The Complete Social Media Video Specs Cheat Sheet

Platforms revise their exact numeric limits often enough that any list like this is a snapshot, not gospel — always sanity-check an exact length or file-size cap in the app itself if you're right at the edge of it. What's far more stable, and genuinely useful to memorize, is the aspect ratio each format is built around. Get the shape right and the rest is a rounding error.

Vertical (9:16) formats — the short-form standard

This is now the dominant shape for scrollable, full-screen short video:

• Instagram Reels: 9:16, reference resolution 1080×1920px
• Instagram Stories: 9:16, same reference resolution
• YouTube Shorts: 9:16, 1080×1920px
• TikTok: 9:16, 1080×1920px
• Facebook Stories / Reels: 9:16, matching Instagram's spec (same parent company, same pipeline)
• Snapchat: 9:16 vertical, in keeping with the app's fundamentally vertical, full-screen design

If you master one vertical file at 1080×1920, it's correctly shaped for every platform on this list without reformatting.

Landscape (16:9) formats

• Standard YouTube uploads: 16:9, 1920×1080px (or higher — 4K is common for landscape long-form)
• Twitter/X video (landscape): 16:9 is well supported, though the platform also accepts other ratios
• LinkedIn video (landscape option): 16:9

Landscape remains the right choice for content genuinely meant to be watched on a larger screen — desktop YouTube, TVs via casting, and traditional "sit down and watch" viewing rather than one-handed scrolling. See our vertical vs horizontal breakdown for when to pick which.

Square (1:1) formats

• Instagram feed posts (square option): 1:1, 1080×1080px
• Facebook feed posts (square option): 1:1

Square used to be the dominant feed format before vertical took over; it's less central now but still supported and occasionally used for content meant to look consistent whether viewed in a grid or a single post.

Format and codec

Across essentially every platform on this list, MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio is the safest, most universally accepted combination. See our full format comparison if you're working with MOV, WebM or MKV source files and need to convert.

The one thing that doesn't change: keep the important stuff centered

Regardless of platform, every one of them overlays interface elements (captions, icons, usernames, interaction buttons) on top of the video. Keeping faces, subjects and any on-screen text within the center ~80% of the frame — away from all four edges — avoids it getting obscured on any platform's specific UI layout.

Getting your footage into the right shape

If your source footage doesn't match the target platform's aspect ratio, cropping it yourself beats letting the platform's automatic letterboxing or cropping decide for you. Our Reel & Shorts Size Resizer crops to 9:16 (Reels/Shorts/Stories), 16:9 (standard/landscape) or 1:1 (square) with a high-quality fill crop, entirely in your browser — and our Video Compressor handles file size if you're working with a large master file.