2018 Video size guide Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter:

YOUTUBE

Prefered format:

YOUTUBE supports following formats:

• .MOV
• .MPEG4
• .MP4
• .AVI
• .WMV
• .MPEGPS
• .FLV
• 3GPP
• WebM
• DNxHR
• ProRes
• CineForm
• HEVC (h265)

Frame rates:

It is recommended to make frame rates match the source material. YouTube supports up to 60 frames per second.

Dimentions:

YouTube on desktop and android uses a 16:9 aspect ratio player. The player automatically adds black bars to videos so that they are displayed correctly without cropping or stretching.

To fit the player perfectly, encode at these resolutions:

• 2160p: 3840×2160
• 1440p: 2560×1440
• 1080p: 1920×1080
• 720p: 1280×720
• 480p: 854×480
• 360p: 640×360
• 240p: 426×240

You can adjust the fit of your video in the YouTube player after uploading your video using formating tags 

Playback lenght:

By default, you can upload videos that are up to 15 minutes long. To upload longer videos,you will have to verify your account. If you have live streaming  access long uploads are enabled by default.

File upload size:

The maximum file size you can upload is 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less. We’ve changed the limits on uploads in the past, so you may see older videos that are longer than 12 hours.

How your video will display:

If you upload a file that isn’t 16:9, it will display pillar boxed (black bars on each side of the video) or letter boxed (black bars at the top and bottom).

Some examples:

• The player will automatically add pillarboxing to 4:3 videos.
• If the player is re-sized, there may be letterboxing. For example, 16:9 videos are letterboxed when the embedded player is sized 4:3.
• Anamorphic videos will be letterboxed in both 16:9 and 4:3 players. The player can only do this if the native aspect ratio of the video is maintained – i.e. don’t add black bars to the video itself.

Note: If you add letterboxing to a video before uploading it, the widescreen player will add vertical bars, resulting in black bars all around the video and a bad viewing experience.

FACEBOOK

Prefered format:

MOV or MP4 (with H.264 Codec & AAC audio)

Frame rate:

30fps or below

Maximium Dimentions:

1280px Wide (with a ratio divisible by 16px)

Playback lenght:

Maximum of 45 minutes

Filesize limit:

1.75GB

Facebook cover video:

The dimensions for the cover video must be 830×312, with a duration of 20 seconds minimum and 90 seconds maximum. If it doesn’t fit, you will receive an error.

Note:

While these are mainly guidelines, Facebook will accept video that is uploaded at any specification. What it doesn’t tell you is that anything that doesn’t meet these guidelines will be converted into their preferred format on the fly, adding further compressing and blurryness to your video.

INSTAGRAM

Firstly, don’t try and upload huge videos, everything is downscaled to a maximum width of 1080 pixels (height can be anything, square or not), so uploading ultra-HD videos (or videos with a very high bitrate) is pointless.

Prefered format:

MP4 and MOV

Frame rate:

30fps or below

Maximium Dimentions:

1080 pixels x any height

Playback lenght:

Instagram limits videos to 60 seconds, so make sure your video is 60 seconds or less or it will be cropped automatically (see Instagram help document).

How short can your videos be?

Videos need to be at least 3 seconds long or Instagram won’t let us upload them (see Instagram help document).

Filesize limit:

File size isn’t specifically limited by Instagram, but we recommend keeping your videos under 50MB.

TWITTER

Prefered format:

MP4 (with H.264 Codec & AAC Low Complexity audio)

Frame rate:

40fps or below

Unlike Facebook, Twitter will flat out refuse any media that has an incorrect frame rate. Be sure to get it right first time round.

Maximium Dimentions:

1280px x 1024px (Between 1:3 & 3:1 aspect ratio, with a 1:1 pixel ratio)

Playback lenght:

Maximum of 140 seconds

Filesize limit:

15mb