Email attachment cap: 25 MB
Photos too large for email: four ways to send them anyway
Send one shoots.page gallery link instead of attachments: it holds JPEG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF, WebP or RAW originals, needs no recipient account, and is free up to 2 GB. Gmail, Outlook.com and Yahoo Mail cap attachments at 25 MB, and Gmail swaps anything bigger for a Google Drive link.
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The short answer
Your photos are not the problem; the email cap is. Stop attaching files and send one link instead.
If the recipient should browse, enjoy and keep the full set, a shoots.page gallery link is the best route: no bounce notices, no sign-up walls, originals intact.
Email attachment limits
| Service | Limit |
|---|---|
| shoots.page | No attachment limit, only account storage: 2 GB free, 100 GB on Pro; you send one gallery link and recipients need no account |
| Gmail (personal accounts) | 25 MB; bigger attachments are replaced with a Google Drive link |
| Outlook.com | 25 MB; larger files can go as a OneDrive link, up to 2 GB |
| Yahoo Mail | 25 MB for all attachments in one message, sent or received |
| iCloud Mail | 20 MB per message; with Mail Drop, attachments up to 5 GB go through iCloud and recipients have 30 days to download them |
Why big photos bounce
High-resolution JPEGs from modern cameras regularly run several megabytes each, so a handful of files is enough to hit the cap. If you regularly deliver bulk sets, see how to send many photos without attachments at all.
Email also inflates files behind the scenes. Attachments travel as base64-encoded text, which Microsoft's Exchange documentation says makes a message about 33% larger, so on servers that count the encoded size, a set that looks small enough on disk can still be rejected.
The four realistic escapes
| Escape | When it is right | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| shoots.page gallery link | Finished shoots a client should browse and download | Photos only; free up to 2 GB, 100 GB on Pro |
| Resize first | Quick previews and casual snaps viewed on a phone | Discards pixels permanently; unsuitable for prints or professional delivery |
| ZIP the set | Bundling many loose files into one attachment | JPEGs are already compressed, so zipping barely shrinks the total and rarely beats the cap on its own |
| Cloud drive link | Sharing working files when presentation does not matter | Access depends on the folder's sharing settings, and a bare folder is not a viewing experience |
The gallery route
shoots.page is built for exactly this handoff. Pick your JPEG, PNG, HEIC, TIFF, WebP or RAW files on the homepage, sign in with Google (free account), and the resumable upload runs while previews render in the background. Free accounts include 2 GB of storage, and originals stay byte-for-byte. The full walkthrough is in how to send photos to clients.
After publishing, paste the link into your email, or have shoots.page email it to your client from the Share gallery dialog. The recipient needs no account or app, browses 60 photos per page and downloads single files or a ZIP; a password and an expiry date are optional. Unlike a bare folder on Google Drive or an expiring transfer on WeTransfer, your images appear in a visual grid made for photos.
Common questions
What is the Gmail attachment limit?
25 MB for personal accounts. Attach more and Gmail converts the attachment into a Google Drive link instead of sending the file.
Does zipping photos make them small enough for email?
Usually not. JPEGs are already compressed, so a ZIP archive bundles the files without meaningfully lowering the megabyte count.
Can the recipient be on any email provider?
Yes. You paste a gallery link into your email instead of attaching files, so any recipient can open it in a standard browser, with no account required.
Is there quality loss when resizing for email?
Yes. Resizing permanently discards pixel data. Resized images work for on-screen previews but lack the detail needed for printing.
Skip the attachment cap
Pick your photos on the homepage and turn the set into one shareable gallery link.