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You’ve probably been there before: just as you’re about to send a long presentation, a set of travel photos from your trip to the Yucatán, or a memorable video of your dog, an error message pops up saying the attachment is too large.
That’s exactly why we created this guide! Below is an overview of the best solutions for sending large files by email, depending on your email client and file type.
Before explaining how to send large files by email, it’s important to understand the attachment size limits imposed by different email services. These limits exist for several reasons: server security, avoiding long delivery times, and ensuring a smooth experience for all users.
Whether you use the web version, desktop app, or Outlook within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, the attachment limit is generally the same: between 20 and 25 MB per attachment.
However, Outlook offers an easy workaround. You can use OneDrive to share larger files. In fact, Outlook automatically suggests this option when you try to send a file that exceeds the size limit. With the free version of OneDrive, you get 5 GB of storage—not bad at all!
Google’s email service also sets the attachment size limit at 25 MB, which is more than enough for sending a few photos or a medium-sized PDF.
If you exceed this limit, Gmail automatically switches to Google Drive. The large attachment is uploaded to your Drive (which offers 15 GB of free storage) and a sharing link is inserted into the email. This seamless integration saves you from having to manually compress files.
Yahoo Mail also applies a 25 MB attachment limit, which has become the standard among major email providers.
As with other email clients, Yahoo automatically redirects oversized attachments to another service—this time via its Dropbox integration. You can upload large files and share them easily, with up to 2 GB of free transfers, including HD videos or large folders.
Want to bypass attachment size limits quickly—and without spending a cent? Challenge accepted! Here are the most effective free solutions for sending large files by email.
Imagine tying a thousand helium balloons to an elephant: suddenly, it floats as lightly as a feather… at least in theory. Scientists in the audience, feel free to correct us if needed!
This image perfectly illustrates how file transfer services work. Your large file doesn’t actually “weigh” anything in the email—it’s uploaded to a platform and shared via a simple download link.
Free services like WeTransfer or TransferNow allow you to send files of up to 2 GB at no cost.
They all work in a similar way:
If you prefer not to use a third-party tool—or if your file is just slightly over the limit—you can compress it into a ZIP file. This method is simple, fast, and often built into modern devices (computers, tablets, smartphones).
On a computer, just right-click the file and select “Compress” or “Create archive”. If this option isn’t available, you can use a free compression tool like 7-Zip.
On smartphones or tablets:
Another very popular option—especially among professionals—for sending large files for free and with (almost) no size limit is cloud storage.
Simply upload your file to your email provider’s cloud service and share the link with your recipients.
The most commonly used cloud solutions include Google Drive, OneDrive and iCloud Drive. Key benefits include security, speed, and multi-device synchronization.
Here are our quick guides for the most common free large file-sharing methods.
A download link is either sent directly to the recipient or provided for you to copy and paste into an email.
Note: WeTransfer links are valid for 7 days. After that, the file can no longer be downloaded.
You can also compress the file into a ZIP and attach it.
Or:
Or:
A more hands-on—but effective—solution for sharing large files is manually reducing their size. Here’s how to do it for the most common file formats.
To reduce image size:
To reduce video size:
Tools like HandBrake or VLC are ideal for these adjustments.
To reduce PDF size:
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With these techniques, your large files will be as light as soap bubbles and ready to be sent by email!
Yes, with the 'Campaigns' offer, it is possible to track the number of clicks on the email signatures of all your employees in the 'Statistics' area of the platform.
You can then access a detailed or global view of the number of clicks on the email signatures of each employee. You can use the search option to target a specific signature or a given period. Finally, you have the possibility to export all statistics to an Excel document.
If you launch campaigns with banners inserted in your email signatures, you can also access their performance via this same space.
With Letsignit, you can easily add social network icons in your collaborators' email signatures and link to your company pages. Also, our "attributes" feature allows you to manage personalized URLs for each of your collaborators such as their individual LinkedIn profile.
And that's not all: you can add links to an appointment-setting application, allow your customers to leave reviews easily, and integrate our 'Chat on Teams' widget to let anyone start a discussion via Microsoft Teams chat.
It’s up to you! As an administrator of the Letsignit platform, you choose whether or not to grant modification rights to your employees. These permissions are managed on an attribute-by-attribute basis, which means that you can decide to allow the employee to change their phone number, but not the address of your premises, for example.
This feature applies to all attributes in your directory, including custom attributes created on Letsignit. When your employees change one or more attributes, your directory is obviously not affected.
It often happens that employees make their email signature their own: custom format, bad fonts, colors inconsistent with the brand standards... all of this has an impact on your brand!
A consistent visual identity is considered authentic and outperforms a perceived weak one by 20%. And, your customers are 2.4 times more likely to buy your products.
With Letsignit, take back control over your brand identity by standardizing all your email signatures. Our tool has many features that allow you to customize your signatures by department, by audience or by subsidiary. Not to mention the possibility of carrying out campaigns within your email signatures thanks to our Campaign offer.
What is the user experience like for our employees?
In both cases:
In short, they have autonomy in their email signature, but you keep control on the field, signatures, and banners they can edit or use.
With our "multi-signature" feature, your employees can benefit from multiple email signatures. No technical manipulation is required. Thanks to our Add-in for Outlook or the desktop app, they can change their email signatures as they wish with just a few clicks.
Regarding the creation of email signatures, you can make several variations such as:
Everything has been thought of to go further in the personalization process based on the recipient of your emails.
If sending emails has an impact, non-optimized email signatures also have an impact. An unsuitable format or an image that is too heavy considerably increases the size of your signatures... and therefore, your emails.
As a responsible economic actor, we contribute to reducing our CO2 emissions and those of our customers in several ways:
As we are increasingly involved in sustainability initiatives, our priority in 2023 is to develop even more green IT functionality.
If sending emails has an impact, non-optimized email signatures also have an impact. An unsuitable format or an image that is too heavy considerably increases the size of your signatures... and therefore, your emails.
As a responsible economic actor, we contribute to reducing our CO2 emissions and those of our customers in several ways:
As we are increasingly involved in sustainability initiatives, our priority in 2023 is to develop even more green IT functionality.
Outlook allows attachments of up to 20–25 MB. Larger files can be shared via OneDrive using a download link.
You can use cloud storage (Google Drive, OneDrive), a file transfer service (WeTransfer, TransferNow), or compress files into a ZIP archive.
If the video is under the size limit, attach it directly. Otherwise, upload it to a cloud service and share the link in your email.
Attach the file as usual. If it exceeds 25 MB, Gmail automatically uploads it to Google Drive and inserts a sharing link.
Yes! TransferNow offers afree version that allows file transfers of up to 2 GB.
The best way to send very large files is-without a doubt-to use a cloud storage service (like Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, or Dropbox) or a file transfer service (like WeTransfer or TransferNow).
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