Past the email limit
The first wall almost everyone hits
Twenty-five megabytes is where Gmail stops, and where most of these questions start. Upload the file once and send a link, which no mail server measures.
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The arithmetic
Why a 24MB file gets refused
Encoding adds roughly a third
Attachments travel encoded as text, which inflates them by about 33 per cent. A 24MB file leaves as something closer to 32MB, and the limit applies to what leaves.
The whole message counts
The ceiling covers the message, not the file: subject, body, signature image and every other attachment share the same budget.
Their server decides too
Your provider can accept a message the mailbox at the other end then rejects. Company servers are commonly stricter, and the bounce arrives from their side, hours later.
Chat apps are not a way round it
Slack caps uploads on free workspaces and Teams has its own ceiling. Both also recompress images, so moving the file to a different inbox usually moves the problem rather than solving it.
Cloud drives trade one problem for another
A drive link sends fine, then asks the recipient to request access or sign in. That is a second conversation about a file you thought you had already delivered.
Why it feels arbitrary
The file was under the limit and still bounced
Nothing in the error tells you that the number counts something other than what your file manager showed you, which is why the same file fails twice in a row.
Quick answers
Before you send
The essentials, without another wall of feature cards.
Is the limit exactly 25MB?
Google documents 25MB for a Gmail message including attachments. Because of encoding, the largest file that reliably fits is nearer 18 to 20MB.
Can I split the file instead?
You can, and we would not. Split archives arrive out of order, one part gets filtered, and the person receiving it needs software to reassemble them.
Does the recipient need an account?
No. They open a browser page and download.
Does the limit apply per file or per message?
Per message. Three attachments of 9MB each and one of 27MB are measured the same way.
Why did the same file send yesterday?
Limits are configured per organisation, and sender and recipient can have different ones. The same file passes one route and fails another for reasons neither party can see.
How long does a FileFast transfer stay up?
Seven days on the free tier. Paid plans hold transfers longer, and you choose the expiry when you send.
Try it with the next thing you have to send
Choose the files, share one link, and see what happens after it lands.
The product behind it
How this works in FileFast
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