H.263 is a video codec designed by the ITU-T as a low-bitrate encoding solution for videoconferencing. It was first designed to be utilized in H.323 based systems, but now is finding use in RTSP (streaming media) and SIP (Internet conferencing) solutions as well.

H.263 was based on H.261, the previous ITU-T standard for video compression, and provides a suitable replacement for it at all bitrates. It has been superseded by H.263v2 (a.k.a. H.263+ or H.263 1998).

For more information on H.263, see the following sources: