5 GB free
200 times the Gmail limit
TransferNow’s free tier absorbs everything email rejects: 5 GB per transfer, no sign-up, no credit card.
Send a file larger than 25 MB (the Gmail limit)
25 MB is the exact limit for Gmail attachments — and the reason behind the “file too large” message. TransferNow sends up to 5 GB for free, 200 times more, with no sign-up: your recipient simply gets a download link.
- 200× the Gmail limit
- Up to 5 GB free
- No sign-up
Average rating after at least one transfer:
4.8750,000 votes
4.9 / 5 on Trustpilot and Google (20k+ reviews)
The problem
Why 25 MB is a wall — and why it sits so low
Gmail’s 25 MB cap (20 MB for Outlook) dates back to a time when a photo weighed 500 KB. Today, a single phone video, a presentation with images or a scanned file exceeds it — and the recipient’s mailbox can reject the message even when yours accepts it.
Worse: attachments are encoded before sending, which inflates their size by about a third. Your 20 MB file actually takes up ~27 MB in the message — that’s often where the baffling rejection comes from.
- Outlook attachment20 MB
- Gmail attachment25 MB
- TransferNow — free, no sign-up5 GB
- TransferNow — with an account500 GB
Logarithmic scale — the exact values are what counts.
The solutions
Four ways past the 25 MB limit
The problem is as old as email itself, but the solutions don’t all cost the same. An honest comparison.
| Method | Max size | Quality | For the recipient |
|---|---|---|---|
| TransferNow (dedicated transfer)Recommended | 5 GB free · 500 GB with an account | Files intact, no compression | One click, no account |
| Compress to ZIP | 10 to 30% savings at best | Intact | Not enough once media is involved |
| Google Drive auto-suggested by Gmail | Depends on quota (15 GB shared) | Intact | Access rights to manage, quota used up |
| Drive / cloud storage | Depends on the account quota | Intact | Account or access rights often required |
The dedicated transfer: the habit to build
Above 25 MB, a download link replaces the attachment: your message stays light, the recipient clicks and grabs the files — up to 5 GB for free, with no account on either side.
ZIP: useful, rarely enough
Compressing office documents can sometimes squeeze a borderline send through. But photos, videos and scanned PDFs are already compressed: ZIP gains you next to nothing.
Gmail’s Drive fallback: handy, with strings attached
Gmail automatically shifts large attachments to Drive — eating into your shared 15 GB and adding access rights to manage. For a one-off send, a transfer link is cleaner.
Generic cloud storage: same logic, same friction
Dropping the file into online storage works, at the cost of an account, permissions and a link that never expires on its own. A time-limited transfer is a better fit for handing files over.
Guide
How to send a file larger than 25 MB (the Gmail limit)?
- 1
Drag in the rejected attachment
The 48 MB PowerPoint goes as is: no compression, no splitting, no account to create.
- 2
Send by email or copy the link
TransferNow sends the message for you — or you paste the link into your own email, which now weighs just a few bytes.
- 3
The recipient clicks, done
Download straight from the browser, no sign-up. You’re notified as soon as the file is picked up.
With TransferNow
Built for your transfers over 25 MB
Light link
Your email stays an email
The message you send only carries a link: no clogged mailbox on the recipient’s side, no silent server-side rejection.
Antivirus
Scanned before it goes live
Files are scanned by an antivirus engine before the link becomes active — more reassuring than an attachment.
7 days
Available as long as needed
The link stays active for up to 7 days for free — and up to 365 days with an account.
5 GB free, in equivalents
- 25 MB
- the Gmail limit — barely 3 DSLR photos
- 5 GB
- TransferNow’s free tier, 200× more
- +33%
- the encoding overhead of an attachment
- 0
- accounts required, on either side
Frequently asked questions
Why is my 20 MB attachment rejected below the 25 MB limit?
Attachment encoding adds about a third to the real size: a 20 MB file takes up ~27 MB in the message, above the 25 MB limit. And the recipient’s mailbox may have an even lower cap.
How do I send a 30, 50 or 100 MB file by email?
Create a TransferNow transfer (free up to 5 GB, no sign-up) and send the link by email: the message always goes through, whatever the files weigh.
Does my recipient need to create an account to download?
No: they click the link and download from their browser, no sign-up required. You’re notified of the download.
What if my files also exceed 5 GB?
TransferNow plans go up to 500 GB per transfer, with availability configurable up to 365 days.
Can a single photo exceed 25 MB?
Yes: a 45 MP full-frame RAW weighs 45.4 MB according to Canon’s manual (EOS R5) — nearly double the limit, before encoding even kicks in. The same camera’s high-quality JPEG (≈ 13.5 MB) fits, but two are enough to max out the message.
Also worth sending
Sending other types of files?
All file typesSend more than 100 MB
Presentations, albums, folders: too much for email, trivial for a transfer.
≈ 4× the email limit
ExploreSend with Gmail
Get past the 25 MB limit without leaving your inbox — Chrome extension included.
25 MB limitChrome extension
ExploreSend a PDF
Files, portfolios and PDF documents too large for email.
PDFPDF/A
Explore5 GB per transfer for free, no sign-up