Canvas limits
- Media uploads (video and audio): up to 500 MB.
- Regular file uploads: up to 5 GB, but your course storage quota may be smaller.
- Canvas Studio, if your school uses it, has its own, higher limit.
The target here is 480 MB. If your uploads time out, go lower — 100–200 MB is plenty for a 10–20 minute presentation at 720p.
What size do you actually need?
- Screen recording with voice: 10 minutes fit in 50–100 MB at full resolution.
- Camera video: about 15 minutes of 1080p fit in 480 MB; 720p halves that size.
Phone videos are often recorded at 4K and 60 frames per second — compressing to 1080p at 30 fps shrinks them several times with no visible difference on a laptop screen.
Questions
What is the Canvas video upload limit?
500 MB for video and audio uploaded through the media tool; regular files up to 5 GB within your quota.
Why does my Canvas submission fail even under 500 MB?
Large uploads time out on slow networks. Compress the video to a few hundred MB or less and try again.
Can my teacher raise the limit?
No, the media limit is set by Canvas. Use a smaller file or your school’s video platform.
Last updated: 2026-10-30