Social media video specs for every platform
One 1080x1920 export covers most of short-form. This is where that stops being true — the length caps, file limits, and the platforms where the number changes depending on how you upload.
8 minute read
Video specs by platform (2026)
| Platform | Aspect ratio | Resolution to aim for | Maximum length |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube (long-form) | 16:9 | 1920x1080 | 12 hours or 256 GB, whichever comes first |
| YouTube Shorts | 9:16 or square | 1080x1920 | 3 minutes |
| Instagram Reels | 9:16 | 1080x1920 | 3 minutes (higher ceilings rolling out) |
| TikTok | 9:16 | 1080x1920 | 10 min recorded in-app, up to 60 min uploaded |
| 1:2.4 to 2.4:1 | 1920x1080 or 1080x1920 | 15 minutes desktop, 10 minutes mobile | |
| X (Twitter) | 16:9, 9:16 or 1:1 | 1280x720 | 2 min 20 sec free, up to 4 hours on Premium |
| 9:16 for Reels | 1080x1920 | No stated length limit since June 2025 |
Start from the export that covers the most ground
If you only want to remember one set of numbers, make it 9:16 at 1080x1920, MP4, H.264 video with AAC audio, 30fps or higher with a constant frame rate. That file is accepted natively by YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok, Facebook Reels and LinkedIn, which is the overwhelming majority of what most people publish. Everything else in this guide is the exception list: the platforms where that export gets cropped, the length caps that stop it, and the places where the answer changes depending on whether you record in the app or upload a file. Get the master right once and you are mostly troubleshooting edge cases rather than re-exporting per platform.
YouTube: three minutes is a category boundary, not a limit
YouTube's own help pages set the long-form ceiling at 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is smaller, and the default upload cap is 15 minutes until you verify your account by phone. The number that actually matters day to day is three minutes. Since 15 October 2024, YouTube classifies any upload of three minutes or less with a square or vertical aspect ratio as a Short — that is the rule, not a setting you choose. Go a second over and the same file becomes a regular video with a different player, different discovery surface and different monetisation. For resolution, YouTube treats 16:9 as standard and lists 1920x1080 as the 1080p upload size, scaling up to 7680x4320 for 8K.
Instagram: the ceiling moved twice and the target did not
Instagram raised the Reels cap from 90 seconds to three minutes on 18 January 2025, announced by Adam Mosseri and reported at the time by Social Media Today, which also noted the awkwardness that Instagram had recently been telling creators longer Reels hurt performance. Through 2026 there have been widespread reports of a much higher ceiling rolling out, but it is gated per account and worth checking in your own app rather than assuming. The practical guidance has not moved: distribution to people who do not follow you still favours short. Feed video runs far longer — up to 60 minutes uploaded from desktop, with a 4 GB file cap — and should be 4:5 at 1080x1350 to take the most vertical space in the feed. Stories play as 60-second cards at 1080x1920, splitting automatically beyond that.
TikTok: what you can post depends on how you make it
TikTok is the clearest example of a limit that varies by upload method. Recording inside the app caps you at 10 minutes. Uploading a pre-recorded file raises that to an hour, though like most TikTok features it is rolled out gradually and not every account has it. There is a second trap that catches people: if you pick a sound before recording or uploading, your video gets clamped to the length of that sound, which is why some creators are convinced the limit is 15 seconds. Aspect ratio is 9:16 at 1080x1920; 16:9 and 1:1 upload fine but get letterboxed in a full-screen feed, which is a self-inflicted wound. File size limits differ sharply between the Android app, the iOS app and web upload, so if a file is rejected on your phone, try the web uploader before re-encoding.
LinkedIn and X: the two tightest ceilings
LinkedIn's help pages state 15 minutes maximum from desktop and 10 minutes from the mobile app, with a 5 GB file cap and accepted dimensions from 256x144 up to 4096x2304. Its aspect ratio range is unusually wide — anything from 1:2.4 to 2.4:1 — so vertical, square and landscape all render properly, though vertical takes more feed real estate on mobile. X is the outlier: standard accounts are limited to 140 seconds, which is 2 minutes 20 seconds, at 512 MB. X Premium subscribers get dramatically more, up to four hours at 1080p when uploading from the web or iOS, with Android capped much lower. If you publish to X without Premium, 140 seconds is the hard constraint to design your cuts around.
Facebook: Meta deleted the distinction you were designing for
On 17 June 2025 Meta announced that all video uploaded to Facebook is published as a Reel, renamed the Video tab to the Reels tab, and stated plainly that Reels on Facebook would carry no length or format restrictions. That is a genuine change, not a rewording: Facebook Reels were capped at 90 seconds before it, and a lot of spec sheets published since still repeat the old number. It also means the Facebook row on any cheat sheet is now the least precise one, because the platform no longer publishes a length ceiling to quote. Design for 9:16 at 1080x1920 and treat length as a content decision rather than a technical one.
The specs that are published and the specs that hold up
Two things bite people that no spec table shows. The first is safe zones: every app draws its own captions, username, buttons and progress bar over your video, so anything important in roughly the top and bottom 15 percent, or hard against the right edge, can end up hidden behind a Follow button. Compose inside the middle, not the full frame. The second is re-compression. Every platform re-encodes your upload, so give it the cleanest source you reasonably can — 1080p at a healthy bitrate beats a pre-compressed file every time, and uploading something already squeezed just stacks artefacts. Finally, file-size numbers age faster than anything else on this page. Treat them as approximate and verify before a launch you cannot redo.
Export once, adapt at the edges
The workflow that survives spec changes is a single vertical master plus a small number of deliberate variants: one 1080x1920 export for Shorts, Reels, TikTok and Facebook, a shorter cut when X is in the mix, and a 4:5 or 16:9 version if feed and LinkedIn matter to you. This is where a clipping workflow earns its keep — if you are cutting a long episode into clips anyway, exporting to the right ratio with burned-in captions in the same pass means the platform limits stop being a per-post decision. FrameOS does that part, and you can test it on your own footage with 300 credits for 3 days · no card.
FAQ
What is the best aspect ratio for social media video in 2026?
9:16 at 1080x1920 covers YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok, Facebook Reels and LinkedIn natively, so a single vertical export serves most publishing. Use 4:5 at 1080x1350 for Instagram feed posts and 16:9 at 1920x1080 for long-form YouTube. Anything else usually means letterboxing, which wastes screen space in a full-screen feed.
How long can a YouTube Short be?
Three minutes. Since 15 October 2024, YouTube automatically classifies any upload of three minutes or less with a square or vertical aspect ratio as a Short. It is not a toggle you set — go over three minutes and the same file publishes as a regular video instead, with a different player and different monetisation.
Why does TikTok say my video is too long?
Usually because of how you created it. Recording inside the TikTok app caps at 10 minutes, while uploading a pre-recorded file allows up to an hour on accounts that have the feature. Selecting a sound before you record or upload also clamps your video to the length of that track, which is the most common reason a limit appears shorter than expected.
Did Facebook remove its video length limit?
Effectively, yes. In June 2025 Meta announced that all Facebook video uploads publish as Reels and that Facebook Reels would have no length or format restrictions, replacing the previous 90-second Reels cap. Spec sheets that still list 90 seconds for Facebook Reels are out of date.
Sources
- Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts · YouTube Help
- Video sharing troubleshooting · LinkedIn Help
- Making it Easier to Create Videos on Facebook · Meta
- Instagram Officially Expands Reels Length to 3 Minutes · Social Media Today
- How Long Can TikTok Videos Be? Limits and Guidelines · Metricool
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