The Guide to Social Media Video Specs in 2022

Leveraging video content on social media is a perfect approach to growing your brand online. 86% of marketing professionals use video as a marketing tool to expand the audience, gain its trust, and increase sales. A moving image allows you to visually demonstrate the product, present the service, and reveal the product’s details.

While companies actively use video on social networks, it is essential to consider the proper video specs for each social media platform to produce high-quality content.

For you not to surf the web searching for the video specs for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other channels, we have decided to collect the key information in this post. Learn how to share your video content in the correct format and create a pleasurable viewing experience for your audience.

Social Media Video Specs Per Platform

Facebook Video Specs

Facebook videos are an excellent opportunity for companies to interact with the audience as effectively as possible. Therefore, it is not surprising that for many marketers, it is essential to know the correct specs of video content for posting on this social channel.

There are a considerable number of video types to share on Facebook. Each video format has different sizes and specifications. To avoid confusion, consider the specs below when posting videos on Facebook.

Post Video 

These are videos posted on your profile, which can then be displayed in the news feeds of your friends or fans. While these videos get less organic reach and engagement than paid advertising, it is still popular and helpful. Landscape and Portrait orientations are available.

• Video dimensions: 1280×720 (Landscape and Portrait).
• Minimum width: 1200 pixels.
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (Landscape) and 9:16 (Portrait).
• Max file size: 4GB.
• Max video length: 240 minutes.
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video max frames: 30 fps.

360 Video

360° video on Facebook brings us closer to virtual reality. Users view the video by changing the viewing angle. You can scroll through the video using the mouse on the computer, turning the mobile phone, or touching the screen with your finger.

• Resolution: 5120×2560 (Monoscopic) and 5120×5120 (Stereoscopic).
• Aspect ratio: 2:1 (Monoscopic) and 1:1 (Stereoscopic).
• Max file size: 10GB.
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.
• Max video length: 30 minutes.
• Video max frames: 30 fps.

Facebook In-Feed Video Ads

The Facebook ad is displayed the same way as regular videos. People will see your videos in their news feed. You will be able to use either a horizontal or a square promotional video. Facebook will not be able to make ads in vertical format; instead, you can use a square orientation. It is recommended to upload the highest resolution video possible.

• Resolution: 1080×1080.
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (Horizontal); 1:1 (Square); 4:5 or 2:3 (Vertical); 9:16 (Full Portrait).
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV. 
• Max file size: 4GB.
• Max video length: 240 minutes.
• Character limits: 125 characters (primary text); 30 characters (link description); 40 characters (headline).

Facebook Carousel Video Ads

The Facebook carousel video ad allows brands to add from 2 to 10 videos, images, links, and headlines to an ad. The popularity of this video type is explained by the fact that users scroll through the videos and see more content even before they click on the link. 

• Resolution: 1080×1080.
• Max file size: 4 GB.
• Aspect ratio: 1:1.
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV. 
• Duration range: 1 second to 240 minutes.
• Video max frames: 30 fps.

Facebook Collection Video Ads

These video ads allow you to switch from viewing the product directly to buying quickly. In such advertising, the main video (or image) is used, under which a series of 4 photos are located. Such an ad is effective when you need to tell people about products or new offers.

• Resolution: 1080×1080.
• Max file size: 4 GB. 
• Square aspect ratio: 1:1.
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV. 
• Max video length: 120 minutes.
• Video max frames: 30 fps.
• Character limits: 125 characters (primary text); 40 characters (headline).

Facebook Slideshow Video Ads

A slideshow is an interesting format to create an attractive advertisement. Instead of a regular video, use a slideshow of images to demonstrate advertising. For example, you can add 3-10 photos or use videos by combining several images into a single slideshow.

• Resolution: 1200×720.
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (Landscape); 4:5 (Vertical); 1:1 (Square).
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.
• Max slideshow duration: 15 seconds.

Facebook Stories

In addition to the usual publications, it is also possible to make ads in Stories available for viewing within 24 hours.

• Resolution: 1080×1080.
• Max video size: 4 GB. 
• Duration: 1 second to 2 minutes.
• Aspect ratio: 1.91 to 9:16.
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.
• Character limits: 125 characters (primary text); 40 characters (headline).

Instagram Video Specs

Advertising campaigns on Instagram are one of the leading marketers’ tools. It is not surprising since the social channel has the highest engagement rates. Among the content formats, Instagram video occupies a leading position. 

In-Feed Video

This social network makes it easy to share videos of any size. Horizontal, square, or vertical orientations are available. The specifications of Instagram videos will be the same for both regular and promotional content.

• Resolution: 1080×1080.
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (Landscape); 1:1 (Square); 4:5 (Vertical).
• Max file size: 4 GB. 
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length: 3 to 60 seconds. 
• Video max frames: 23 to 60 fps.
• Character limits: 125 characters (primary text); 30 hashtags.

Instagram Carousel Video Ads

The advertising formats in the carousel in the Instagram and Facebook feeds are identical. The carousel video allows you to show users much more of a product. For example, there can be 2-10 cards in an Instagram carousel video ad.

• Resolution: 600×600 (min) and 1080×1080 (max).
• Aspect ratio: 1:1.
• Max file size: 4 GB.
• Max video length: 60 seconds.
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.
• 2-10 videos/cards per ad.

Instagram Stories

Stories are the most popular format on Instagram. The brands’ video content is easily integrated among the stories of other users. Add only relevant videos to attract and retain the attention of the audience.

• Resolution: 1080×1080.
• Aspect ratio: 9:16.
• Max file size: 4 GB.
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.
• Max video length: 2 minutes (ads) and 15 seconds (organic).

Instagram Reels

Instagram Reels is a relatively new publication channel that allows you to make viral videos up to 30 seconds long. The choice of AR effects is not as big as in Tik Tok, but there are all the basic possibilities for creating simple videos: music, text, stickers, and speed changes.

• Resolution: 1080×1080.
• Aspect ratio: 9:16.
• Video length: 15 or 30 seconds.
• Max file size: 4 GB.
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.
• Display in the feed: cropped portrait dimensions (4:5 or 1080×1350).

IGTV

Instagram TV is shown in full-screen mode and uses ultra-long videos with a maximum run time of 1 hour. You can tell your company, services, products, and show products in detail. It is not ephemeral content like Stories so that users can watch IGTV videos over and over again.

• Resolution: 1080×1920.
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 (recommended) or 16:9; 4:5 (in-feed previews).
• Video length: 1 to 15 minutes (uploading from mobile); up to 1 hour (uploading from desktop).
• Max file size: 650MB (for videos less than 10 minutes) and 3.6 GB (for videos up to 60 minutes).
• Video format: .MP4.

YouTube Video Specs

With its huge audience, YouTube is undoubtedly one of the largest online platforms for hosting video content. It is an excellent channel for marketers to promote, learn, and share videos about your brand. Everything from short commercials to full-length films and TV programs is hosted here.

Standard YouTube Video

While YouTube users can upload different types of multimedia formats and use different sizes of video files, there is only one format for a video player. All the videos should have an aspect ratio of 16:9, but the 4:3 format is also possible.

• Recommended dimensions: 426×240 (240p), 640×360 (360p), 854×480 (480p), 1280×720 (720p), 1920×1080 (1080p), 2560×1440 (1440p) and 3840×2160 (2160p).
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
• Max file size: 128GB or 12 hours.
• Video format: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Max video length: 12 hours.

Skippable, Non-Skippable, Mid-roll & Bumper Video Ads

These video ads on YouTube are played through a standard video player so that we can combine their specs. So, all advertising formats have the exact dimensions of regular videos; they differ only in the length of the video.

• Recommended dimensions: 426×240 (240p), 640×360 (360p), 854×480 (480p),1280×720 (720p), 1920×1080 (1080p), 2560×1440 (1440p), and 3840×2160 (2160p).
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
• Max file size: 128GB or 12 hours.
• Video formats: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Max video length: 6 minutes (skippable video), 15 or 20 seconds (non-skippable video), 6 seconds (bumper video), 30 seconds (mid-roll video).

Display Ads

YouTube display ads appear in users’ search queries and are displayed in the right corner of the screen next to the player window. It represents static and animated graphic/text ads.

• Recommended dimensions (static image): 300×250 (for the larger side view) and 300×60 (for the smaller side view).
• Recommended video dimensions: 426×240 (240p), 640×360 (360p), 854×480 (480p),1280×720 (720p), 1920×1080 (1080p), 2560×1440 (1440p), and 3840×2160 (2160p).
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (auto adds pillarboxing if 4:3).
• Max file size: 128GB or 12 hours. 
• Video formats: .MOV, .MPEG4, .MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.

YouTube Shorts

Commercial and personal brands have long realized that short vertical videos are an effective way to attract traffic and boost awareness for free. YouTube Shorts are vertical videos up to 60 seconds, for which a separate tab has been created in the YouTube mobile application.

• Recommended dimensions: 240×426 (240p), 360×640 (360p), 480×854 (480p), 720×1280 (720p), 1080×1920 (1080p), 1440×2560 (1440p), and 2160×3840 (2160p).
• Aspect ratio: 9:16.
• Max video length: 60 seconds.
• Video formats: .MOV, .MPEG4, MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, and WebM.
• Title character limit: 100 characters max.

Twitter Video Specs

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Twitter is a popular social channel that is great for interacting with various videos. For marketers, the main thing is to keep the user’s attention with the help of fascinating visual content.

Landscape & Portrait Videos

Twitter has two formats of embedded videos that you can share with your followers: landscape and portrait. You can easily share organic content on Twitter, but the sizes change when the video bitrate changes.

• Resolution: 1280×720 (landscape), 720×1280 (portrait), 720×720 (square).
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square).
• Max file size: 512MB.
• Video formats: .MP4 for web and .MOV for mobile.
• Max video length: 140 seconds.
• Frame rates: 30 or 60 fps.
• Character limits: 280 characters max.

Pinterest Video Specs

The visually appealing Pinterest platform is much more than just a collection of beautiful ideas. It can become a valuable marketing tool for business accounts. Both versions (shared and promoted Pinterest videos) have the same specs.

Shared Video

Pinterest users can upload and post vertical or square videos similar to the ad formats previously allowed by the platform. These two different sizes and formats determine how the video will be displayed on the boards.

• Aspect ratio: 1:1 (square) or 2:3, 4:5 or 9:16 (vertical).
• Max width video required aspect ratio: 1:1 (square) or 16.9 (widescreen).
• Max file size: 2GB.
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video duration: 4 seconds to 15 minutes.
• Character limits: up to 100 characters (title) and up to 500 characters (description).

TikTok Video Specs

TikTok is one of the world’s most popular social media apps for short videos. The channel attracts a large target audience (Gen Z and young millennials) and offers fascinating content. Therefore, TikTok marketing should be a priority for any modern brand that wants to grow its business.

TikTok Organic Videos

There are two approaches to creating content in Tik Tok: upload ready-made videos or shoot through the app. In any case, you need to know the basic tools and TikTok video specs.

• Resolution: 1080×1920.
• Aspect ratio: 9:16.
• Video length: 15 seconds (recorded in-app), 60 seconds in-app (4 sections of 15 seconds), over 60 seconds (uploaded from another source).
• Max file size: 287.6MB.
• Video formats: .MP4 or .MOV.

TikTok Feed Ads

The video increases awareness and is easier to remember, so marketers often choose TikTok videos for advertising. By combining the power of image and sound, the video evokes a deeper emotional reaction. Brands that understood the uniqueness of Tik Tok got the opportunity to interact with a very engaged audience.

• Resolution: 540×960, 640×64 or 960×540.
• Aspect ratio: 9:16, 1:1 or 16:9.
• Video length: 5-60 seconds (9–15 seconds is recommended).
• Max file size: 500MB.
• Bitrate minimum: 516 kbps.
• Ad description character limits: 1-1000 Latin characters or 1-50 Asian characters.
• Video formats: .MP4, .MOV, .MPEG .3GP, .AVI.

LinkedIn Video Specs

Video content on LinkedIn is becoming increasingly popular. So, it is safe to say that video advertising campaigns on LinkedIn have great potential to increase brand awareness.

Shared Video

LinkedIn allows posting video content directly from your PC or mobile device. These videos will be shared. Moreover, you can also embed a YouTube video into the publication using the URL.

• Aspect ratio: 1:2.4 to 2.4:1.
• Max file size: 5GB.
• Video formats: .ASF, .AVI, .FLV, .MOV, .MPEG-1, .MPEG-4, .MP4, .MKV, and .WebM.
• Video length: 3 seconds to 10 minutes.
• Video max frames: 60 fps.

Video Ads

The requirements for video advertising are slightly different from the requirements for shared videos, so be sure to consider them when building your advertising campaign.

• Dimensions: 640×360 – 1920×1080 (landscape video), 360×360 – 1920×1920 (square video), 360×640 – 1080×1920 (vertical video).
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 (landscape), 1:1 (square), 9:16 (vertical).
• Max file size: 200 MB.
• Video format: .MP4.
• Video length: up to 30 minutes.
• Frame rate: less than 30 fps.

Snapchat Video Specs

Among the advantages of Snapchat are its popularity among young people, creative tools, and low competition. Today, the service allows you to share photos and short videos that automatically disappear after 24 hours.

Single Video Ads

A single video ad is the most common format to reach your audience and deliver meaningful results. It is a full-screen ad that can be used for many objectives. 

• Dimensions: 1080×1920.
• Aspect ratio: 9:16.
• Max file size: 32MB.
• Video length: 3 to 10 seconds.
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.

Long-Form Video Ads

A long-form video ad is a popular format for ads. From full-length trailers and short films to how-tos and behind-the-scenes footage, long-form videos allow you to combine a short teaser with a long narrative in one simple package.

• Dimensions: 1080×1920.
• Aspect ratio: 9:16 or 16:9.
• Max file size: 1GB.
• Video formats: .MP4 and .MOV.
• Video length: 3 to 180 seconds.

Conclusion 

It was a list of the video specs for the most popular social media platforms. Since video specs tend to change often, ensure to refer to this post to create engaging and professional-looking video content.

For more information on the video specs, visit Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest help centers.