Social media video and image sizes: a simple guide
Every platform shows content in its own shape. Post the wrong one and your video gets black bars or your product gets cropped out. This guide covers the aspect ratios that work on each major platform and how to make each size properly. Platforms update their exact pixel specs from time to time, so check their help pages before a big ad campaign.
The four shapes that cover almost everything
Nearly all social content fits one of four aspect ratios.
- 9:16 vertical: full-screen on phones. TikTok, Instagram Reels and Stories, YouTube Shorts, Facebook Reels and Stories.
- 4:5 portrait: takes up more of the feed than a square. Instagram and Facebook feed posts and ads.
- 1:1 square: works almost everywhere in feeds, and keeps product grids tidy.
- 16:9 landscape: YouTube videos, websites, presentations and LinkedIn video.
Platform by platform
A quick reference for the most common placements.
- TikTok: 9:16 vertical video.
- Instagram: 9:16 for Reels and Stories, 4:5 or 1:1 for feed posts.
- YouTube: 16:9 for regular videos, 9:16 for Shorts.
- Facebook: 9:16 for Reels and Stories, 4:5 or 1:1 for feed posts and ads.
- LinkedIn: 1:1 or 4:5 images in the feed, 16:9 or 1:1 for video.
- Pinterest: tall vertical pins, commonly 2:3. A 9:16 image or video also works.
Leave room for buttons and captions
On vertical platforms, the app places buttons, the caption and the account name over the bottom and right side of your video. Keep faces, products and text away from those edges, roughly in the middle of the frame, so nothing important gets covered.
Make each size, don't just crop
Cropping a landscape video to vertical often cuts off the product or the person. It's usually better to create each shape on purpose, with the subject framed for that shape. If you make content with AI, generate the vertical, square and landscape versions directly instead of cropping one master.
How to do it in Qevio
Qevio generates videos and images in 9:16 vertical, 1:1 square, 4:5 portrait and 16:9 landscape, so you pick the shape for each platform before you generate. Videos can also be made at 480p, 720p or 1080p depending on the model.
In the AI Campaign Generator, name the platform in your prompt and Qevio sizes the campaign's video and images for it, along with captions and hashtags written for that platform.
Questions
Vertical 9:16 works for TikTok, Reels, Stories and YouTube Shorts, which is where most short video is watched. Use 16:9 for regular YouTube videos and websites.