Short-form video specs: TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts

What resolution and aspect ratio should a short-form video actually be?

Use 1080×1920, a 9:16 aspect ratio, on all three platforms — this is the one spec they agree on completely. Filling the full vertical frame avoids the black bars and reduced reach that landscape or square uploads get on a feed built around full-screen vertical viewing.

Checked against each platform's own help documentation on 30 July 2026. These specs move less often than length limits, but re-check before a spec-sensitive production if this page is more than a few months old.

What is the actual maximum length on each platform?

Longer than most creators assume, on all three — but the maximum is a ceiling, not a target, and each platform is fairly direct about that in its own guidance.

If the maximum length is that long, why do most short-form videos run under a minute?

Because each platform’s own guidance and observed performance data point well under the stated maximum. Instagram explicitly tells creators that Reels over 3 minutes will not be recommended to new audiences — a direct statement, not an inference. YouTube’s own Shorts guidance describes 9:16 and shorter runtimes as what "delivers better performance," and independent analysis of thousands of Shorts has found 30–60 seconds performing best on average.

The pattern across all three platforms is the same: the technical maximum exists for edge cases (a longer tutorial, a multi-part story), but the algorithmic and attention reality rewards something much shorter for most content. Treat the maximum as "what is technically allowed," not "what to aim for."

What file format and frame rate should exports use?

MP4 with H.264 encoding at 30fps is the safe, universally accepted combination across TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts — all three explicitly support it, and it is the format virtually every editing and rendering tool defaults to for vertical short-form export.

Higher frame rates (60fps) are accepted by some platforms for smoother motion but are not required, and add file size for a benefit that is rarely visible in typical talking-head or b-roll-cut content. Stick with 30fps unless a specific fast-motion shot calls for more.

What file size and safe-zone limits actually matter?

File size rarely bites in practice: a 30–60 second 1080×1920 H.264 export typically lands well under 50MB, comfortably inside every published ceiling (TikTok’s stated maximum is 287.6MB). What matters far more day-to-day is the safe zone — the area of the frame each platform’s own interface (captions button, profile info, like/share icons) sits on top of.

Keep captions and any important on-screen text out of the top ~220px and bottom ~450px of a 1080×1920 frame, and away from roughly the right-hand 150px where like/comment/share icons typically sit. A caption that is perfectly synced but hidden behind the share button on one platform’s UI has not actually solved the problem it was added to solve.

Safe-zone pixel values shift slightly between app versions and platforms — treat these as a solid working default rather than a pixel-perfect guarantee, and preview a new caption style on-device before relying on it across a whole batch of reels.

What does this mean for how long to actually cut a talking-head reel?

Cut for the point you are making, not for a platform ceiling — none of the three platforms benefit from padding toward their maximum, and Instagram says so directly for anything past 3 minutes. A tight 20–60 second reel that lands its point is very rarely worse off than a longer one for the same content, and is usually the safer default across all three platforms at once.

See the talking-head editing checklist for the specific pacing and cutting steps that keep a reel tight without feeling rushed.