01
What size should a vertical clip be?
1080 by 1920 pixels covers TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts, Facebook Reels and Snapchat Spotlight. That is a 9:16 shape at 1080 across. Square posts are 1080 by 1080, the taller feed post shape is 1080 by 1350, and a wide clip is 1920 by 1080. Four numbers cover essentially everything.
02
Dimensions by placement
Four numbers cover essentially every placement worth posting to. Working in shapes rather than pixel counts is what keeps this stable when recommendations shift.
| Placement | Shape | Pixels |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok, Reels, Shorts, Spotlight | 9:16 | 1080 by 1920 |
| In feed post, tall | 4:5 | 1080 by 1350 |
| In feed post, square | 1:1 | 1080 by 1080 |
| Wide, for a large screen | 16:9 | 1920 by 1080 |
| Cover tile in a profile grid | 9:16, shown small | Generated from the clip |
03
Why one size works everywhere
Vertical feeds are built for phone screens, and most phones share a similar tall shape. Platforms settled on 1080 by 1920 because it looks sharp on nearly every phone without creating huge files. Exporting at that size means one file can go to every vertical feed without adjustment.
Save it as your default export preset.
04
Where other sizes come in
In-feed posts on some platforms display 4:5 or square well, and professional networks sometimes favour those shapes. For those placements, 1080 by 1350 for 4:5 and 1080 by 1080 for square are the common sizes.
Produce those only where they fit the destination.
05
Safe zones inside the frame
Every app overlays its own interface on vertical clips: names, captions, buttons and progress bars. Keep important content and text away from the bottom portion and the right-hand edge. The exact areas vary by app, so test on each platform you use.
A safe zone template helps keep placement consistent.
06
Uploading larger than needed
Uploading at higher resolutions than 1080 by 1920 rarely improves how a clip looks on phones, because platforms resize and compress anyway. It mainly increases upload time.
Keep higher resolutions for your originals, not finished clips.
07
When recommendations change
Platforms occasionally update recommendations, usually by raising limits rather than changing the standard size. Check official help pages a few times a year.
The standard vertical size has stayed stable for years.
08
A single reference
Keep one page listing sizes and safe zones for each platform you use.
Share it with anyone who exports clips for you.
09
A pre-upload checklist
Width 1080, height 1920, a common frame rate, the widely supported video format, clear audio, no other app's watermark, text inside the safe area. Seven items, checked once per preset rather than per clip, keep every upload trouble-free.
Tape the list next to the computer used for exporting.
10
One shape, posted everywhere
- Produce at 1080 across for vertical. It is the width every vertical feed is built around.
- Use the shape, not the pixel count. Feeds care about proportions; the pixel figure follows from it.
- Match the shape to the destination. 9:16 for vertical feeds, 1:1 or 4:5 for in feed posts, 16:9 for wide.
Make a 9:16 clip and drop it on three apps.
Questions people ask
- Is a larger size better?
- Not for these feeds. Anything above the recommended width is scaled down on arrival, so the extra pixels are discarded.
- What shapes are available here?
- Four of them, 9:16 and 4:5 and 1:1 and 16:9, with no tier gating any of them.
- What resolution do the clips come out at?
- Up to 1080p on paid plans with no watermark, and 720p on the free video with a small corner mark.
- Does 4:5 work in a vertical feed?
- It plays, and it fills less of the screen than 9:16. It is the better choice when the footage cannot afford to lose the width.
- Do these numbers change?
- The shapes have been stable for years. Specific recommendations shift occasionally, which is why working in proportions ages better than memorising pixel counts.