Convert MOV to 3GPP — Free Online Tool
Convert MOV files to 3GPP format optimized for mobile devices and 3G networks, re-encoding video with H.264 and audio with AAC at low bitrates suited for cellular streaming. This tool runs entirely in your browser using FFmpeg.wasm — no upload required, and files up to 1GB are processed free.
to
FFmpeg Command
Copy this command to run the same conversion locally with FFmpeg on your desktop. Download FFmpeg
Drop your MOV file here
or click to browse
Free — no uploads, no signups. Your files never leave your browser.
Settings
Note: Browser-based encoding uses approximate quality targets. For precise CRF compression, copy the FFmpeg command above and run it on your desktop.
Estimated output:
Conversion Complete!
DownloadHow It Works
MOV is Apple's professional container that can carry a wide variety of codecs including ProRes, H.264, H.265, and lossless formats. During conversion to 3GPP (.3gp), the video stream is re-encoded to H.264 (libx264) using a CRF of 23, which balances visual quality against the low-bitrate requirements expected of mobile-targeted 3GPP files. The audio is transcoded to AAC at 64k — a deliberate reduction from MOV's typical higher-fidelity audio — because 3GPP was designed for 3G cellular bandwidth constraints. Features present in the MOV file that 3GPP does not support, including transparency, subtitle tracks, chapter markers, and secondary audio tracks, are discarded during this conversion. The result is a compact, broadly compatible mobile media file.
What Each Flag Does
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
ffmpeg
|
Invokes the FFmpeg binary — the open-source multimedia processing engine that performs the MOV-to-3GPP conversion, handling demuxing, decoding, re-encoding, and muxing in a single pass. |
-i input.mov
|
Specifies the input file, a MOV container which may contain any combination of video codecs (H.264, H.265, ProRes, etc.) and audio codecs (AAC, PCM, etc.) that FFmpeg will decode for re-encoding into 3GPP. |
-c:v libx264
|
Sets the video encoder to H.264 using the libx264 library, which is the standard and most compatible video codec for 3GPP files and widely supported across all mobile devices that use the format. |
-c:a aac
|
Encodes the audio stream as AAC using FFmpeg's native AAC encoder, the preferred and most compatible audio codec for 3GPP, well-suited to the low bitrates characteristic of mobile-targeted files. |
-crf 23
|
Sets the H.264 Constant Rate Factor to 23, which is the default quality level for this conversion — a balanced setting that produces acceptable visual quality for mobile screen sizes without excessive file size. |
-b:a 64k
|
Targets an AAC audio bitrate of 64 kilobits per second, reflecting the low-bandwidth design intent of 3GPP and keeping the overall file compact for delivery over 3G mobile networks. |
-movflags +faststart
|
Moves the MP4/3GPP moov metadata atom to the beginning of the output file, enabling mobile players and streaming clients to begin playback immediately upon receiving the first bytes rather than waiting for the full file to download. |
output.3gp
|
Specifies the output filename with the .3gp extension, which signals to FFmpeg to use the 3GPP container format and ensures the resulting file is recognized by mobile devices and media players as a 3GPP multimedia file. |
Common Use Cases
- Preparing video content for distribution to older or budget Android and feature phones that require 3GPP-compatible media files
- Reducing the file size of MOV footage captured on a Mac or iPhone to send via MMS or early mobile messaging systems with strict size limits
- Archiving video clips in a 3G-compatible format for deployment in mobile apps or WAP portals targeting low-bandwidth regions
- Converting short MOV video clips from Final Cut Pro or iMovie into a format playable on legacy Nokia, Samsung, or Sony Ericsson handsets
- Creating lightweight mobile video previews from professional MOV masters for use in mobile marketing campaigns targeting 3G networks
- Satisfying carrier or platform requirements that specifically mandate the 3GPP container format for video submission or playback
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes — this is a lossy conversion in both the video and audio domains. The video is re-encoded with H.264 at CRF 23, which introduces some compression artifacts compared to a high-bitrate or lossless MOV source. The audio is transcoded to AAC at just 64k, which is noticeably lower fidelity than the 128k or higher rates common in MOV files. The 3GPP format is intentionally designed for constrained mobile bandwidth, so quality reduction is an inherent tradeoff of the format itself.
Basic metadata such as title and duration may be carried over, but MOV-specific metadata structures — including chapter markers, multiple audio tracks, and subtitle tracks — are not supported by the 3GPP container and will be dropped entirely. If your MOV file contains embedded subtitles or secondary language audio tracks, those will not appear in the .3gp output. The -movflags +faststart flag does ensure the moov atom is placed at the start of the file for efficient mobile streaming, but this is a structural optimization rather than metadata preservation.
Regardless of the codec inside your MOV file, the output 3GPP file will always contain H.264 video, since that is the only widely supported video codec in the 3GPP specification used here. This means H.265 or ProRes sources must be fully decoded and re-encoded to H.264 — there is no stream copy shortcut available for this conversion. Re-encoding from ProRes preserves more detail than re-encoding from an already-compressed H.264 source, so converting from a high-quality MOV master is always preferable.
The 3GPP format was standardized for 3G mobile networks, where total file size and streaming bitrate are tightly constrained. A 64k AAC bitrate is the 3GPP default in this tool because it produces intelligible, acceptable-quality audio for speech and general video while keeping file sizes minimal for mobile delivery. If your content is music or requires higher audio fidelity, you can adjust the -b:a flag to 96k or 128k in the FFmpeg command, though this increases file size and may exceed the bitrate tolerances of some older 3G devices.
The video quality is controlled by the -crf flag. The default value of 23 is a balanced midpoint — lower values (e.g., -crf 18) produce higher quality at a larger file size, while higher values (e.g., -crf 28) compress more aggressively with more visible artifacts. For 3GPP files destined for very small screens or slow connections, a CRF of 26–28 may be acceptable and significantly reduces file size. The valid range for this conversion is 18 to 28. For example: ffmpeg -i input.mov -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 28 -b:a 64k -movflags +faststart output.3gp
Yes, on the command line you can use a shell loop to process multiple files. On Linux or macOS, run: for f in *.mov; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 23 -b:a 64k -movflags +faststart "${f%.mov}.3gp"; done — this will convert every MOV file in the current directory to a matching .3gp file. On Windows Command Prompt, use: for %f in (*.mov) do ffmpeg -i "%f" -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -crf 23 -b:a 64k -movflags +faststart "%~nf.3gp". The in-browser tool processes one file at a time, so the desktop FFmpeg command is the better option for batch workflows or files over 1GB.
Technical Notes
The 3GPP (.3gp) container is a subset of the MPEG-4 Part 12 file format family, closely related to MP4 but with stricter codec constraints and a design focus on low-bandwidth mobile delivery. When converting from MOV, the most significant technical constraint is the loss of MOV's richer feature set: transparency (alpha channel video) present in MOV via codecs like PNG or MJPEG is simply not representable in 3GPP, and any alpha data is composited to black during encoding. The -movflags +faststart flag repositions the moov atom to the beginning of the output file, which is important for progressive download and streaming on mobile devices — without it, a player would need to download the entire file before starting playback. The audio quality ceiling in 3GPP is lower than MOV: the maximum supported audio bitrate in this tool is 128k AAC, versus up to 320k in MOV. The H.264 video codec is shared between MOV and 3GPP, but the encoding must still occur because the container wrapping, timing metadata, and bitrate targeting differ between the two formats. For very short clips or content originally recorded on a mobile device at low bitrates, the output file size reduction compared to MOV can be dramatic — often 60–80% smaller.