Social video aspect ratios: the 2026 cheat sheet

Short-form video now accounts for 58% of all time spent on social media worldwide (Vidico, 2026). Almost all of it is vertical. And yet the most common reason a good clip underperforms has nothing to do with the content. It’s that the caption sat underneath TikTok’s share button, or the logo got cropped off in the Reels feed.

This is the reference page for getting that right. Exact ratios, real pixel dimensions, where each platform’s interface covers your video, and how to get away with exporting the fewest possible versions.

Key Takeaways

• 9:16 at 1080 × 1920 is the recommended spec for TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts alike (Sendible, 2026).
• On Reels, buttons, profile picture and caption can cover up to 30% of the screen (Kapwing, 2026).
• Keep text inside the central 80% of the frame (Sendible, 2026).
• Three exports, 9:16, 1:1 and 16:9, cover essentially every placement that matters.

What aspect ratio should you use for social video?

Use 9:16 at 1080 × 1920 as your default. That exact spec is the recommended resolution for TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts (Sendible, 2026), and the same file fits LinkedIn’s vertical placement and RedNote too (Kapwing, 2026). On Shorts, vertical is the only format that fits without black bars.

Everything else is an exception to that default rather than a separate decision. Feed posts on Instagram and LinkedIn do better at 1:1 or 4:5. YouTube’s main player wants 16:9. Your landing page hero probably wants 16:9 too.

But if you only ever make one version, make it vertical.

The complete platform reference

Every ratio below assumes 1080p as the short edge, which is the practical standard. Higher resolutions are re-encoded by every platform anyway.

Platform	Placement	Ratio	Pixels
TikTok	Feed	9:16	1080 × 1920
Instagram	Reels	9:16	1080 × 1920
Instagram	Feed	4:5	1080 × 1350
Instagram	Feed (square)	1:1	1080 × 1080
Instagram	Stories	9:16	1080 × 1920
YouTube	Standard	16:9	1920 × 1080
YouTube	Shorts	9:16	1080 × 1920
Facebook	Reels / Stories	9:16	1080 × 1920
Facebook	Feed	1:1 or 4:5	1080 × 1080
LinkedIn	Feed	1:1 or 4:5	1080 × 1080
X	Feed	16:9 or 1:1	1920 × 1080
Threads	Feed	9:16 or 1:1	1080 × 1920
Pinterest	Pin	2:3 or 3:4	1080 × 1440
App Store	Preview	9:16	1080 × 1920

Save that table. It answers most of the questions people ask about video specs.

Where do platform interfaces cover your video?

Further into the frame than most people assume. On Instagram Reels, the like, comment and save buttons together with your profile picture and caption can cover up to 30% of the screen, and TikTok similarly overlays Like, Comment, Share and Follow on top of your video (Kapwing, 2026).

The working rule is to keep anything readable inside the central 80% of the frame (Sendible, 2026). For a 1080 × 1920 canvas that means:

• Top ~190px: avoid. Profile and menu elements sit here.
• Bottom ~190px and beyond: avoid for anything that must be read. This is the busiest UI zone.
• Side margins: keep roughly 110px clear on each edge.

Design for that central band, not for the full canvas.

The mistake almost everyone makes: centring the subject in the canvas instead of the safe zone. Because the interface crowds the bottom of the frame far more than the top, true visual centre sits noticeably above the middle. If your product looks slightly low in the feed, this is why.

Do you need to export a separate file for every platform?

No. Three exports cover nearly everything, and the difference between three and thirteen is a whole afternoon.

Export 1: 9:16 (1080 × 1920). Covers TikTok, Reels, Shorts, Facebook Reels, Stories, Threads, and App Store previews. This is the one that does the most work.

Export 2: 1:1 (1080 × 1080). Covers Instagram and Facebook feed, LinkedIn, and X. Square is the safest feed format because it never gets cropped unpredictably.

Export 3: 16:9 (1920 × 1080). Covers YouTube, your landing page, your README, and email.

If you want a fourth, make it 4:5 (1080 × 1350) for Instagram feed. Portrait takes more vertical space in the feed than square, which buys you more attention for the same content.

The reason this matters practically: reframing should be a settings change, not a re-edit. Tools with platform presets let you re-export the same composition at a different ratio in seconds; Frame Studio ships 12 of them across five ratios. If your workflow requires rebuilding the video for each ratio, you’ll stop after the first one.

Does vertical actually perform better?

For feeds, clearly yes. But the more useful finding is about length rather than orientation. Videos under one minute hold a 52% engagement rate, and 90% of ad recall impact is captured within the first six seconds (Vidico, 2026). Shorter simply works harder.

Vertical wins in feeds because it fills the screen on the device people actually hold. It doesn’t win everywhere. On a landing page, a vertical hero video wastes most of a desktop viewport, and 16:9 will serve you better.

Match the ratio to where the viewer is, not to what’s trending.

What export settings should you use?

Keep it simple, because platforms re-encode everything you upload regardless.

Resolution: 1080p on the short edge. Exporting 4K for a feed post mostly produces a larger file that gets compressed to the same result. Save 4K for landing pages and App Store previews where the player may show it at full size.

Frame rate: 30fps is the safe default. Use 60fps when there’s fast camera movement, 3D motion benefits from it noticeably, and platforms will honour it.

Format: MP4 with H.264 video. Universally supported. WebM is fine for your own site but not for uploading.

Length: under 15 seconds for feeds. YouTube Shorts now accepts up to 3 minutes (Sendible, 2026), but longer doesn’t mean better.

Audio: assume it’s muted. Most feed viewing is silent, so anything essential needs to be visible.

From building this: the muted-by-default reality is why captions ended up as a first-class feature rather than an add-on. A product video that only makes sense with sound is a product video most people will never understand.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the safest single aspect ratio for social video?

9:16 at 1080 × 1920. That is the recommended spec for TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts alike (Sendible, 2026), and it fits LinkedIn’s vertical placement too. If you’re making exactly one version, make it this one.

Will a 16:9 video work on TikTok?

It will upload and play, but it’ll appear letterboxed with black bars, and TikTok algorithmically prioritises 9:16 content. You’re accepting both a worse presentation and less distribution. Re-export rather than upload wide video to a vertical feed.

How long can a YouTube Short be in 2026?

Up to 3 minutes (Sendible, 2026). Most high-performing Shorts remain well under a minute, videos under sixty seconds hold a 52% engagement rate (Vidico, 2026).

Should I export at 4K for social media?

Generally not. Platforms re-encode uploads, so 4K for a feed post produces a much larger file and a nearly identical result. Export 4K when the video plays on your own landing page or as an App Store preview, where full resolution may actually be shown.

What is the safe zone for TikTok and Reels?

The central 80% of the frame (Sendible, 2026). On Reels, interface elements can cover up to 30% of the screen (Kapwing, 2026), so keep captions, logos, and anything that must be read inside that central band.

Putting it to work

Three exports, 9:16, 1:1, 16:9, and a safe zone you actually design for. That’s most of the job.

The bottleneck is usually reframing. If producing a second ratio means rebuilding the video, it doesn’t happen. If it means picking a preset and exporting again, it does. Frame Studio handles the reframe as a settings change across 12 platform presets, and it’s free to try.

Once the ratios are sorted, the harder question is what happens in the first few seconds. Which we covered in the first three seconds.