You exported at 100 Mbps. What did your client download?

TL;DR: is the film your client downloads the one you exported?

Often not. Most gallery tools stream a lighter version of your film, and some also make that lighter version the download: an MP4 with a capped bitrate, smaller than your export. What decides how it looks is the bitrate, in megabits per second, not the "4K" label. You can check any tool in five minutes: read the bitrate of your export, download the film the way a client would, and compare the two numbers. We sell a gallery product, so weigh what follows accordingly. On Galerist the download is the file you uploaded, byte for byte, and this article also says where that falls short.

You grade a film for days, export it at 100 Mbps, upload it to a client gallery and send the link. Then your client writes: "it looks a little softer than the one you showed me." Nothing is broken. The file they downloaded is simply not the file you exported.

This article exists because a videographer who was thinking of moving to Galerist asked us for the original file of their film, not a copy. When we measured our own pipeline, we could not hand it over. Until 5 November 2026 the download on Galerist was an MP4 re-encoded by our streaming provider, at roughly 24 Mbps. We changed it, and in the process learned more about what happens to a film between your timeline and your client's laptop than most platforms put in writing. Here is what we found, and how to check it yourself.

Mbps, not MB: the number that decides how a film looks

Resolution says how many pixels are in each frame. Bitrate says how much information describes them, per second of film. Two 4K files can look very different if one has six times the bitrate of the other, because a lower bitrate means more compression, and compression is what blurs fine detail.

You see it where the picture is hardest to describe: gradients in a sky or on skin that turn into bands, grass, water and confetti that smear, and the grain and shadow detail you spent a grade on. It shows more on a big TV than on a phone, which is why the complaint tends to arrive after the couple has watched the film at home.

The arithmetic is worth doing once, because the sizes explain why platforms cap:

Note the unit: megabits per second, with a small b. A file size in gigabytes tells you nothing about quality until you divide by the duration.

Three different files hide behind the word "download"

When a gallery tool says your client can download the film, it can mean one of three things:

1. The stream. Many small renditions of the film, which the player switches between depending on the connection. Made to be watched, not kept.
2. The tool's own copy. One MP4 the platform generated for you, usually at a capped resolution or bitrate, to keep storage and bandwidth affordable.
3. Your export. The file you uploaded, untouched.

A platform can be perfectly honest about the first two and still put the word "download" next to either of them. The only way to know which one your client gets is to read the help page, or to run the test below.

What two platforms say in their own help pages

Two examples, taken from help pages we could read in full on 6 November 2026. We have not measured either product ourselves, so these are their words, not our findings.

Pic-Time. Their article Do my videos get compressed? says Featured Videos and Video Clips "do not get compressed, but they are optimized for storage which makes no impact on visual quality". It adds that "the video bitrate is capped at 15Mb/sec for 4K, 8Mb/sec for FHD, 4Mb/sec for HD, and 2Mb/sec for 360p", that downloaded files are MP4, and that "because of the optimization, the downloaded file will most likely be smaller than the original uploaded file." Their export recommendations suggest 40–48 Mbps for 4K. A 4K film exported to that advice, at 40–48 Mbps, can therefore reach the client at no more than 15. Whether that is visible is a claim you can test.

Pixieset. Their page on download sizes says that photos in original resolution are delivered "exactly as uploaded, with no compression or resizing". For video it says the client receives "an MP4 file in the highest available resolution for your subscription": up to 1080p on Basic and Plus, up to 4K on Pro and Ultimate. It does not say the video is the file you uploaded.

Neither is a scandal. Storing and serving a 7.5 GB film for every client costs real money, and capping the bitrate is a reasonable way to keep a plan cheap. It is a sensible trade for a stream. The trouble starts when the capped copy is also what the client keeps, and nobody tells the videographer.

What we measured on our own pipeline

Before we changed anything we tested the option our streaming provider offers to hand back the "master" of an uploaded video. We used a 4K clip at 25 frames per second, on the provider's staging environment, at the quality level we use in production and the one above it:

• A clip uploaded at 107 Mbps came back at 39 Mbps, with different pixels. Both quality levels gave the same result.
• A clip uploaded at 14 Mbps came back at 14 Mbps: a different file, but with identical pixels.

So above roughly 20 Mbps in 4K, that pipeline builds its own intermediate file, and your original can no longer be recovered from it. One provider, one clip, our settings: do not generalise it. It is why we stopped relying on it.

A five-minute test you can run on any platform

1. Read the bitrate of your export. Open the file in MediaInfo and note "Overall bit rate", resolution and codec. Or in a terminal: ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=bit_rate,size -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 film.mp4 (the bitrate is printed in bits per second).
2. Upload it to a private test gallery on the platform, with downloads switched on.
3. Download it the way your client would: logged out, in a clean browser, from the public gallery. A "download original" button in your own dashboard can be a different file from the one clients get.
4. Read the same numbers on the file you got back, and compare bitrate, resolution, codec and file size with your export.
5. For a byte-identical check, hash both files: shasum -a 256 film.mp4 downloaded.mp4 on a Mac, or certutil -hashfile film.mp4 SHA256 on Windows. Same hash, same file. A different hash does not prove damage, but it does mean you were handed another file, so judge it by the bitrate and by looking at a gradient side by side.

If the numbers match, you can promise your client the film they see in your edit. If they do not, at least you know what you are promising.

Where Galerist stands, and where it falls short

Since 5 November 2026 your client downloads the exact file you uploaded, byte for byte, in whatever format we accept (MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV or M4V), up to 50 GB per file. What they watch in the player is a separate stream copy that adapts to the connection, up to 4K, so playback and download are two different files on purpose. The original stays on our own storage.

The honest part:

• It costs space. The original counts toward your plan's storage, and the film's length also uses your video minutes. On the €9.99 single gallery, with 8 GB and 30 minutes, the space runs out first at high bitrates: about 10 minutes of film at 100 Mbps.
• Films download one at a time, from the player. Video is not in the photo ZIP.
• Older films keep the old behaviour. Anything uploaded before 5 November 2026 still downloads as an MP4 at its source resolution. Upload it again to switch.
• Very large downloads can be interrupted by the network. Files under about 20 GB gave us no trouble; the 49 GiB test downloads we ran were cut off by the network before the end.

Details are on our video delivery page, and the wider picture on resolution, caps and pricing is in 4K video delivery: what gallery platforms don't tell you.

What to tell your client

Whatever tool you use, put the specification in the delivery email, so the file is something they can check and keep:

Your film is ready. The download is the exact file I exported: H.264, 3840 × 2160, about 100 Mbps. Save it from the gallery rather than screen-recording the player, and keep a copy somewhere safe.

It costs a sentence, it tells the client the file is the real thing, and it stops "it looks softer" from turning into a conversation about whose fault it is.

The takeaway

Resolution is a label; bitrate is the quality. A film can stream in 4K and download at a fraction of what you exported. Read the help page of the tool you use, then run the five-minute test once: it takes less time than the colour pass on a single scene. Deliver the file you are proud of, and make sure it is the file that arrives.

Frequently asked questions

Does a 4K download mean full quality?

No. Resolution and bitrate are separate. A tool can offer a 4K download whose bitrate is capped far below your export, so check both numbers, not just the pixel count.

What bitrate should I export at for client delivery?

There is no single answer: it depends on the camera, the codec and how much grading the film has had. As one data point, Pic-Time's export guide recommends 40–48 Mbps for 4K and 12–16 Mbps for 1080p. Export what you would be proud to see played on a large TV, and then make sure the platform hands that file over.

Will my client notice a lower bitrate?

Sometimes. It shows most in gradients, motion and low light, and more on a big screen than on a phone. We would rather not argue about whether a client will notice: delivering the exact file removes the question.

Can my client download the original file on Galerist?

Yes. They get the file you uploaded, byte for byte, up to 50 GB per file, one film at a time from the player. Films uploaded before 5 November 2026 download as an MP4 at their source resolution until you upload them again.

Are videos included in the ZIP download?

No. The ZIP holds the photos. Each film downloads separately from its player, so tell your client where to find it.