How to send large video files to a client

Most “how do I send this” problems are really “why am I sending this” problems. A client watching a cut on a laptop gets nothing from a master, and every gigabyte you do not send is upload time you do not spend and download time they do not spend.

A review round

H.264 MP4, 1080p, roughly 8–12 Mbps. A ten-minute cut lands under a gigabyte and looks identical to the client. Add burned-in timecode if they are working to a spec, and a watermark if it is unreleased.

The client-facing final

H.264 or H.265 MP4 at delivery resolution. This is the file that goes on their site, their social channels, or into their own asset manager.

A broadcast or agency deliverable

Whatever the spec sheet says, to the letter. ProRes 422 HQ, DNxHR, specific loudness, specific slate. Do not improvise here.

Masters and project files

Only to whoever is finishing or archiving, and only when they have asked. This is the 200 GB conversation, and it is a different one from a review.

The mistake worth naming is exporting one enormous file and using it for all four. It makes every round slower for everybody, and it is why the review is still uploading at nine in the evening.

Check your upload speed rather than your download speed. On most home and cable connections the upload figure is a fraction of the headline number, and it is the only one that matters here.

Best case, with nothing else on the line. Real uploads run longer. Budget 20–30% on top, and start the big ones before you go to bed rather than half an hour before the client meeting.

Two things rescue a long upload. Use a wire: Wi-Fi is the most common cause of an upload that fails at 80% and starts again, so plug in for anything over a few gigabytes. And use something resumable. A large upload split into parts survives a dropped connection and carries on where it stopped; a browser upload that is one long request does not, and four hours of progress goes to a single blip.

A transfer service

WeTransfer and its relatives. Fastest to set up, no account for the client, and fine for a one-off. The catch is that the link is built to expire, the client has to download before they can watch, and any notes come back as prose in an email. When they ask for the file again in six weeks, you upload all of it a second time.

A cloud drive link

Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive. Good if the file needs to live somewhere anyway, and the link keeps working. The catch is permissions: half the “I can’t open it” emails in this industry are a drive link shared with the wrong account, and a corporate client’s IT policy may block the domain outright. Drive previews also transcode your video to something you did not choose.

A client review portal

A page the client opens to stream the cut and comment on the exact frame, rather than a file they download. It usually means fewer rounds, because a note attached to a frame cannot be misread. The catch is that it is another subscription, and it is overkill if you are sending one file to one person once.

FTP, Aspera, or a physical drive

For genuinely enormous handovers: a finished campaign’s masters, an archive, a hundred hours of rushes. A courier and an SSD still beats a domestic upload past a certain size, and a post house will often specify the method. The catch is the setup, and that no client will enjoy it. Reserve it for the handovers where the size demands it.

• Name the file so it survives a Downloads folder. client-project-v03-2026-09-21.mp4, not final2.mp4. Your client has eleven files called final2.
• Say what it is in the message: duration, what changed since the last version, what you need back, and by when. A link with no message gets opened last.
• Watermark anything unreleased. It will not stop a determined leak, but it makes a casual forward self-identifying.
• Password-protect embargoed work and set an expiry. A share link is a key, not an identity check.
• Decide deliberately whether the finals go over before the invoice is settled. The invoicing guide covers why that one decision moves more money than any reminder email.

We built the third option, for the case where the file is going to a paying client rather than a colleague. You upload once, and the client gets one branded link that streams in the browser on any device, with comments locked to the exact frame and no account to create.

Pro takes 8 GB per video and 100 GB for files that are not encoded, which covers project archives, graphics packages and stems. Uploads are multipart, so a dropped connection resumes rather than restarting. The free plan handles 2 GB per video within 5 GB of storage, which is enough for a normal review round.

The link does not expire on a timer you do not control, and a password, an expiry date or a download toggle is a per-project setting. What that protects you from, and what it does not, is set out on the security page. When it is time to be paid, the invoice is on the same page, with the finals behind it if you want them there.