Loom Chrome Extension vs Desktop App Quality: The Real Gap

Loom's Chrome extension and Loom's desktop app do not produce the same video. Loom publishes a per-platform encoding table, and in it the extension is capped at "Up to 1080p video" while the desktop apps read "Up to 4K video" — in a different container, with a different video codec and a different audio codec.

This is not a settings problem you can fix by clicking around in the extension. It is the recorder you chose.

The limits, at a glance

Every cell below is quoted from Loom's "Loom video encoding settings (by platform)" page.

One qualifier you must not drop: that table describes the media Loom stores and streams, not the file you get when you press Download. Loom states that "All videos downloaded from Loom will be in a .MP4 format," and describes the downloaded MP4 as "similar to the RAW media recorded" — similar, not identical.

Your plan and role sit on top of the recorder. Loom's recording-quality page gives these ceilings:

Loom adds that a Creator Lite role is a separate trap: "Users on a Creator Lite role will be limited to resolutions under Loom Starter free plan." If you are on a paid workspace and still capped at 720p, check your role before you blame the recorder. The same role restriction drives Loom's 5-minute recording limit inside paid workspaces.

Why the extension stops at 1080p — Loom's own answer

You do not have to guess at the mechanism here, because Loom answers it directly in its plan-comparison FAQ:

"Can I record HD with the Chrome Extension if I'm on Loom Business or Enterprise?" "Unfortunately, no. This is a limitation of Chrome and one of the reasons we built the desktop app."

Loom's extension settings page says the same thing from the other direction: "At this time, the highest video quality available on the Loom Chrome Extension is 1080p if you are on a Business, Business + AI, or Enterprise plan." And its HD page notes that "If you're using the Chrome extension this feature will not be present, you can record up to 1080p."

So the wording varies across pages — one says 1080p is the extension's ceiling, another says HD is not available in the extension at all — but they point the same way: 4K lives in the desktop app only. Loom's HD page describes what that app can do: "your desktop app recordings can be captured in Full HD, 1080p (1920x1080px) and up to 4K recording which roughly translates to 3840x 2160 pixels."

Why the same video looks different on playback

The container difference in the first table is also why playback quality drifts. Loom uses two adaptive streaming systems, one per recorder.

For the desktop apps, Loom says it "uses HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) to deliver the best quality version of your video recorded with the Mac and Windows desktop apps." For the extension, it "uses Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) to deliver the best quality version of your video recorded with the Chrome extension."

Either way, the player decides: "The Loom web player will automatically choose the highest-quality version of the video that your internet connection can support. As your available bandwidth fluctuates, the quality of the stream will adapt to ensure continuous playback without buffering. This is why you sometimes see the playback quality change."

One related gotcha from the viewer side: Loom says "The video quality selector is not available for video's that have been trimmed or stitched at this time." Trim a video and your viewers lose the manual quality control.

What to do when the extension's ceiling is the problem

1. Record with the desktop app when you need above 1080p. That is the only path Loom documents for 4K, and it requires a paid role plus, in Loom's words, "a 4K compatible device."
2. Match your monitor to 1080p if extension recordings look soft. Loom's own troubleshooting says: "If you're using a larger monitor, you will see some quality loss in your recordings. To combat this, you can change your monitor resolution to 1920x1080 to match 1080 pixels guideline."
3. Watch your custom capture area. Loom warns that "The minimum size for a custom size video is 251 x 251 pixels," and that "if your selected area is too small to support 4K, the system may automatically downgrade the recording resolution."

Once you have downloaded the MP4, the file size is your problem, not Loom's — a 4K desktop-app recording is a large file to email or post. Re-encoding it locally is the usual fix.

Try it right here

Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded anywhere.

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This runs entirely in your browser tab: the file is read from disk, re-encoded, and handed back, with no upload. That matters here because Loom's own upload path has hard caps of its own — "Loom limits uploads to 4 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less" — so a smaller file helps on the way back in as well. See all Clapr tools or the video compressor for the rest.

Platform-specific gotchas

These are recorder differences Loom documents but most comparisons skip:

• Internal audio scope. Extension: "The Loom Chrome extension can only record internal audio from one tab. To capture internal audio, you must record with the Current Tab setting enabled." Desktop app: "This will record the system audio of any application on your device."
• Audio filters are exclusive. Loom notes that "system audio and noise filter can't be used simultaneously."
• Camera bubble limits in Chrome. "You can't record your camera bubble on PDF documents within Chrome," and you "Can't record your camera bubble when you are recording a different application other than the Chrome browser."
• Some features are extension-only. Live Rewind "is currently only accessible through the Chrome extension and only available on Business, Business + AI and Enterprise plans," and bug report mode "is only available on the Loom Chrome extension."
• Meeting recordings ignore this entirely. Loom says the quality "is set at 1080p to preserve memory and CPU resources, and can't be adjusted."

FAQ

Is Loom's desktop app better quality than the Chrome extension? For resolution, yes, per Loom's encoding table: the extension reads "Up to 1080p video" and the desktop apps read "Up to 4K video." Loom's plan FAQ attributes the extension's ceiling to "a limitation of Chrome."

Does the Chrome extension record in WebM? Loom's table lists the extension's stored container as "DASH with WebM" with VP8/VP9 video and OPUS audio. That describes what Loom stores and streams — downloads are still MP4.

Why is my Windows Loom recording mono? Loom's Windows desktop specification lists audio as "1 Channel (Mono)," while the Mac table lists "up to 2 Channel (Stereo)." The encoding page states the difference; it does not explain the cause.

Can I record 4K with the Chrome extension? Not according to Loom. 4K is documented for the Mac and Windows desktop apps on paid plans with a 4K-capable device. For anything else, check the official documentation.

Does the downloaded MP4 keep my captions? No. Loom states that Closed Captions, Chapters and CTAs "will not be included in the downloaded file," though "all video trims will be retained." Captions come as a separate SRT download, which Loom limits to "creators and admins on a Business/Business + AI plan, and members and admins on an Enterprise plan."

More recorder and plan ceilings are collected in the limits hub.

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All figures quoted from Loom's help centre (support.atlassian.com/loom), checked 16 September 2026. Loom's pages disagree with each other in places and change over time — verify against the official documentation before relying on a number.