9:16 Resolution

9:16 resolution is any pixel size whose width-to-height ratio is 9 to 16, a decimal of 0.5625, and the most common one is 1080 × 1920 pixels. That is a 1920 × 1080 Full HD frame turned on its side, which is why 9:16 is also called vertical 1080p or portrait Full HD. It is the native shape of TikTok, Instagram Reels and Stories, YouTube Shorts and every full-screen phone video.

The Playcut spec library entry you are reading lists every exact 9:16 size from 360 × 640 to 4320 × 7680, quotes each platform's own help-center limits, and names the AI models that render 9:16 natively. To reduce any other pair of dimensions to a ratio, use the free aspect ratio calculator.

What 9:16 resolution actually means

9:16 is an aspect ratio, not a pixel count. It describes the shape of the frame, nine units wide for every sixteen units tall, and many different resolutions share that shape. When people say "9:16 resolution" they almost always mean 1080 × 1920, but 720 × 1280 and 2160 × 3840 are 9:16 too.

9:16, 9x16 and 1080x1920 are the same thing

All three labels describe one shape. 1080 × 1920 divides by 120 on both sides to give 9:16, and "9x16" is simply the ratio written with a multiplication sign instead of a colon. If you divide any width by its height and get 0.5625, the frame is exactly 9:16.

Is 9:16 vertical or horizontal?

9:16 is vertical. The first number in an aspect ratio is always the width, so 9:16 is taller than it is wide and 16:9 is its horizontal mirror. If you are holding a file and are not sure which way round its dimensions are, the guide to finding your aspect ratio walks through reading them on any phone, Mac, Windows PC or video file.

9:16 resolution chart: every common size in pixels

Multiply any width by 16 and divide by 9 to get a 9:16 height. Four sizes cover almost every real use: 720 × 1280, 1080 × 1920, 1440 × 2560 and 2160 × 3840. The rest of the ladder below is exact 9:16 as well, verified by reducing each pair with its greatest common divisor.

Near-miss sizes that are not exactly 9:16

Several sizes sold as 9:16 are slightly off. Playcut's dimension table for Google's image models puts 9:16 at 768 × 1376 at 1K, a ratio of 0.5581 that is 0.8% narrower than the true 0.5625. That table is Playcut's own, not a Google figure. The difference is invisible in a feed, but a strict template will show a seam if you composite it against a true 9:16 frame.

Why 1080 is awkward for encoders (the mod-16 rule)

H.264 encodes in 16 × 16 macroblocks (newer codecs use larger, variable blocks), so dimensions divisible by 16 encode cleanly. Of the chart above only 720 × 1280, 1440 × 2560, 2160 × 3840, 2880 × 5120 and 4320 × 7680 pass on both axes; 1080 does not, because 1080 ÷ 16 is 67.5. Some encoders pad to 1088, and Seedance 2.0's documented 16:9 size at 1080p is 1920 × 1088.

Which 9:16 resolution should you export?

Export at 1080 × 1920 unless a platform explicitly asks for more. TikTok accepts anything from 540 × 960 up, YouTube caps Shorts uploads at 1080p, and Meta's Reels ad guide recommends 1440 × 2560 but only requires a 500-pixel minimum width for clips over 30 seconds.

1080 × 1920 is the default for every social placement

1080 × 1920 is the best resolution for vertical video because it is the largest size every platform accepts without re-scaling. It fills a 1080-pixel-wide phone screen pixel for pixel, keeps files small enough for mobile upload, and matches the preset in every editor from CapCut to Premiere.

When 1440 × 2560 or 2160 × 3840 is worth the file size

Go larger only when the platform re-encodes gently or the asset will be cropped later. Meta lists 1440 × 2560 as its Reels ad recommendation, and a 4K vertical master gives you room to punch in for a 4:5 or 1:1 cut without softening. For Shorts, anything above 1080p is downscaled on upload.

1080p vertical vs a 1080p monitor: same pixels, different orientation

A monitor resolution of 1080p means 1920 × 1080, landscape, and a 9:16 video at 1080 × 1920 has exactly the same 2.07 million pixels rotated. On a desktop screen a vertical video therefore fills only 607.5 of the 1920 available columns (a 607-pixel strip once rounded down), which is why YouTube pillarboxes 9:16 uploads with black bars inside its 16:9 player on desktop. The full 16:9 story is on the 1920x1080 aspect ratio sheet.

9:16 specs by platform (cited)

Every major short-form placement accepts 9:16 at 1080 × 1920, but the minimums, maximums and file caps differ. The table quotes each platform's own help center as read on 2026-09-05; Meta's Reels ad figures come from its Ads Guide, which is not linked here because it blocks automated requests.

Safe zones matter more than the pixel count on 9:16 placements, because every app draws captions, buttons and a progress bar over the frame. Meta reserves roughly the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% on each side. Check a specific frame against each platform's overlay in the safe zone checker before you export.

The same placements, plus the 16:9, 1:1 and 4:5 variants each platform accepts, are consolidated on the social video spec sheet. YouTube's own Shorts and long-form limits are on the YouTube video size sheet.

9:16 vs 16:9, 4:5 and 1:1: what you lose when you crop

Cropping a 1920 × 1080 frame to 9:16 at full height leaves a 607.5-pixel-wide strip, rounded down to 607 × 1080, only 31.6% of the original width. Reaching 1080 × 1920 from that strip then requires a 1.78× linear upscale, which is 3.16× the pixel area. That is why vertical should be shot or generated natively rather than cut from landscape.

The landscape side of that comparison, every standard 16:9 size and the same 25 percent rule applied to 4:3, is on the 16:9 resolution sheet.

9:16 vs 4:5 resolution: 1080 × 1920 vs 1080 × 1350

At the same 1080-pixel width, 4:5 resolution is 1080 × 1350 and 9:16 is 1080 × 1920, so a 4:5 frame keeps 70.3% of the 9:16 height. 4:5 is the tallest shape the Instagram and Facebook feeds display without cropping, while 9:16 is reserved for full-screen surfaces such as Reels and Stories. Render a 9:16 master and a 4:5 crop from the same generation when a campaign needs both.

If the target is the Instagram profile grid rather than the feed, the 3:4 aspect ratio sheet covers the 1080 × 1440 size and how it crops from a 9:16 master.

9:16 vs 1:1: 78% more pixels at the same width

A 1080 × 1920 frame holds 2.07 megapixels against 1.17 megapixels for 1080 × 1080, so 9:16 carries 1.78 times the image data of a square at the same width. Cropping 9:16 down to 1:1 throws away 44% of the frame, almost all of it headroom and footroom.

9:16 on 19.5:9 phone screens: about 18% letterbox

Most current phones have 19.5:9 or 20:9 screens, which are taller than 9:16. On a 1080 × 2340 display a 1080 × 1920 video covers 1920 of the 2340 rows, about 82% of the height, and the remaining 18% is filled by the app's interface or black bars. 9:16 remains the delivery standard because every platform crops or pads to it, not because it matches the glass.

Per-model screen sizes, from the 1170 × 2532 iPhone 13 to the current Pro Max panels, are on the iPhone aspect ratio sheet, together with the 4:3 and 3:4 photo sizes the camera records.

AI models that generate 9:16 (and the exact pixels they output)

Every video model in Playcut's catalog offers 9:16, but the providers name resolution tiers, not per-ratio pixel sizes. The two exact figures below are Playcut's own. 720 × 1280 and 1080 × 1920 are the frames Playcut prepares for Veo 3.1 image-to-video, and 768 × 1376 at 1K is our table for the Google image models. The table lists what each model accepts in the 9:16 picker, per Playcut's model catalog.

How to pick 9:16 in Playcut

Choose "9:16" in the aspect ratio picker before you prompt; Playcut only lists the ratios the selected model renders natively, so you never generate landscape and crop. Generate vertical clips directly in Playcut's AI video generator, and still frames in the image generator. For a still that must be an exact 1080 × 1920, run a Nano Banana output through the image resizer to trim the 0.8% width difference.

9:16 in CSS and design tools

In CSS a vertical container is aspect-ratio: 9 / 16;. The property takes any number-slash-number pair, so the portrait form is valid with no workaround, and the browser keeps the box at 0.5625 as it resizes. The formal syntax is documented in MDN's CSS aspect-ratio reference.

Canvas presets: Figma, Canva, Premiere, CapCut

Every mainstream design and edit tool ships a 1080 × 1920 preset, usually labelled "Story", "Reel", "TikTok" or "Vertical 1080p". In Premiere and DaVinci Resolve set the sequence to 1080 × 1920 at your source frame rate; in Figma and Canva create a 1080 × 1920 frame. Keep text inside the platform safe zone rather than centring it, because the bottom third is covered by captions and controls on almost every app.