How do I set the Content-Type for .mp4 in Nginx?

Make sure video/mp4 mp4; is listed in the types block (usually in /etc/nginx/mime.types) and reload Nginx.

Should I gzip .mp4 files?

No — the format is already compressed, so HTTP compression gives no benefit.

.mp4 MIME Type — video/mp4

video/mp4

MIME type for .mp4

Video

What is the MIME type of .mp4 files?

The MIME type (media type) for MPEG-4 video files with the .mp4 extension is video/mp4. Must support range requests (Accept-Ranges: bytes, 206 responses) so users can seek; without them Safari may refuse to play the video.

Content-Type header

Content-Type: video/mp4

Server configuration

Server	Configuration
Nginx (`mime.types` or `types {}`)	`video/mp4 mp4;`
Apache (`.htaccess`)	`AddType video/mp4 .mp4`
IIS (`web.config`)	`<mimeMap fileExtension=".mp4" mimeType="video/mp4" />`
Node.js / Express	`res.type('mp4')` or `res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'video/mp4')`
Amazon S3	Set `Content-Type: video/mp4` on the object (metadata), or pass `--content-type video/mp4` to `aws s3 cp`

Should .mp4 files be compressed?

No. MPEG-4 video files are already compressed internally, so gzip or Brotli would waste CPU and barely reduce — sometimes even increase — the size. Leave video/mp4 out of your compression configuration.

Why the MIME type matters

Browsers decide what to do with a response — render, run, play or download — from the Content-Type header, not the file extension. With X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff, a wrong type causes stylesheets and scripts to be blocked outright. For uploads, never trust the type sent by the client; check the file’s content (its magic bytes) on the server.

.mp4 MIME Type: video/mp4