# How to send large files for free Updated 27 September 2026 Written by Rubén Builds enviArchivos and writes these guides ## The short version - Email attachments cap at **25 MB** in Gmail and Yahoo and **20 MB** in Outlook. Past that, the mail becomes a cloud link. - For files **up to 500 MB**, a code-based transfer is the fastest route: nothing to install, and a free account is enough (200 MB without one). - Above **5 GB** the free options shrink to a few: SwissTransfer (50 GB, no account) or Smash (no size limit, with a queue). - **Compressing rarely helps.** Video and photos are already compressed; a ZIP saves you almost nothing. ![List of three selected files with their sizes and the transfer total, before uploading](/capturas/revision.webp) *You can see whether the transfer fits BEFORE it starts uploading: the number that counts is the total, not the biggest file.* Every email provider stops you at roughly 25 MB. That was fine when files were documents; it stopped being fine when a single phone video is 300 MB. Here is what actually works. What we see at enviArchivos ## “Large” almost never means gigabytes: 76 % are under 10 MB “Large” almost never means gigabytes. Of the transfers made through our service, **76 % were under 10 MB** and almost half under 1 MB. Only 22 went over 100 MB and none over 500 MB; the heaviest ever was 250.9 MB. Our reading: what pushes people away from email or WhatsApp is rarely size, but keeping the original quality or not wanting to email themselves. If that is you, any method in this guide will do; the ones that reach 50 GB only pay off when you really have those 50 GB. enviArchivos data: 531 transfers, as of 26 September 2026. ## Why email refuses your file Gmail and Yahoo cap attachments at 25 MB and Outlook at 20 MB. The real limit is lower, because attachments get encoded and grow roughly 33% in transit. A 20 MB file can be rejected. Gmail sidesteps this by silently converting large attachments into Google Drive links, which is why the recipient sometimes gets a link instead of a file, and why it sometimes says they need permission. ## The fastest route: a four-letter code Upload the file, get a code, type the code on the other device. That is the whole flow. 1 Open **enviarchivos.com** and drop the file in. 2 You get a **four-letter code**, a QR and a link. 3 The other person opens the site, types the code, downloads. Nothing to install on either side. The file deletes itself when it expires. That is the point: a transfer, not storage. ## Real numbers, not marketing ones - **No account:** 200 MB per transfer, deleted after 10 minutes. - **Free account:** 500 MB per transfer, deleted after 1 hour. - **Plus:** 5 GB per transfer, 24 hours, no ads. - **Pro:** 20 GB per transfer, 7 days, no ads. Large transfers are split into chunks automatically while they upload, so there is no hidden ceiling below your plan's limit. And the limit applies to the whole transfer (the sum of every file you send at once), not to each file. ## Should you compress first? Usually not. ZIP works by finding repetition, and video, photos and audio have already had all the repetition squeezed out of them by their own codecs. Zipping a folder of JPEGs typically saves 1–3%. Where a ZIP genuinely helps is **bundling** (turning 200 loose files into one) and compressing text, spreadsheets, code and uncompressed formats like BMP or WAV, where it can cut 30–70%. ## What about WeTransfer, Drive and Dropbox? They all work. The differences that matter in practice: WeTransfer's free tier now asks the sender for an account, allows 3 GB and 10 transfers every 30 days, and keeps files for 3 days; Google Drive and Dropbox are storage first, which means the recipient often hits a permissions screen; a code-based transfer is the only one where the receiving side does not sign in, install, or wait for an email. ## Why big uploads die at 90% An upload that crawls to nearly finished and then fails is almost never the file's fault. There are four causes and they look identical from the outside: - **The network changed underneath it.** Walking out of Wi-Fi onto mobile data restarts the connection, and most upload forms cannot resume. This is by far the most common one on a phone. - **A proxy in the middle cut the request.** Many CDNs refuse a single request body over roughly 100 MB, and they do not answer politely: they close the connection, which the browser reports as a generic failure. Services that split the upload into chunks are immune, because each chunk looks like an ordinary small request. - **The tab went to sleep.** Phone browsers suspend background tabs to save battery. Keep the screen on for a large upload. - **Antivirus or a corporate proxy scanned it.** On managed laptops this adds a timeout that only shows up on files big enough to be worth scanning. The practical fix for all four is the same: upload from a stable connection with the screen awake, and prefer a service that chunks. If it fails twice at the same point, it is the proxy, not you. ## What each option actually costs you "Free" hides very different trade-offs. Ranked by what you give up rather than by price: - **Cloud storage** (Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox) is free until it is not, and the ceiling is your whole account: a 5 GB video eats a third of a free Drive. It also asks the recipient to deal with permissions. - **Transfer services** are free up to a point, then usually per month. You give up permanence: the link expires, which for a transfer is a feature. - **Chat apps** cost nothing and take the quality instead. Fine for a snapshot, wrong for anything you want to keep. - **A USB drive** costs nothing per use and is unbeatable for volume. The catch is obvious and it is called geography. One more thing worth knowing: nearly every free tier measures the **whole transfer**, not each file. Three 200 MB videos are a 600 MB transfer, and that is what gets compared against the limit. ## Splitting a file that is simply too big If the file is over every free ceiling you can find, splitting is a real option and it is older than the web. **7-Zip** on Windows and **Keka** on macOS both split an archive into numbered volumes of a size you choose. The recipient needs all the parts in one folder and opens only the first; the tool reassembles the rest. It works, but be honest about the cost: you are asking the other person to install something and follow instructions. Before going there, check whether the file needs to be that big at all. A video exported at 4K when 1080p was enough is usually four times the size for no visible gain on the screen it will be watched on. ## FAQ Can I send a 2 GB video for free? Not here: free transfers stop at 500 MB, so 2 GB needs Plus or Pro. Either split the file or take a paid plan. Does the recipient need an account? No. They open the site and type the code. Is it encrypted? Transfers travel over HTTPS, and files are deleted automatically when they expire. Guide July 2026 ### Related articles [Transfer photos from phone to PC (with or without a cable)](/en/transfer-photos-from-phone-to-pc)[The best WeTransfer alternatives in 2026 (free, no account)](/en/wetransfer-alternatives)[How to transfer files from Android to PC (no cable, no app)](/en/transfer-files-android-to-pc)