Video Aspect Ratios and Resolutions for YouTube, Shorts, Reels and TikTok

For almost all creator work you need two shapes: 16:9 landscape (1920×1080 or 3840×2160) for standard YouTube videos, and 9:16 vertical (1080×1920) for YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok. A third shape, 4:5 (1080×1350), is worth knowing for the Instagram feed. The hard part is not choosing a ratio but planning your framing, captions and graphics so one project can be reframed between them without losing anything important.

Aspect ratio versus resolution

Aspect ratio is the shape of the frame, written as width:height. Resolution is how many pixels fill that shape. The same 16:9 shape can be 1280×720, 1920×1080 or 3840×2160; all three have identical proportions, just different amounts of detail.

That distinction matters because platforms mostly care about the shape. Uploading at a higher resolution than the viewer's screen does not change the framing; it only affects sharpness and, on YouTube, which quality options are offered.

The ratios creators actually use

YouTube (standard videos)

16:9 is YouTube's native shape and fits most desktop and TV screens exactly. At the time of writing, YouTube Help says the player adapts to the video's aspect ratio, so you do not need to add black bars yourself if your video is a different shape. Adding them can actually make the video look smaller on phones, because the player then treats the bars as part of the picture.

For resolution, 1920×1080 is the baseline. Uploading at 2560×1440 or 3840×2160 can give a sharper result, including for viewers watching at 1080p, because YouTube re-encodes everything and a higher-quality source survives the process better. Our YouTube export settings guide covers the encoding side.

YouTube Shorts

Shorts are vertical or square videos. Use 1080×1920 (9:16). At the time of writing, YouTube allows Shorts up to three minutes long, but the rules around length and how videos are classified as Shorts have changed more than once, so check the YouTube Help page on uploading Shorts before relying on a specific limit.

Instagram Reels and TikTok

Both are built around full-screen 9:16 at 1080×1920. Instagram also shows feed posts in 4:5 and 1:1, and a Reel may be previewed in a cropped shape on your profile grid or in the feed, so keep the key subject near the centre of the frame.

Safe zones: where not to put text

Vertical platforms lay their interface over your video: captions and account names at the bottom, like/comment/share buttons down the right-hand side, and sometimes a search or tab bar at the top. Anything you place in those areas can be hidden.

The exact overlay sizes differ between apps, devices and app versions, so we would not trust any fixed pixel figure for long. Instead, use this practical rule for a 1080×1920 frame:

• Keep the top 10–15% free of important text.
• Keep the bottom 20–25% free of captions and key graphics.
• Keep important content away from the right-hand edge, where the action buttons sit.
• Place burned-in captions in the lower-middle third, roughly between 60% and 75% down the frame.

The best check is a real one: upload a private or draft test to each platform and look at it on your own phone. Our guide to short-form captions goes deeper on caption placement and sizing, and open vs closed captions explains when burned-in text is the right choice at all.

Reframing between 16:9 and 9:16

You have three main options when turning landscape footage into vertical, and each has trade-offs.

1. Crop to fill

Scale the video until it fills the full 1080×1920 frame, then crop the sides. This gives a proper full-screen vertical video but throws away about two-thirds of the original width. It works well for a single centred speaker; it fails for wide shots, two-person interviews and on-screen text.

ffmpeg -i landscape.mp4 -vf "scale=1080:1920:force_original_aspect_ratio=increase,crop=1080:1920,setsar=1" -c:a copy vertical_crop.mp4

The crop is centred by default. If your subject sits to one side, reframe in your editor with keyframed position instead, so the crop follows the action.

2. Fit with bars (letterbox)

Scale the whole landscape frame down to fit the width, then pad the top and bottom. Nothing is lost, but the picture is small and the empty bars look unfinished on a phone.

ffmpeg -i landscape.mp4 -vf "scale=1080:1920:force_original_aspect_ratio=decrease,pad=1080:1920:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2:color=black,setsar=1" -c:a copy vertical_pad.mp4

The bars are useful space for a title above and captions below, which is why this layout is popular for clips from podcasts and long-form videos.

3. Blurred background fill

A middle ground: a blurred, zoomed copy of the video fills the frame behind a sharp, fitted copy. It looks less empty than black bars. The command is in our FFmpeg commands for creators guide.

Plan for both shapes when you shoot

If you know a video will become Shorts later, frame for the centre. Keep the speaker's face and any product within the middle third of a 16:9 frame, avoid placing important graphics at the far edges, and shoot a little wider than usual so a vertical crop still has headroom. Shooting in 4K and delivering 1080p vertical gives you room to crop without upscaling: a 9:16 crop from a 3840×2160 frame is about 1215×2160, which is more than 1080×1920.

AI-generated images and video

Most AI image and video tools let you choose an aspect ratio at generation time. Generate in the final delivery shape where you can, rather than cropping afterwards; an AI tool will compose the scene for the frame it is given, and cropping a 16:9 generation to 9:16 often cuts off heads, hands or the object the scene was about. If you need both shapes, generate each separately. Our storyboarding for AI video guide suggests noting the target ratio on every storyboard panel so this is decided up front.

Pixel aspect ratio: the hidden setting

Almost all modern video uses square pixels, where a 1920×1080 file displays as 16:9 on any screen. Some older formats (such as standard-definition PAL DV) used non-square pixels, so a 720×576 file could display as either 4:3 or 16:9 depending on a flag in the file.

If a video looks stretched or squashed after processing, a mismatched sample aspect ratio (SAR) flag is a likely cause. Adding setsar=1 at the end of an FFmpeg video filter chain, as in the examples above, forces square pixels and prevents that surprise.

Key takeaways

• Use 16:9 at 1920×1080 or higher for standard YouTube, and 9:16 at 1080×1920 for Shorts, Reels and TikTok.
• Do not add your own black bars to YouTube uploads; the player adapts.
• Keep captions and key graphics out of the top, bottom and right-hand edge of vertical videos, and test on a real phone.
• Choose crop, bars or blurred fill deliberately depending on the shot.
• Frame for the centre and shoot wider if a video will be reframed later.
• Generate AI images and clips in the final aspect ratio rather than cropping.
• If something looks stretched, check the pixel aspect ratio and force square pixels.

FAQ

What resolution should I upload for YouTube Shorts?

1080×1920 is the standard and looks sharp on phones. You can upload higher, but most viewers watch on phone screens where 1080 wide is already plenty.

Can I upload a 16:9 video as a Short?

A Short needs to be vertical or square. A landscape video will be treated as a regular YouTube video. To make it a Short, reframe it to 9:16 (or 1:1) first.

Is 4:5 better than 9:16 for Instagram?

It depends on placement. 9:16 fills the screen in Reels and Stories; 4:5 takes up more space than square in the main feed. If a post will appear in both, keep the important content within the central 4:5 area of a 9:16 frame.

Why does my exported video have thin black lines at the edges?

Usually a scaling calculation that does not land exactly on the target size, or odd pixel dimensions. Make sure width and height are even numbers, and scale to the exact target resolution before padding or cropping.