Social Media Video Specs Cheat Sheet (2026)

The short answer

Export one vertical master at 1080×1920 (9:16) as an MP4, keep text and faces away from the top and bottom edges, and keep it as short as the strictest platform you post to (for the platforms below, 1.5 min fits every vertical feed format; Stories are shorter). Then write a caption per platform: limits run from a few hundred characters to several thousand.

Every number below links to its source, the platform’s own documentation wherever one exists and was last checked on 14 October 2026.

Export one master, not seven

Seven platforms do not need seven edits. Almost every short-video format takes the same 9:16 vertical frame, so one clean export covers them. What changes per platform is the length limit, the caption and where the app’s buttons sit on top of your video.

Frame: 1080×1920, 9:16. Square or 4:5 versions are only worth making for feeds that crop vertical video.
File: MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio is the safest common choice.
Clean: export from your editor, never re-upload a file downloaded from another app with its watermark. See cross-posting without watermarks.

Video specs by platform

Video formats: aspect ratio, recommended size, length and file size
Platform and format	Aspect ratio	Recommended size	Length	Max file size
Instagram Reels	9:16^*^[1]	1080×1920^*^[1]	3 s^[1] to 15 min^*^[1]	300 MB^[1]
Instagram Stories	9:16^*^[1]	1080×1920^[1]	3 s^[1] to 1 min^[1]	100 MB^[1]
TikTok Video	9:16^*^[2]	1080×1920^*^[3]	10 min^*^[3]	4 GB^[3]
YouTube Shorts	9:16, 1:1^*^[4]	1080×1920^*^[5]	3 min^[4]	256 GB^*^[6]
YouTube Long video	16:9^*^[5]	1920×1080^[5]	15 min^*^[6]	256 GB^*^[6]
LinkedIn Feed video	1:2.4 to 2.4:1^[7]	1920×1080^*^[7]	3 s^^[7] to 15 min^^[7]	5 GB^*^[7]
X Video	16:9, 1:1, 9:16^*^[8]	1280×720^*^[8]	0.5 s^[8] to 2.3 min^*^[9]	–
Facebook Reels	9:16^[10]	1080×1920^[10]	3 s^[10] to 1.5 min^*^[10]	–
Threads Video	9:16^*^[11]	1080×1920^[11]	5 min^[11]	1 GB^[11]

A dash means the platform does not publish that number for this format. Bracketed numbers link to the source; a star means there is a note below.

Notes on the starred numbers (22)

Instagram Reels, aspect: Accepted range is 0.01:1 to 10:1; 9:16 is recommended.
Instagram Reels, size: Meta gives a maximum width of 1920 px and recommends 9:16; 1080×1920 is the usual full-HD size.
Instagram Reels, length: 15 minutes through the publishing API. Octoque posts up to 3 minutes and lets you pick the part to keep.
Instagram Stories, aspect: Accepted range is 0.1:1 to 10:1; 9:16 is recommended.
TikTok Video, aspect: TikTok's posting API sets only pixel limits (360 to 4096 px each side); 9:16 vertical is what TikTok recommends.
TikTok Video, size: Any size from 360 to 4096 px on each side is accepted; 1080×1920 is the usual vertical size.
TikTok Video, length: 10 minutes through the API, but each creator has their own limit (max_video_post_duration_sec, often shorter). Octoque reads it before posting.
YouTube Shorts, aspect: A Short is any square or vertical video up to 3 minutes (uploads from 15 Oct 2024).
YouTube Shorts, size: YouTube recommends MP4 with H.264 High Profile and AAC audio, uploaded at the frame rate it was filmed.
YouTube Shorts, file size: 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
YouTube Long video, aspect: 16:9 is standard on computers; other ratios play with bars.
YouTube Long video, length: 15 minutes unless the channel is verified.
YouTube Long video, file size: 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less.
LinkedIn Feed video, size: Accepted range is 256×144 to 4096×2304.
LinkedIn Feed video, length: 15 minutes. Octoque posts up to 10 minutes.
LinkedIn Feed video, minimum length: 3 seconds from desktop, 2 from the phone app.
LinkedIn Feed video, file size: 5 GB (minimum 75 KB).
X Video, aspect: Accepted range 1:3 to 3:1.
X Video, size: Recommended 1280×720 (landscape) or 720×1280 (portrait). The API docs list 1280×1024 as the largest; X's apps accept bigger files and resize them.
X Video, length: 2 minutes 20 seconds without Premium. The API docs list longer limits; 140 seconds is the safe number.
Facebook Reels, length: 3 to 90 seconds through Meta's Reels publishing API. Longer videos post as regular Page videos.
Threads Video, aspect: Accepted range 0.01:1 to 10:1; 9:16 recommended.

Caption, title and hashtag limits

Text limits in characters
Platform	Caption max	Shown before “more”	Title max	Hashtags max
Instagram	2,200^*^[1]	125^*^[12]	–	5^*^[13]
TikTok	2,200^*^[14]	–	–	–
YouTube	5,000^*^[15]	–	100^*^[15]	60^*^[16]
LinkedIn	3,000^*^[17]	140^*^[18]	–	–
X	280^*^[19]	–	–	–
Facebook	63,206^*^[20]	–	–	–
Threads	500^*^[11]	–	–	1^*^[11]

Notes on the starred numbers (13)

Instagram caption: Meta's publishing API: "Maximum 2200 characters, 30 hashtags, and 20 @ tags."
Instagram shown before more: Not documented by Instagram. About 125 characters is the commonly cited cutoff before "more"; it varies by screen and line breaks.
Instagram hashtags: Instagram's @creators account said in December 2025 that captions are moving to a five-hashtag limit, rolled out gradually. Meta's API reference still says 30. Five is the safe number.
TikTok caption: Video posts: "The maximum length is 2200 in UTF-16 runes." Photo posts: title 90, description 4,000.
YouTube caption: The description limit is 5,000 BYTES, not characters: emoji and many non-Latin letters take 2 to 4 bytes each. Angle brackets (< >) are not allowed.
YouTube title: Angle brackets (< >) are not allowed.
YouTube hashtags: More than 60 hashtags and YouTube ignores all of them. Up to three show by the title.
LinkedIn caption: "Posts can contain up to 3,000 characters."
LinkedIn shown before more: Not documented by LinkedIn. Commonly cited as about 140 characters on phones and 210 on desktop; we use the phone number.
X caption: 280 weighted characters for accounts without Premium. Premium accounts can post longer; Octoque keeps to 280.
Facebook caption: Meta's current docs give no number. 63,206 is the limit Facebook announced in 2011 and still the one most tools use.
Threads caption: "Text posts are limited to 500 characters." Emoji count by their UTF-8 byte length, so one emoji can use up to 4.
Threads hashtags: One topic tag per post (the first valid one counts), up to 50 characters, no periods or ampersands. Up to 5 links per post.

For how many hashtags to actually use (not just the maximum), see hashtags per platform.

Safe zones: where the app covers your video

Buttons, captions and the profile name sit on top of vertical video. Keep text and faces out of these bands on a 1080×1920 frame.

Areas covered by each app's interface, in pixels from the edge of a 1080×1920 frame
Format	Top	Bottom	Left / right
Instagram Reels	269 px^*^[21]	672 px^*^[21]	65 / 65 px^*^[21]
Instagram Stories	269 px^*^[21]	672 px^*^[21]	65 / 65 px^*^[21]
TikTok Video	240 px^*^[22]	660 px^*^[22]	120 / 120 px^*^[22]
YouTube Shorts	288 px^*^[23]	672 px^*^[23]	48 / 192 px^*^[23]
Facebook Reels	269 px^*^[21]	672 px^*^[21]	65 / 65 px^*^[21]

Pre-upload checklist

Before you schedule one video everywhere

Vertical 1080×1920 MP4, exported from your editor (no other app's logo on it).
Length fits the strictest platform you are posting to (1.5 min for every vertical feed format listed above).
Text, captions burned into the video and faces sit inside the safe zone, away from the top and bottom bands.
The first line of each caption works on its own; the rest is behind “more”.
YouTube has a title of its own, not a copy of the caption.
A cover or thumbnail frame is chosen where the platform lets you pick one.

How Octoque checks this for you

When you write a post in Octoque, each platform tab has a live character counter that turns red before you pass that platform’s limit, and YouTube gets its own title field. Length and format are checked before posting, so a platform is not left to refuse it at the last minute. See captions per platform and failed-post fixes.

Questions people ask

What is the best size for Reels, TikTok and Shorts?

1080×1920 pixels, a 9:16 frame. All three are vertical, full-screen formats; the table above links to each platform's own spec.

Do I need a separate edit for each platform?

Usually not. One clean vertical master plus a caption per platform covers most cases. Make a separate cut only when a platform’s length limit forces it.

Why does my video look blurry after upload?

Common causes are uploading below 1080 pixels wide, re-uploading a file already compressed by another app, or a slow connection during upload. Export fresh from your editor.

How often do these limits change?

Several times a year. That is why every number here has a source link and a checked date.

Written by Kumar Gaurav, founder of Octoque

Kumar Gaurav builds Octoque. Creators should spend their time making things, not watching clocks. So you make the video, and Octoque finds the moment: one upload, every platform, each at its golden hour. These guides follow the same idea. Real channels, real numbers, nothing you don’t need.

Keep reading

Video checkerCheck a file against each platform.Character counterCount a caption against every limit.Instagram schedulerSchedule Reels with their own caption.Cross-postingPost one video everywhere, each at its own hour.

Sources

All links checked on 14 October 2026.

One video, seven platforms: specs cheat sheet 2026