---
type: AI Model
id: video-compress-api
title: Video Compress API
provider: Pixazo
description: "Make a video file smaller. Pick a quality tier — light, balanced or strong — or give a target_size_mb and the API works out the bitrate for you. Measured on real 1080p-class footage: light returns about 17% of the original size, balanced 11%, strong 7%. Optionally downscale with max_height at the same time. H.264/AAC MP4 out; MP4 or MOV in, up to 120 seconds."
resource: https://www.pixazo.ai/models/video-compress-api
docs_url: https://www.pixazo.ai/models/video-compress-api
latest_version: v1
tags:
  - video-compressor
  - pixazo
variants:
  - id: media-compress-v1
    name: Video Compress 1.0
    version: 1.0
    capabilities:
      - Compress
timestamp: 2026-08-31T16:52:32.726Z
---

# Video Compress API

> Provider: **Pixazo**
> Source: https://www.pixazo.ai/models/video-compress-api

Make a video file smaller. Pick a quality tier — light, balanced or strong — or give a target_size_mb and the API works out the bitrate for you. Measured on real 1080p-class footage: light returns about 17% of the original size, balanced 11%, strong 7%. Optionally downscale with max_height at the same time. H.264/AAC MP4 out; MP4 or MOV in, up to 120 seconds.

## Video Compress 1.0

### Compress

## Base URL

```
https://gateway.pixazo.ai/media-tools/v1/video-compress
```

## Authentication

All requests require an API key passed via header.

**Pricing:** Billed at **$0.002 per second of source video** — the length of the video you send, since compressing does not change its duration. A 60-second clip costs $0.12.

**Rounding:** billing is per second but always rounds **up to a whole second** — a 5.06-second source bills as 6 seconds. The shortest billable job is 1 second.

**Retries:** this is an asynchronous job on shared encoding capacity, so a request can occasionally come back `processing_failed` or take much longer than usual. These are transient and succeed on a retry, and a failed job is **never charged** — the wallet hold is released. If you chain these tools, retry a failed step rather than failing the whole pipeline.

Header

Type

Required

Description

Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key

string

Yes

Your API subscription key

## Video Compress generate request

## Request Code

HTTP Python JavaScript cURL

```
POST https://gateway.pixazo.ai/media-tools/v1/video-compress
Content-Type: application/json
Cache-Control: no-cache
Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: YOUR_API_KEY

{
  "video_url": "https://api-assets.pixazo.ai/media-api-test/t.mov",
    "quality": "balanced"
}
```

```
import requests

url = "https://gateway.pixazo.ai/media-tools/v1/video-compress"
headers = {
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "Cache-Control": "no-cache",
    "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
}
data = {
    "video_url": "https://api-assets.pixazo.ai/media-api-test/t.mov",
    "quality": "balanced"
}

response = requests.post(url, json=data, headers=headers)
print(response.json())
```

```
const url = "https://gateway.pixazo.ai/media-tools/v1/video-compress";
const headers = {
  "Content-Type": "application/json",
  "Cache-Control": "no-cache",
  "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
};
const data = {
  "video_url": "https://api-assets.pixazo.ai/media-api-test/t.mov",
    "quality": "balanced"
};

fetch(url, {
  method: "POST",
  headers: headers,
  body: JSON.stringify(data)
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));
```

```
curl -X POST "https://gateway.pixazo.ai/media-tools/v1/video-compress" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Cache-Control: no-cache" \
  -H "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  --data-raw '{
    "video_url": "https://api-assets.pixazo.ai/media-api-test/t.mov",
    "quality": "balanced"
  }'
```

## Output

```
{
  "request_id": "media-compress_019dxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "status": "QUEUED",
  "polling_url": "https://gateway.pixazo.ai/v2/requests/status/media-compress_019dxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
}
```

[Try Now](https://api.pixazo.ai/api-details#api=media-tools&operation=video-compress)

## Webhook (Optional)

Add the `X-Webhook-URL` header to your generate request to receive a POST callback instead of polling.

```
X-Webhook-URL: https://your-server.com/webhook/callback
```

## Request Parameters - Video Compress generate request

Parameter

Required

Type

Default

Allowed values / range

Description

video\_url

Yes

string

—

HTTP(S) URL to an **MP4 or MOV**; ≤ 120 s

The video to compress. Other containers are rejected before you are charged, because the duration must be measured to price the work — convert them first.

quality

No

enum

`balanced`

`light`, `balanced`, `strong`

How hard to compress. Measured on 1080p-class footage: light returns about 17% of the original size, balanced 11%, strong 7%. Ignored when `target_size_mb` is sent. If a re-encode would come out **larger** than the source, the original file is returned unchanged.

target\_size\_mb

No

number

—

0.1 – 200

Aim for a file this big, in decimal MB (1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes). One encode, never a converge loop, so the result lands **close to** your number — usually a little under, sometimes a few percent over — rather than exactly on it. Must be smaller than the source file; if it is below the smallest size this length allows, the request is rejected and the achievable figure is returned. Takes precedence over `quality`.

max\_height

No

integer

— (keeps the source size)

`360`, `480`, `720`, `1080`

Downscale as well, for extra savings. Send it as a number, not a string. Never upscales — a source already shorter than this is left alone.

## Example Request

```
{
  "video_url": "https://api-assets.pixazo.ai/media-api-test/t.mov",
    "quality": "balanced"
}
```

## Response

```
{
  "request_id": "media-compress_019dxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "status": "QUEUED",
  "polling_url": "https://gateway.pixazo.ai/v2/requests/status/media-compress_019dxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
}
```

## Request Headers

Header

Value

Content-Type

application/json

Cache-Control

no-cache

Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key

YOUR\_API\_KEY

## Response Handling

Common status codes.

Code

Meaning

202

Accepted — Request queued

400

Bad Request

401

Unauthorized

402

Insufficient Balance

403

Forbidden

429

Too Many Requests

500

Internal Server Error

## Error Responses

Queue system errors and model validation errors.

### Queue System Errors

```
// 402 — Insufficient balance
{
  "error": "Insufficient Balance",
  "message": "Your wallet does not have enough balance."
}
```

```
// 400 — Model not found
{
  "error": "Model not found",
  "message": "Model 'media-compress' not found or is disabled"
}
```

### Error via Status/Webhook

```
{
  "request_id": "media-compress_019dxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "status": "ERROR",
  "model_id": "media-compress",
  "error": "Description of the error",
  "output": null
}
```

## Retrieving Results

Poll the universal status endpoint to check progress and retrieve results.

### Endpoint

```
GET https://gateway.pixazo.ai/v2/requests/status/{request_id}
Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: YOUR_API_KEY
```

## cURL Example

```
curl -H "Ocp-Apim-Subscription-Key: YOUR_API_KEY" \
  "https://gateway.pixazo.ai/v2/requests/status/media-compress_019dxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx"
```

## Response (Completed)

```
{
  "request_id": "media-compress_019dxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "status": "COMPLETED",
  "model_id": "media-compress",
  "error": null,
  "output": {
    "media_url": [
      "https://pub-582b7213209642b9b995c96c95a30381.r2.dev/v1/media-compress_019dxxxx/output.mp4"
    ],
    "media_type": "video/mp4"
  },
  "created_at": "2026-03-31T10:00:00.000Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-03-31T10:00:15.000Z",
  "completed_at": "2026-03-31T10:00:15.000Z"
}
```

## Response Fields

Field

Type

Description

request\_id

string

Unique request identifier

status

string

QUEUED, PROCESSING, COMPLETED, FAILED, or ERROR

model\_id

string

Model that processed the request

error

string|null

Error message if failed

output.media\_url

array

URLs to generated media (R2 CDN)

output.media\_type

string

MIME type of the output

created\_at

string

When request was created

completed\_at

string

When request completed

polling\_url

string

Status URL (initial response only)

## Status Values

Status

Description

QUEUED

Request accepted, waiting to be processed

PROCESSING

Being processed by the model

COMPLETED

Done — output contains the result

FAILED

Failed — check error field

ERROR

System error — not charged

## Status Flow

```
QUEUED → PROCESSING → COMPLETED
                    → FAILED
                    → ERROR
```

## Typical Workflow

1.  **Send a generate request** to the API endpoint
2.  **Save the `request_id`** from the response
3.  **Poll** every 5-10 seconds: `GET /v2/requests/status/{request_id}`
4.  **When `status` is `"COMPLETED"`**, download from `output.media_url`

**Tip:** Use `X-Webhook-URL` header to get a callback instead of polling.