB. That’s more than a thousand photos. If your storage vanished, 4K video is suspect number one. Here’s how to find the giants and shrink them.

The quick answer

Sort your videos by size, biggest first — the top 5 usually hold half the recoverable space. Delete what you’ll never rewatch, compress the keepers from 4K to 1080p, then empty Recently Deleted. Tested on iPhone 15, iOS 18: a 10-video pass freed 6GB in under 10 minutes.

Step 1: Find the giants

Scrolling chronologically hides the problem — a 2-year-old 4K clip outweighs last month’s photos. Instead:

Check the scale: Settings > General > iPhone Storage and look at Photos. If it’s the biggest category by far, video is the cause — see how to check what’s taking up space.
In Odoa, open the video filter and sort by most storage first. The top of that list is your hit list.

What this gives you: the 5-10 files that actually matter, instead of 2,000 thumbnails. What this does not give you: the decision. Nobody can tell you whether that concert clip is worth 800MB — one swipe per video, keep or delete.

Step 2: Delete or compress

For each giant, two options:

Delete what you’ll never rewatch: test takes, accidental recordings, 20-minute clips you only needed 30 seconds of. Swipe left.
Compress the keepers: duplicate the video, export at 1080p, verify it plays, delete the 4K original. A 1080p copy uses roughly a quarter of the space and looks identical on a phone screen.

Same triage as deleting videos taking up space — size first, sentiment second.

Step 3: Stop shooting everything in 4K

Go to Settings > Camera > Record Video. For everyday life, 1080p HD at 30fps is the sweet spot: great on phones, 4x smaller than 4K60. Reserve 4K for footage you’ll edit, crop, or watch on a TV. Also check why photos take up so much space — Live Photos and HDR stack on top of video.

Step 4: Empty Recently Deleted

Deleted videos sit in Photos > Albums > Recently Deleted for up to 30 days. Open it, tap Select, Delete All — full steps in how to clear Recently Deleted.

The bottom line

Biggest-first sorting, delete-or-compress per giant, 1080p by default going forward. Most people recover more space in this one pass than in a year of deleting apps.