TikTok Video Size (2026): Pixels, Ratio and File Limits

The TikTok video size to export is 1080 x 1920 pixels, a vertical 9:16 frame, saved as an MP4 with H.264. TikTok does not print that exact number for a regular post, but it is the smallest 9:16 frame that fits every size figure TikTok does publish. Its ad specs recommend 9:16, its Creator Academy says to export at 1080p or higher, and its developer docs accept 360 to 4096 pixels a side. Every TikTok limit below comes from a TikTok page read in November 2026.

What is the TikTok video size for each way you upload?

It depends on how the file gets to TikTok. The phone app, the TikTok Studio website, apps that post through the API, and ads each have their own published limits. Where TikTok gives no figure, the table says so rather than borrowing one from a third-party guide.

Limit	TikTok app	TikTok Studio (web)	Scheduling apps (API)	In-feed ads (non-Spark)	Photo posts
Resolution	not published; record at 1080p or above	1080p, 2K or 4K	360 to 4096 px a side	9:16 at 540 x 960 or more	up to 1080p (API)
Ratio	not published	vertical or landscape	not published	9:16 recommended; 16:9 and 1:1 accepted	not published
File size	not published	up to 30 GB	up to 4 GB	up to 500 MB	up to 20 MB per image (API)
Length	10 min recorded, 60 min uploaded	up to 60 min	3 min for every creator, 5 or 10 for some; 10 min max	up to 10 min	up to 35 photos
Files	not published	not published	MP4, WebM or MOV; H.264, H.265, VP8 or VP9; 23 to 60 fps	.mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp or .avi; 516 kbps or more	JPEG or WebP (API)

The app lengths come from TikTok's Camera tools help article, and the 35-photo limit from its Making a post help article. The web column is the Creator Academy page on TikTok Studio for web. The API column is the Content Posting API media guide, last updated August 4, 2026. The ad column is the in-feed ad specifications, last updated June 2026.

The paths disagree on length. The help center says an uploaded video can run 60 minutes. Through the API the cap is 10 minutes, and every creator can post 3. If a scheduling tool posts for you, stay at 3 minutes unless your account allows 5 or 10, or TikTok may make you trim it in the app. Spark Ads take .mp4 or .mov and list no length limit. For how long a video should run, see how to go viral on TikTok.

Why export at 1080 x 1920 if TikTok does not name it?

Because it is the smallest vertical frame that fits every size figure TikTok publishes. The shape is 9:16 because the ad specs and TikTok's creative guidance for ads both ask for vertical 9:16. The width of 1080 follows the Creator Academy's advice to export at 1080p or higher and avoid re-encoding. And 1920 pixels tall sits well inside the API's 4096-pixel ceiling.

One upload setting matters as much as the export. The same Creator Academy page says TikTok defaults to standard quality on upload. Switch on "Allow high-quality uploads" under More Options before you post, or the video will not post at the highest quality available.

The caption, the sound line and the action buttons also sit over the bottom and right edges. Our TikTok safe zone checker lays that interface over your own image or video, inside your browser. Its estimate is roughly the bottom 35%, the right 13% and the top 10% of the screen. Ads follow their own overlay files, linked from the ad spec page.

What changed in TikTok video limits recently?

The largest change is on the ad side. In the July 2024 version of the ad spec page, a non-Spark in-feed ad had to run 5 to 60 seconds, with 21 to 34 seconds recommended. By the July 2025 revision it read "up to 10 minutes", and the June 2026 page keeps that. The pixel minimums, the file types and the 500 MB cap read the same in all three versions. TikTok's organic help pages give no date for the 60-minute or 30 GB limits.

How do you export a video at the right TikTok size?

Set the size when you create the project, before the first cut. A timeline built at 16:9 and squeezed into 9:16 at export loses either its edges or its sharpness.

1. Create the project at 1080 x 1920. If your editor asks for a ratio and one side, the aspect ratio calculator solves the other side and rounds it to an even pixel, which many encoders need.
2. Keep the frame rate between 23 and 60 fps, the range TikTok's API accepts.
3. Export an MP4 with H.264, the container and codec the API marks as recommended.
4. Check the file against your path: 500 MB for a non-Spark ad, 4 GB through the API, 30 GB on the web.
5. Put the export through the safe zone checker and move any text the buttons would cover.
6. Upload, with high-quality uploads switched on.

How do you resize an existing video for TikTok?

You crop it, pad it or post it sideways, and a little arithmetic shows what each costs. Take a 1920 x 1080 landscape clip. A full-height 9:16 slice of it is 1080 x 9 / 16 = 607.5 pixels wide, so 608 once rounded to even. Blowing that 608 x 1080 slice up to 1080 x 1920 enlarges it 1.78 times, and fine detail goes soft.

Padding keeps every pixel but leaves bars above and below the picture. Posting it as it is can also work. TikTok shows a Full screen button on true landscape videos with no text in the margins, according to its Creator Academy article on full screen mode.

Cropping well means following the subject from shot to shot, which is slow by hand. For a video made in SocialFaktory, the video resizer does that crop for you. It makes 9:16, 1:1 and 16:9 versions from one video, follows the subject rather than the middle of the frame, and moves the captions so they stay readable. Every plan includes it, and you see the reframe's price in credits before it runs.

How do you make and schedule a TikTok-size video in SocialFaktory?

Start from a vertical format rather than fixing the size afterwards. SocialFaktory, from $49 billed monthly on the Starter plan, suits a small brand that wants short vertical videos made, captioned and scheduled to seven channels in one place. It makes UGC-style ads and talking presenters with AI actors, motion graphics, product launch videos, and skeleton and 3D explainers that come out at 9:16 only. You see the price in credits before anything runs.

A worked example on the Starter plan, $49 billed monthly with 490 credits:

1. Write a 15-second brief for a product ad and pick a presenter from the library.
2. Read the quote. A 15-second video is about 88 credits, per the plans page, so 490 credits cover about 5 of them.
3. Add auto-captions, then check the frame in the safe zone checker.
4. Queue it for TikTok in social media scheduling. Scheduling and publishing use no credits, and every post starts as a draft that goes out only at the time you set.

The same queue covers Instagram, YouTube, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, Facebook and Pinterest. If you are pricing ads, what an AI UGC ad costs works through the per-ad numbers. For explainers, the best AI skeleton video generators compares the tools. A photo post follows other rules, covered in how to make a TikTok slideshow.

If you only need to size and check clips you already shot, the no-cost calculator and checker above will do, and you need no plan at all. If you want the video made, captioned and queued in one place, open a SocialFaktory account.

In one sentence: export TikTok videos at 1080 x 1920 (9:16) as an H.264 MP4, keep files to 500 MB for a non-Spark ad, 4 GB through the API or 30 GB on the web, and in the app switch on high-quality uploads before you post.