The world has moved to videos. Almost every social media platform is now integrating videos as a way of communication due to the ease and attention it drives. From YouTube to Facebook, the need for the right video content cannot be overstated. And it starts with the perfect dimension.
Before your video can go viral or even be accepted in some cases, it must meet some standards. Optimizing your video to fit the aspect ratio for each platform is the key to unlocking the virality and reach your video deserves.
Viewer engagement and experience gets better with the right dimensions and the platform rewards you with even more eyeballs on your video. But which dimensions are right for platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook?
This is what you’ll learn in this guide so you can make videos with dimensions that match the platform. But first, what is aspect ratio?
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What is Aspect Ratio?
Without sounding too technical, aspect ratio is the proportional relationship between a video’s width and height. It is always expressed in a ratio.
This ratio determines how the video appears on screens. So it can fill the screen, appear boxed with black bars, or cropped. The right dimension depends on the platform and video with Facebook videos preferring a certain dimension for optimum viewer experience from other platforms like YouTube.
Why Are Social Media Video Sizes Important?
It all seems like random numbers so why should it even matter? Aspect ratio for social media is a vital part of video editing that ensures the video you post on each platform fits the style for a seamless viewing experience.
Top video editing services like Your Video Editor offer repurposing services that optimize videos for each platform. They understand the importance of these optimizations to your video’s virality.
Choosing the right aspect ratio makes the video look professional and engaging. It has to look the part, just like other videos on the platform whether it’s on TikTok or Instagram. It is vital to plan your video with the platform in mind, so critical visuals and texts are in safe zones and are not cropped out when uploaded.
Platform-Specific Aspect Ratio Guidelines
Now to which aspect ratios you should be targeting when making your videos for platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. No matter the social media platform or type of content you’re creating, you’ll never go wrong with shooting your videos and editing with the platform in mind.
YouTube
YouTube is the ultimate video platform having been around for a long time, with more than 500 hours of video content uploaded every minute. Showing you the depth of this platform. Missing its recommended aspect ratio will simply mean getting lost among billions of other videos.
For long-form YouTube videos, the style is horizontal and the recommended dimensions are 16:9 which means a width of 16 units for every 9 units of height. While these are the recommended dimensions, others like 1:1, 4:3, and 2.4:1 are also accepted.
For YouTube Shorts or vertical videos, the recommended ratio is the opposite at 9:16 which means 9 units of width for every 16 units of height.
YouTube Long-Form Videos
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (horizontal)
- Time Limit: Up to 15 minutes (unverified accounts); up to 12 hours (verified accounts)
- Recommended Resolution: 1920×1080 pixels (1080p), supports up to 3840×2160 (4K)
- Maximum File Size: 128GB
- Maximum Video Length: 12 hours (verified accounts)
- Supported Video Formats: MP4, MOV, MPEG4, AVI, WMV, MPEGPS, FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm, HEVC (H.265)
YouTube Shorts
- Aspect Ratio: 9:16 (vertical)
- Time Limit: Up to 60 seconds
- Recommended Resolution: 1080×1920 pixels (1080p)
- Maximum File Size: 128GB
- Maximum Video Length: 60 seconds
- Supported Video Formats: MP4, MOV, MPEG4, AVI, WMV, MPEGPS, FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm, HEVC (H.265)
In Instagram, you have to decide whether you’re uploading a Reel, feed post, or story which will determine the aspect ratio to use. For Reels and Stories, it is similar to YouTube Shorts at 9:16 while it goes to 4:5 when uploading to Instagram Feed Post. Thankfully, the best Instagram video editing services know the right ratios to use depending on the post type.
Instagram Reels
- Aspect Ratio: 9:16 (vertical)
- Time Limit: 3 seconds to 15 minutes (in-app recording limited to 3 minutes)
- Recommended Resolution: 1080×1920 pixels
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Maximum Video Length: 15 minutes
- Supported Video Formats: MP4, MOV (H.264 codec, AAC audio recommended)
Instagram Feed Posts
- Aspect Ratio: 4:5 (portrait), 1:1 (square), or 16:9 (horizontal); 4:5 recommended for maximum reach
- Time Limit: Up to 15 minutes (automatically categorized as Reels if under 15 minutes)
- Recommended Resolution: 1080×1350 pixels (4:5), 1080×1080 pixels (1:1), or 1080×566 pixels (16:9)
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Maximum Video Length: 15 minutes (up to 60 minutes for some accounts)
- Supported Video Formats: MP4, MOV, GIF (converted to video)
Instagram Stories
- Aspect Ratio: 9:16 (vertical)
- Time Limit: Up to 60 seconds per Story
- Recommended Resolution: 1080×1920 pixels
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Maximum Video Length: 60 seconds
- Supported Video Formats: MP4, MOV, GIF (converted to video)
TikTok
Platforms like TikTok that feature vertical videos typically use the 9:16 aspect ratio as the recommended dimension for videos. If you’re making videos for TikTok, sticking to these dimensions and guidelines will ensure quality and improve viewer engagement. with TikTok offering rewards for views on the platform, getting your aspect ratio right may be the first step to making money on the platform.
TikTok Videos
- Aspect Ratio: 9:16 (vertical); 1:1 or 16:9 supported but may include borders
- Time Limit: 5 seconds to 10 minutes
- Recommended Resolution: 1080×1920 pixels
- Maximum File Size: 287.6MB (iOS), 72MB (Android), 500MB (ads)
- Maximum Video Length: 10 minutes
- Supported Video Formats: MP4, MOV, MPEG, 3GP, AVI
For Facebook, you have to consider the different video types including Facebook Feed Reels, Stories and Reels. The recommended aspect ratio for Facebook Feed Reels is 16:9 for horizontal and 4:5 for vertical. For Stories and Reels, you need to target 9:16 to maximize engagement.
Facebook Feed Videos
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (horizontal), 4:5 (vertical), or 1:1 (square); 4:5 recommended for mobile
- Time Limit: 1 second to 240 minutes
- Recommended Resolution: 1280×720 pixels (16:9), 1080×1350 pixels (4:5), or 1080×1080 pixels (1:1)
- Maximum File Size: 10GB
- Maximum Video Length: 240 minutes
- Supported Video Formats: MP4, MOV (recommended); supports most video formats
Facebook Stories
- Aspect Ratio: 9:16 (vertical); 1.91:1 to 9:16 accepted
- Time Limit: Up to 2 minutes (ads split into 10-second cards if longer)
- Recommended Resolution: 1080×1920 pixels
- Maximum File Size: 4GB
- Maximum Video Length: 2 minutes
- Supported Video Formats: MP4, MOV
Facebook Reels
- Aspect Ratio: 9:16 (vertical)
- Time Limit: Up to 60 seconds
- Recommended Resolution: 1080×1920 pixels
- Maximum File Size: No specific limit (recommended under 100MB to avoid compression)
- Maximum Video Length: 60 seconds
- Supported Video Formats: MP4, MOV
Practical Workflow For Multi-Platform Video Creation
With the numerous recommended aspect ratios for various platforms, it becomes a huge challenge to make different videos for all of them. But what if you don’t have to? What if you can make a core video and then repurpose it for the different platforms you choose?
This is what we’ll show you here. A step-by-step workflow to make one core video and efficiently adapt it to different platforms.
Remember, the goal is to shoot one video that can be repurposed for other platforms without compromising quality or engagement. The key to this is planning for the most restrictive aspect ratios which is TikTok at 9:16 and and highest resolution which is YouTube at 4K.
Step 1: Plan Your Shoot
It is best to choose the highest resolution which is 4k in this case so when you crop and edit it doesn’t lose quality. You get a lot of leeway if you decide to step down to 1080p or less from here.
You also need to keep the frame for multiple frame ratios in mind. Basically just keep the key details like subject and text within the safe zone. Don’t worry about calculating this as apps like Viewfinder preview app available on IOS and android can help you find the right zone.
Step 2: Design With Safe Zones in Mind
A safe zone is a frame within the video where critical elements will remain visible in any aspect ratio. When designing, you have to keep this zone in mind.
The UI elements on each platform like the Story buttons on Instagram and even overscans on YouTube for TV make the safe zone different. So you have to put each platform in mind when choosing safe zones.
Safe Zone Tips
- YouTube 16:9: Keep the content within 80% of the frame to avoid TV overscan.
- 9:16 (TikTok/Reels): Avoid top/bottom 15% to prevent cropping by UI. easy to get covered by TikTok usernames or Instagram’s “Swipe Up”.
- 1:1 (Instagram): Center content, ensuring it fits within a square crop of your 16:9 or 9:16 footage.
- 4:5 (Facebook/Instagram Ads): Similar to 9:16 but slightly wider; keep content within the middle 80% vertically.
Step 3: Edit For Each Platform
Now you can start editing for the platform you want to use with your chosen editor. Remember to choose a user-friendly video editor, or simply hand everything over to a professional video editing service.
- Import and organize: Import your 4K video and choose the right base aspect ratio whether 16:9 or 9:16 depending on the platform.
- Create a master edit: Edit the video with transitions, effects, and text while keeping everything within the safe zone. Then save this as the master edit.
- Duplicate for each platform: From the master file, you can now start duplicating different sequences and aspect ratios from 1:1 to 4:5.
Step 4: Use Resizing and Compression Tools
When it comes to resizing and compressing your master edit to fit different platforms and sizes, you most likely won’t have to do much as there are tools that help. From Canva to Kapwing and Adobe Express.
However, if you’re an advanced user who prefers more control, you can use this command:
ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf scale=1080:1920 -c:v libx264 -b:v 8M output.mp4You can adjust the resolution, bitrate, and video codec to fit your needs.
Summary
Aspect ratio discussions may seem confusing at first, especially with the numerous ratios and dimensions used loosely. However, it is pretty straightforward and shows which video dimensions you should be targeting when shooting your videos and settings during editing.
Due to the different platforms and even video styles within each platform involved, it is also easy to get overwhelmed. This is why the best creators tend to outsource their editing to professionals like Your Video Editor who understand these aspect ratios and the best ones to use.
Your Video Editor also offers a video repurposing service so you can easily get content that suits different platforms dimensions and even style. We’re talking editing style, thumbnails and sound.
Their work goes beyond simply getting the aspect ratio right for any social media medium you choose, but also ensuring these videos reach the right audience.
