About 3GP Files
3GPP Video
3GP is a multimedia container designed for 3G mobile phones. It stores video and audio at low bitrates optimized for limited bandwidth. Many early mobile phone recordings use this format.
Family
Video Files
Extension
.3gp
MIME Type
video/3gpp
Can Use As
33 47 50 46 00 01 00 00 4B 41 49 4A
ASCII: 3GPF....KAIJ
📈 Target Minimum File Size (Guaranteed ≥ KB)
Lossless JPEG Q100 + standard COM segment padding for government & exam portals
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HOW 3GP CAME TO BE.
3GP was standardized by 3GPP (the same consortium that defined AMR audio) around 2000 as the video container for early 3G-capable phones. It is essentially a stripped-down, low-bandwidth variant of MPEG-4 Part 14 (MP4). A 3GP file typically held H.263 video and AMR audio, later H.264 + AAC — sized and tuned for the tiny screens and expensive data plans of pre-smartphone mobile.
For most of the 2000s, every cellphone video, every MMS video attachment, every YouTube mobile upload was 3GP. The format still lingers in feature-phone ecosystems, some dashboard cameras, and as the output of older Android versions. But it disappeared from new smartphones around 2015 when iPhones and Android defaulted to full MP4/H.264.
Technical Specifications
- MIME types
- video/3gpp, video/3gpp2
- Extensions
- .3gp, .3g2
- Container
- MPEG-4 Part 14 subset
- Video codecs
- H.263, MPEG-4 SP, H.264
- Audio codecs
- AMR-NB, AMR-WB, AAC
Typical Sizes & Weights
1-min MMS video (176×144)
300-800 KB
5-min phone clip (320×240)
5-15 MB
STRENGTHS & LIMITATIONS.
Strengths
- Extremely low bitrate and file size — great for 2G/3G networks.
- Universal playback in feature phones and early smartphones.
- Based on MP4 — easy to convert and handle with modern tools.
- Mandatory codec in every 3G device since 2001.
Limitations
- Tiny resolutions — rarely above 320×240 in practice.
- H.263 video is far behind H.264 in compression efficiency.
- Metadata support is minimal.
- Effectively legacy — new phones default to MP4/HEVC.
CURIOSITIES & TRIVIA.
3GP is specifically a subset of MP4 optimized for 3G mobile networks — a rename plus stripped feature set.
MMS video attachments between 2003 and 2012 were almost universally 3GP.
A .3gp file from a 2005 Nokia is typically 176×144 pixels — the "QCIF" resolution chosen for bandwidth reasons.
Android phones recorded video as 3GP by default until roughly Android 4.0 (2011).
The .3gp2 (or .3g2) variant is the CDMA-network version used by Verizon and Sprint feature phones in the US.
Specialized Utilities for .3GP Files
Reduce Video Size
Compress video files to reduce size for sharing and uploading. Adjustable quality settings let you balance file size and visual quality.
Convert Video for WhatsApp
Convert and compress videos to meet WhatsApp size and format requirements. Automatically adjusts resolution, codec, and file size for seamless sharing.
Video to GIF
Convert short video clips to animated GIFs. Set custom start time, duration, frame rate, and output size. Great for memes, reactions, and social sharing.
Video to MP3 Audio Extractor
Extract high-bitrate MP3 audio tracks from MP4, MOV, MKV, AVI, and WebM video recordings in seconds—ideal for podcasts, lectures, and interviews.
Extract Audio from Video
Extract the audio track from any video file and save it as MP3, WAV, or other audio formats. Perfect for creating podcasts, music rips, or voice-only recordings.
CONVERT FROM 3GP
Common Use Cases
Legacy mobile phone recordings, low-bandwidth video.
Related Formats
Popular comparisons
3GP vs MP4
Differences, file size, and when to choose each format.
3GP vs MOV
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3GP vs AVI
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3GP vs MP3
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3GP vs JPG
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3GP vs PNG
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Popular 3GP conversions
The most-requested destinations when starting from 3GP.
Frequently Asked Questions
3GP (3GPP Video) is a video container format that bundles one or more video streams, audio tracks, and optional subtitles into a single file. The container format determines how metadata is organised and which codecs can live inside; the visual quality itself depends on the codec (H.264, H.265, VP9, AV1) rather than the 3GP wrapper. It is part of the video files family.
VLC, MPV and PotPlayer play nearly every 3GP file on desktop. Browser support varies: modern Chromium, Firefox and Safari play common containers via the HTML5 <video> tag, but niche 3GP variants may fail. If a device refuses your 3GP, convert to MP4 with our 3GP to MP4 converter for universal playback.
Upload your 3GP to KaijuConverter and pick MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, or any other target. Our pipeline uses FFmpeg under the hood and stream-copies when codecs are compatible (no quality loss) or transcodes at high-quality defaults otherwise. Conversion runs server-side; both files delete within two hours.
Only when the target requires re-encoding. If the codecs inside 3GP match what the target container supports, FFmpeg stream-copies the streams and the output is bit-identical to the source. Transcoding uses transparent quality defaults (CRF 20–23 H.264) and produces output indistinguishable from the original at normal viewing distance.
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