Social Media Video Specs A Complete Guide for Every Platform

Social media video specs are the technical goalposts each platform sets for video uploads. Right now, the 9:16 vertical aspect ratio (that’s 1080x1920 pixels) is the undisputed champion for short-form content. Nail these guidelines for format, resolution, and length, and you'll avoid quality nightmares and get the best possible reach.

Your Quick Reference Guide to Social Media Video Specs

Trying to keep up with social media video specs can feel like you're aiming at a moving target. Every single platform—from Instagram and TikTok to YouTube and LinkedIn—has its own playbook for video uploads. If you ignore them, you're asking for trouble: ugly black bars, blurry footage, or your content getting cropped in the worst possible way. It makes your brand look sloppy and can tank your video's performance in the algorithm.

Think of this guide as your cheat sheet to get your videos perfectly optimized, every single time. Knowing these rules is the first step to making high-performing content that feels like it truly belongs on each platform.

The Unstoppable Rise of Vertical Video

Mobile viewing is everything, and it has made vertical video king. It’s not even a debate anymore. By 2026, the 9:16 aspect ratio at 1080x1920 resolution has become the absolute gold standard for Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, accounting for 95% of all mobile video consumption.

This whole trend is powered by over 5 billion social media users, with a massive 81% of consumers saying they want more short-form video from brands. The specs are specific and non-negotiable: TikTok demands 1080x1920 at 9:16, and for Instagram Stories ads, you need that same resolution plus a 30fps frame rate to make sure playback is buttery smooth.

Key Takeaway: Always, always build your short-form content for a 9:16 aspect ratio. It guarantees that immersive, full-screen experience on phones, which is exactly where most of your audience is watching.

Of course, before you even get to exporting, you need a solid creative workflow. If you're looking to generate professional video ads without the headache, you should check out these social media content creation tools to get your process dialed in.

To make things easy, I've put together a scannable table with the most important specs you'll need to know.

Quick Reference Social Media Video Specs by Platform

Here's a quick-glance table to help you keep the most common video specs straight across the major social platforms. It's the perfect cheat sheet to bookmark for your next video project.

Keep this handy, and you'll save yourself a ton of time and avoid those frustrating upload errors that can derail a campaign launch.

Why Following Video Specs Is Critical for Success

Getting your video specs right is so much more than a technical box-ticking exercise. It's a strategic move. When you upload a video that perfectly matches a platform's native requirements, you’re basically telling its algorithm, "Hey, this content belongs here." That simple act can give your video a serious boost in visibility and reach.

Social media platforms are obsessed with providing a smooth user experience. A video that fits the screen perfectly—no weird cropping, no distracting black bars—keeps people watching. So, naturally, the algorithms are built to reward content that plays by the rules, pushing those well-formatted videos to a much wider audience.

The High Cost of Ignoring the Rules

Uploading a video with the wrong aspect ratio or resolution creates instant friction. It screams low-effort, and that can seriously damage your brand's image. The penalties for getting it wrong are immediate and obvious.

Here are the most common mistakes we see:

• Distracting Black Bars: This is the classic sign of a mismatch. When a horizontal video gets shoehorned into a vertical frame (or vice-versa), the platform fills the ugly gaps with black bars. Your video looks tiny and amateurish.
• Awkward Auto-Cropping: To "fix" an incorrectly sized video, algorithms often take matters into their own hands and crop it automatically. This can chop off vital on-screen text, key visuals, or even the main subject of your shot.
• Pixelation and Poor Quality: Uploading a low-resolution file or using an unsupported codec forces the platform to compress it heavily. The result? A blurry, pixelated mess that’s painful to watch.

You can have a meticulously crafted video that fails purely on a technicality. Imagine blowing your budget on a beautiful 16:9 landscape ad, only to have Instagram Reels crop it into a vertical mess, completely hiding your call-to-action. That’s a direct hit to your campaign ROI and your audience's trust.

This graphic breaks down the three core pillars of video specs you absolutely have to nail.

Mastering aspect ratio, resolution, and format ensures your content shows up exactly how you designed it, preserving every bit of its quality and impact.

Connecting Specs to Business Outcomes

At the end of the day, paying attention to video specs is about protecting your investment. Every single video you create is an asset. Formatting it correctly is the final, crucial step to give it the best possible shot at performing.

Properly formatted videos lead to higher engagement rates, longer watch times, and a more professional brand image—all things that directly support real business goals.

Of course, understanding the technical rules is only half the battle. To really get ahead, you also need the right production toolkit. Exploring the essential social media content creation tools can make a huge difference in your workflow, helping you nail these specs every single time.

Cracking the Code: Instagram & Facebook Video Specs

Diving into the Meta ecosystem means you're dealing with both Instagram and Facebook, and while they're part of the same family, they have their own quirks. Getting the video specs right for each platform—and each placement within that platform—is the difference between content that looks slick and native versus something that just feels off.

The undisputed king of formats right now is vertical 9:16. It’s the full-screen, immersive view that powers Reels on both Instagram and Facebook, not to mention Stories. For in-feed posts, you’ve got a bit more breathing room, but vertical still wins. Square (1:1) and slightly taller vertical (4:5) formats tend to perform best, simply because they command more of the screen as people scroll.

Instagram Video Specifications

Instagram is all about the visuals, and getting the specs perfect is non-negotiable. A video that fits the frame flawlessly just keeps people watching longer. If you want to go really deep on this, there’s a great complete guide to creating videos for Instagram that’s worth a read.

Here’s the cheat sheet for the most important placements:

• Instagram Reels: This is 9:16 territory, hands down. You’ll want a 1080x1920 resolution. While Reels can technically run up to 15 minutes now, the sweet spot for attention is way, way shorter. Keep the file size under 4GB.
• Instagram Stories: Same specs as Reels. Think 9:16 aspect ratio and 1080x1920 pixels. The file size cap is also 4GB, and each story clip is limited to 60 seconds.
• Instagram Feed Videos: You have options here, but 1:1 (1080x1080) and 4:5 (1080x1350) are your best bets. They fill up more of the feed and grab more attention than a wide video. The max length is a generous 60 minutes.

For all of these, your best bet for codecs is H.264, and aim for a frame rate between 23-60 FPS.

Facebook Video Specifications

Facebook is a bit more of a wild west with its video formats, supporting everything from quick Stories to longer in-feed content. The platform is generally more forgiving if your aspect ratio isn't perfect, but for performance—especially with ads—you still want to optimize.

The gold standard for social video is 1080p resolution. It strikes that perfect balance between crisp quality and fast load times, which is why it powers over 60% of all social media video consumption. For Facebook, that means while 720p is the bare minimum, 1080x1920 is what you should be aiming for with your Reels and Stories.

Here are the key specs you need to know for Facebook.

Pro Tip: Always remember the "safe zones." For both Reels and Stories, the platform slaps UI elements over the top and bottom of your video. Keep any critical text, logos, or faces out of these areas so they don't get covered by captions or profile icons.

• Facebook Reels: Just like Instagram, go with a 9:16 aspect ratio and 1080x1920 resolution. Your videos can be up to 90 seconds long here.
• Facebook Stories: The specs are a mirror image of Instagram's: 9:16 aspect ratio, 1080x1920 resolution, and a max file size of 4GB.
• Facebook Feed & In-Stream Ads: Your best bets are 1:1 (square) and 4:5 (vertical). Landscape videos work, but they just don't perform as well on mobile. For most placements, you can go up to a 10GB file size.

Mastering Specs for TikTok and YouTube Shorts

When you're creating short-form video, TikTok and YouTube Shorts are the two giants you can't ignore. Both platforms are fundamentally built for an immersive, full-screen vertical experience on a phone. This means the 9:16 aspect ratio isn't just a suggestion—it's the golden rule.

Following the specs isn't just about dodging those ugly black bars on the sides of your video. It’s about creating content that looks and feels like it belongs on the platform, giving it a native, professional edge right from the first frame. For both, you'll want to aim for a 1080x1920 pixel resolution. This hits the sweet spot for crisp, high-definition viewing on mobile screens. Going lower can look grainy, and anything higher is overkill that the platforms will just compress down anyway, sometimes making the final quality even worse.

Core Technical Specs for TikTok

TikTok is all about fast-paced, trending content, and its technical requirements are built to keep things moving. The core specs are pretty simple, but there are a few platform-specific quirks you absolutely need to know, especially when it comes to file size.

Here's the essential spec sheet for TikTok:

• Aspect Ratio: 9:16. It has to be vertical.
• Resolution: 1080x1920 pixels.
• Frame Rate: Anywhere between 23 and 60 FPS (frames per second). A higher frame rate can give you that ultra-smooth motion that works so well for dance videos or action shots.
• File Format: MP4 or MOV.
• Max Duration: You can now upload videos up to 10 minutes long.

One of the biggest "gotchas" with TikTok is the file size limit, which is bizarrely different depending on your phone. If you're on an iPhone, you get a 287.6 MB limit. But for Android users, it’s a much tighter 72 MB. This is a critical detail to track if you’re creating polished videos in an external editor and then uploading from your phone.

Core Technical Specs for YouTube Shorts

YouTube Shorts gets to ride on the coattails of its parent platform's massive infrastructure, which means you get much more generous limits on file size. But to actually be classified as a "Short" and land in the all-important Shorts feed, your video has to meet some specific rules. If you miss the mark, it might just end up as a regular vertical video on your channel, missing out on that massive discovery engine.

Here are the key specs for YouTube Shorts:

• Aspect Ratio: 9:16 (vertical) or 1:1 (square). You can use a square format, but 9:16 is highly recommended to give viewers that optimal, full-screen experience.
• Resolution: 1080x1920 pixels.
• Max Duration: A hard cap at 60 seconds. No exceptions.
• File Format: While YouTube accepts all its standard formats, MP4 is always the safest and most reliable bet.

The great news here is the file size limit. YouTube allows a whopping 256 GB file, so you almost never have to worry about pre-upload compression. Of course, specs are only half the battle. To really make a dent, you need to understand the algorithm, which is a beast of its own. Check out our deep dive on how to get more views on YouTube Shorts for strategies that work.

The entire short-form video world is growing at an insane pace. Videos under 60 seconds are projected to account for 43% of all social content consumed, hitting a mind-boggling 120 billion daily views with 36% year-over-year growth. For brands, this translates directly into revenue, as 55% of consumers report making a purchase after watching a short video. You can dig into more of these numbers in Wyzowl's latest report.

Video Specs for LinkedIn and X (Twitter)

While vertical video is king on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, don't make the mistake of applying that same strategy everywhere. Professional and news-driven networks like LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) play by a different set of rules. Their audiences and how they consume content are fundamentally different, which means your video specs need to adapt.

For anyone doing B2B marketing, LinkedIn is your playground for building authority and trust. Unlike the purely mobile, vertical-first world of Reels, the LinkedIn feed is just as likely to be viewed on a desktop as on a phone. This makes square (1:1) and traditional landscape (16:9) videos incredibly effective. Over on X, it’s a chaotic, rapid-fire timeline where you have seconds to make an impression. Speed and clarity are everything.

LinkedIn Video Specifications

LinkedIn is where you put your best professional foot forward, and its video specs are built for quality and substance. The rules for native videos (shared directly to the feed) and paid video ads are slightly different, but both reward content that looks polished and delivers real value.

Here’s the breakdown of what you need to know for a standard, in-feed LinkedIn video:

• Aspect Ratios: 1:1 (square) and 16:9 (landscape) are your best bets. I lean heavily towards square because it just commands more screen real estate on mobile, stopping the scroll more effectively.
• Resolution: The minimum is a tiny 256x144, but please don't use that. To look credible, you should be exporting at 1920x1920 for a square video or 1920x1080 for landscape.
• File Size & Duration: You get a pretty generous 5GB maximum file size and can post a native video up to 10 minutes long.
• File Formats: LinkedIn accepts a bunch of formats, but MP4 is the most reliable. Stick with it to avoid upload headaches.
• Frame Rate: You can go all the way up to 60fps for an ultra-smooth look, which is great for showing off detailed motion.

When you're running paid video ads, the specs tighten up a bit. The max file size drops to 200MB, but oddly enough, the maximum duration jumps to 30 minutes.

X (Twitter) Video Specifications

Video on X is a different beast entirely. You are fighting for attention in a feed that moves at the speed of light. The platform's specs are much more restrictive, designed for quick uploads and immediate impact. You can post landscape, but again, square video tends to perform better on mobile devices where most users are scrolling.

Here are the critical numbers for X:

• Aspect Ratios: 16:9 (landscape) and 1:1 (square) are the supported formats.
• Resolution: Aim for 1280x720 for your landscape videos and 720x720 for square. You don't need 4K here; it's all about fast loading.
• File Size & Duration: This is where it gets tight. You're limited to a 512MB maximum file size and a hard cap of 140 seconds (that’s 2 minutes and 20 seconds).
• File Formats: MP4 and MOV are your go-to choices.
• Frame Rate: While X supports up to 60fps, a standard 30fps is perfectly fine for most content and will keep your file size down.

Key Insight: Those tight constraints on X aren't arbitrary; they're a giant hint. The platform is telling you to be brief and impactful. Your video strategy here needs to be ruthless—hook them in the first two seconds and get straight to the point. No fluff allowed.

Getting Your Video Export and Encoding Settings Just Right

Nailing the right dimensions for your video is a solid first step, but the real magic behind consistently great-looking social media video is all in the export and encoding settings. This is the final, critical handoff where you tell your software how to package everything up—balancing visual crispness with a manageable file size. Get it right, and your video looks sharp and professional. Get it wrong, and you're stuck with those fuzzy, blocky compression artifacts that scream amateur hour.

Think of your video file like a package. It has two parts: the container, which is the box it comes in, and the codec, which is the language it's written in.

Containers and Codecs: The Building Blocks of Your Video

You'll mostly run into two container types: .MP4 and .MOV. While both are solid, .MP4 is the undisputed champion for social media. It's the universal language of the web, guaranteeing the best compatibility across every platform and device. When in doubt, choose .MP4.

Inside that container, you have the codec, the software that does the heavy lifting of compressing your video. For social media, the H.264 (sometimes called AVC) codec is king. It hits the perfect sweet spot between high-quality visuals and efficient file sizes, making it the go-to recommendation for just about every network out there.

What You Need to Know About Frame Rate and Bitrate

With your container and codec sorted, two more settings will make or break your final video: frame rate and bitrate.

• Frame Rate (FPS): This is simply how many individual pictures, or frames, are shown every second. For most content, a standard 30 FPS is perfect—it gives you that smooth, natural motion we're all used to seeing. If you're working with high-action footage or want a buttery-smooth slow-motion effect, bumping it up to 60 FPS can look incredible, but just know it'll make your file bigger.

• Bitrate: This setting controls how much data is used to encode each second of video. More data means better quality, but also a much larger file. This is where you need to know about a secret weapon for efficient exports: Variable Bitrate (VBR).

Instead of locking in a single bitrate for the whole video (Constant Bitrate or CBR), VBR is much smarter. It gives more data to the complex, fast-moving parts of your video and less data to the simple, static shots. It’s the single most effective way to keep your quality high and your file size down.

You'll often see an option for "VBR, 2-Pass." This is the gold standard. It means your software analyzes the video twice before exporting, resulting in a much more efficient and higher-quality encode. If you see it, use it.

Your Go-To Social Media Export Recipe

Feeling a little lost in the weeds? Don't be. For 99% of the videos you create for social media, these settings will produce a flawless final file that meets every platform's technical specs.

Getting these export settings dialed in is a total game-changer. It’s the final polish that ensures all the creative work you put into your video pays off when it's time to hit "upload." And for those looking to create stunning animations from still images, you might want to explore how to turn an image sequence into video.

Got Questions About Video Specs? We’ve Got Answers.

Even with the best guides, you’re bound to hit a few snags. It happens to everyone. When you're in the middle of a project, specific questions always pop up about social media video specs. This section is here to give you direct, no-nonsense answers to the most common ones we hear.

Think of this as your final sanity check before you hit that "upload" button.

What Actually Happens If I Upload a Video with the Wrong Aspect Ratio?

This is a classic "oops" moment. If you upload a video with the wrong aspect ratio, the platform is going to try and cram it into the box it wants. This almost never ends well and usually results in one of two ugly outcomes.

First, your video might get awkwardly cropped. This is especially brutal for vertical content, where the platform might just chop off crucial text or even the main subject at the top and bottom. The other possibility is that the platform will slap black bars on the sides (pillarboxing) or top and bottom (letterboxing) to fill the void. It screams "unprofessional" and completely shatters that seamless, native feel you were going for.

Should I Just Crank Out Everything at the Highest Resolution and Bitrate?

It’s tempting, but no. In fact, that can often make things worse. Exporting at the absolute highest quality might seem like a good idea, but it creates massive files that social media platforms see as a threat. They respond by hitting your video with aggressive, often brutal, compression.

This heavy-handed compression can leave your video looking more pixelated and artifacted than if you had simply exported it at the recommended spec, like a clean 1080p. Your best bet is to match the platform's preferred settings and use a Variable Bitrate (VBR). This gives you the sweet spot between crisp quality and a file size that doesn't trigger the platform's compression hammer.

The Real Goal: You're not aiming for the best quality on your hard drive; you're aiming for the best quality after the social network is done with it. Sticking to their recommended specs gives you back control over how your video will look in the wild.

MP4 or MOV? Which One is Better for Social Media?

Stick with MP4. While most platforms technically accept both .MP4 and .MOV files, MP4 is the undisputed king of compatibility. It’s the universal standard that works flawlessly on virtually every browser, app, and device out there. Choosing MP4 is the safest way to ensure your video plays smoothly for everyone.

Behind the scenes, MP4 files almost always use the H.264 codec, which delivers that perfect combo of high-quality video packed into a small, efficient file. It’s tailor-made for web streaming, which is exactly what social media is all about.

How Can I Double-Check My Video Specs Before I Upload?

Checking your video’s final stats is a crucial last step, and luckily, you don’t need any fancy software to do it. It’s built right into your computer’s operating system.

• On a Mac: The easiest way is to open your video file with QuickTime Player. With the video open, just hit Command + I on your keyboard. This brings up the "Movie Inspector" window, which lays out all the key details: dimensions, codecs, frame rate, you name it.
• On Windows: It's just as simple. Find your video file, right-click on it, and choose "Properties." From there, click on the "Details" tab. You'll get a full rundown of every spec you need to see.

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