Visually engaging content is the best way to attract audiences’ attention and drive brand awareness – in today’s world, that means video.
Compelling video can be used in a variety of ways across your social media channels, and it’s important to ensure the viewer’s experience is fully optimized. It’s not a one-size-fits-all situation – each platform requires its own unique set of video specs and sizes.
You shouldn’t have to Google every time you need to create a channel-specific video.
Facebook offers this as a general rule-of-thumb for optimizing your videos: “Use custom settings when you export your video: With editing software like Final Cut Pro, Avid or iMovie, we recommend you try H.264 video with AAC audio in MOV or MP4 format, an aspect ratio no larger than 1280px wide and divisible by 16px, a frame rate at or below 30fps and stereo audio with a sample rate of 44,100hz.”
Upload the highest resolution video available that meets file size and ratio limits.
Facebook Feed Video
- Recommended dimensions: 1280 x 720
- Minimum width: 600 pixels (length depends on aspect ratio)
- Aspect ratios: 16:9 (landscape), 9:16 (full portrait), 2:3 (vertical), 4:5 (vertical), square (1:1)
- Max file size: 4GB
- Recommended video formats: .MP4 or .MOV
- Max video length: 120 minutes
Desktop News Feed Link Video Ads (Landscape, Square & Right Column)
- Recommended dimensions: 1280 x 720
- Minimum dimensions: 600 x 315 (1.9:1 landscape) or 600 x 600 (square)
- Aspect ratios: Landscape is 16:9 | Square is 1:1
- Max file size: 4GB
- Recommended video formats: .MP4 or .MOV
- Max video length: 240 minutes
In-Stream Video Ads
- Recommended dimensions: 1280 x 720
- Minimum dimensions: 600 x 315 (1.9:1 landscape) or 600 x 600 (square)
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 recommended
- Max file size: 4GB
- Recommended video formats: .MP4 or .MOV
- Video length: 5 – 15 seconds
Facebook Stories (& Story Ads)
- Minimum dimensions: 500 x 500
- Aspect ratios: 1.91 to 9:16, with colored gradient bars rendered above and below videos under 9:16
- Max file size: 4GB
- Recommended video formats: .MP4 or .MOV
- Max video length: 15 seconds
Facebook Cover Video
- Recommended dimensions: 820 x 462 (min. 820 x 312)
- Required length: 20 – 90 seconds
Sources:
- https://www.facebook.com/business/ads-guide/video/facebook-feed/video-views
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-video-specs-guide/
- https://influencermarketinghub.com/social-media-video-specs/
Like Facebook, Instagram’s recommendations are similar and you’re urged to use the highest video resolution possible.
Instagram In-Feed Video (& Video Ads)
- Recommended dimensions: 1920 x 1080; 1080 x 1080; 1080 x 1350
- Minimum resolution: 600 x 315 (1.9:1 landscape); 600 x 600 (square); 600 by 750 (vertical)
- Aspect ratios: 16:9, 1:1, 4:5 (& 1.91:1)
- Max file size: 4GB
- Recommended video formats: .MP4 or .MOV
- Max video length: 60 seconds
Instagram Stories (& Story Ads)
- Recommended dimensions: 1080 x 1920
- Minimum dimensions: 600 x 1067
- Aspect ratio: 9:16 (and 16:9 to 4:5)
- Max file size: 4GB
- Recommended video formats: .MP4 or .MOV
- Max video length: 15 seconds
(Consider leaving roughly 14% (250 pixels) of the top and bottom of the video free from text and logos to avoid covering these key elements with the profile icon or call-to-action.)
Instagram TV (IGTV)
- Recommended dimensions: 1080 x 1920
- Minimum resolution: 720
- Aspect ratio: 9:16 (and 16:9)
- Max file size: 10 minutes or less is 650MB. Up to 60 minutes is 3.6GB.
- Recommended video formats: .MP4
- Max video length: 15 seconds to 10 minutes (Larger accounts and verified accounts can upload videos up to 60 minutes long, but they must be uploaded from a computer.)
- Recommended cover photo size: 420 x 654 (1:1.55 ratio)
Sources:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF2oJz9XP9Y
- https://help.instagram.com/1038071743007909
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-video-specs-guide/
- https://influencermarketinghub.com/social-media-video-specs/
YOUTUBE
Video Player (Standard YouTube Video)
- Recommended dimensions: 426 x 240 (240p), 640 x 360 (360p), 854 x 480 (480p), 1280 x 720 (720p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p), 2560 x 1440 (1440p) and 3840 x 2160 (2160p)
- Minimum dimension: 426 x 240
- Max dimension: 3840 x 2160
- Aspect ratio: 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3)
- Max file size: 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less
- Video formats: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM
- Max video length: 12 hours
YouTube Video Ads
Ads follow the same dimensions as the non-ad videos, but differ in video length
- Skippable video ads: maximum length of 12 hours, skippable after 5 seconds
- Unskippable video ads: max length of 15, 20 or 30 seconds
- Mid-roll video ads: minimum length of 30 seconds
- Bumper video ads: maximum length of 6 seconds
Sources:
- https://learn.g2.com/youtube-video-size
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-video-specs-guide/
- https://influencermarketinghub.com/social-media-video-specs/
Twitter Landscape & Portrait Videos (& Video Ads)
- Landscape recommended dimensions: 320 x 180 (256K bitrate), 640 x 360 (768K bitrate) and 1280 x 720 (2048K bitrate)
- Portrait recommended dimensions: 240 x 240 (256K bitrate), 480 x 480 (768K bitrate) and 640 x 640 (1024K bitrate)
- Minimum dimensions: 32 x 32
- Maximum dimensions: 1280 x 1024
- Aspect ratios: 1:2.39 to 2.39:1
- Max file size: 512MB
- Recommended video formats: .MP4 for web and .MOV for mobile
- Max video length: 140 seconds
Sources:
- https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/media/upload-media/uploading-media/media-best-practices.html
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-video-specs-guide/
- https://influencermarketinghub.com/social-media-video-specs/
SNAPCHAT
Snapchat 10-Second Video Ads
- Recommended dimensions: 1080 x 1920
- Aspect ratio: 9:16
- Max file size: 32MB
- Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV
- Max video length: 3 – 10 seconds
Long-Form Video Ads
- Recommended dimensions: 1080 x 1920
- Aspect ratios: 9:16 or 16:9
- Max file size: 1GB
- Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.
- Minimum video length: 15 seconds (no max)
Sources:
- https://www.socialpilot.co/blog/social-media-video-sizes-cheat-sheet
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-video-specs-guide/
- https://influencermarketinghub.com/social-media-video-specs/
Shared Video
- Maximum size: 4,096 x 2,304
- Minimum size: 256 x 144
- Aspect ratio: 1:2.4 to 2.4:1
- Max file size: 5GB
- Video formats: .ASF, .AVI, .FLV, .MOV, .MPEG-1, .MPEG-4, .MKV, and .WebM
- Minimum video length: 3 seconds (max: 10 minutes)
Video Ads
- Required dimensions: 480 x 360 (360p), 640 x 360 (360p wide), 640 x 480 (480p), 960 x 720 (720p), 1280 x 720 (720p wide), 1440 x 1080 (1080p), 1920 x 1080 (1080p wide)
- Maximum file size: 200 MB
- Video format: .MP4
- Max video length: 30 minutes (LinkedIn’s guidelines state most ads perform best at around 15 seconds)
Sources:
- https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/106595
- https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-media-video-specs-guide/
- https://influencermarketinghub.com/social-media-video-specs/
Shared Video (& Video Ads)
- Recommended dimensions: 600 x 600 (square); 600 x 900 (vertical)
- Minimum video resolution: 240p
- Aspect ratios: 1:1 & 9:16
- Portrait recommended dimensions: 240 x 240 (256K bitrate), 480 x 480 (768K bitrate) and 640 x 640 (1024K bitrate)
- Max file size: 2GB
- Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV
- Max video length: 30 minutes
Sources: