The video size of YouTube uploads that fills the player is 1920 × 1080 pixels at 16:9, but YouTube accepts anything from 426 × 240 up to 7680 × 4320 and any file up to 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is smaller. This Playcut spec library page lists the eight sizes YouTube names, how the player shows other shapes, the Shorts and thumbnail sizes, and YouTube's own bitrate table, all read from YouTube Help on 2026-09-05.
On a slow connection, you can compress a video before you upload it, trading some detail for a shorter upload.
YouTube video size at a glance
What is the video size of YouTube uploads?
The video size of YouTube uploads has three parts: pixel dimensions, aspect ratio and file size. YouTube's standard is 1920 × 1080 in 16:9, it names eight 16:9 sizes from 240p to 8K, and the upload ceiling is 256 GB or 12 hours. Shorts are vertical at 1080 × 1920 or smaller, and the recommended thumbnail is now 3840 × 2160.
None of those figures is a minimum for an ordinary upload. YouTube accepts smaller and odd-shaped files and re-encodes uploads for playback; the numbers below are the sizes at which the player serves the sharpest stream without scaling, which is what the YouTube video size dimensions in the table are for.
Quick spec table: standard video, Shorts and thumbnails
| Item | Size in pixels | Ratio | Limit or note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard video | 1920 × 1080 (1080p) | 16:9 | Up to 7680 × 4320 accepted |
| Maximum file | — | — | 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is less |
| Unverified account | — | — | 15 minutes per video |
| Shorts | 1080 × 1920 maximum | 9:16, or any square-or-taller shape | 1080p cap; up to 3 minutes |
| Video thumbnail | 3840 × 2160 | 16:9 | 640 px minimum width; 2 MB mobile, 50 MB desktop |
| Shorts thumbnail | 2160 × 3840 | 9:16 | 640 px minimum height |
Recommended YouTube video size in pixels, 240p to 8K
YouTube Help's resolution and aspect ratio page names eight 16:9 upload sizes: 7680 × 4320 (4320p, 8k), 3840 × 2160 (2160p, 4K), 2560 × 1440 (1440p, 2k), 1920 × 1080 (1080p, HD), 1280 × 720 (720p, HD), 854 × 480 (480p), 640 × 360 (360p) and 426 × 240 (240p). The bracketed labels are YouTube's own, which is why 1440p is called 2k there and 1080p is HD.
The eight sizes YouTube names for 16:9 uploads
| YouTube label | Video size in pixels | Pixel count | Exactly 16:9? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4320p (8k) | 7680 × 4320 | 33,177,600 | Yes |
| 2160p (4K) | 3840 × 2160 | 8,294,400 | Yes |
| 1440p (2k) | 2560 × 1440 | 3,686,400 | Yes |
| 1080p (HD) | 1920 × 1080 | 2,073,600 | Yes |
| 720p (HD) | 1280 × 720 | 921,600 | Yes |
| 480p (SD) | 854 × 480 | 409,920 | No, 427:240 |
| 360p (SD) | 640 × 360 | 230,400 | Yes |
| 240p (SD) | 426 × 240 | 102,240 | No, 71:40 |
Two of the eight are not exactly 16:9: 426 × 240 reduces to 71:40 and 854 × 480 to 427:240, because 240 and 480 do not divide by 9 cleanly. The 1920x1080 aspect ratio sheet explains those near-16:9 sizes; the error is under 0.2% and invisible in the player.
Which size to upload: 1080p is the floor, 4K when you have it
Upload 1920 × 1080 as a minimum and 3840 × 2160 whenever the source is genuinely 4K. The highest quality YouTube can offer viewers is the resolution you uploaded, so a 4K master gives them a 2160p option while a 1080p master tops out at 1080p. Upscaling a 1080p file to 4K adds file size, not detail; the 2.5K and 4K resolution sheet covers the 2560 × 1440 and 3840 × 2160 tiers in depth.
Why 5K is missing from the list
5K (5120 × 2880) is absent because the same YouTube Help page notes that in 2022 YouTube started removing playback support for resolutions between 4K and 8K, giving 5K as the example it may no longer play. The note is about playback rather than upload acceptance, so treat 3840 × 2160 or 7680 × 4320 as the export targets and skip the in-between size.
How YouTube displays 16:9, 9:16, 1:1 and 4:3 uploads
YouTube does not crop a non-16:9 upload: the player resizes to the video's own shape, and on computer browsers it may add padding around a vertical 9:16 video, white by default and dark grey in Dark theme, according to the same Help page. Because the player adapts, YouTube asks you not to add padding or black bars to the file yourself.
How much of a 16:9 player each shape fills
| Upload shape | Width inside a 1920 × 1080 player | Share of player width | Padding |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16:9 | 1920 px | 100% | None |
| 4:3 | 1440 px | 75% | 25% total (12.5% per side) |
| 1:1 | 1080 px | 56.25% | 43.75% total (21.9% per side) |
| 9:16 | 608 px (607.5 exact) | 31.6% | 68.4% total (34.2% per side) |
The figures assume a computer browser with the player at full height, which is the case the Help page describes; in the phone app a Short takes the whole screen, so no padding applies there. The 9:16 resolution sheet works the same 607.5-pixel figure through for crops in the other direction, from a 16:9 source to a vertical frame.
Do not bake letterbox or pillarbox bars into the file
Render the file at its true shape and let the player pad it. A 9:16 video exported inside a 1920 × 1080 frame with black bars is a 16:9 upload as far as YouTube is concerned: the player cannot switch to the vertical layout, the bars show on phones, and the file no longer has the square-or-taller shape that Shorts categorisation looks for.
YouTube Shorts video size and length
A YouTube Short is 1080 × 1920 (9:16) at most, because YouTube's Create Shorts help article caps Shorts uploads at a maximum resolution of 1080p, and since October 15, 2024 any video with a square or vertical aspect ratio up to three minutes long is categorised as a Short. Anything taller than 1080p is downscaled on upload, so a 2160 × 3840 export gains nothing.
Square or taller counts as a Short, for three minutes
The eligibility test is shape and length, not a toggle. YouTube Help's three-minute Shorts page states that videos uploaded on or after October 15, 2024 with a square or vertical aspect ratio up to three minutes in length are categorised as Shorts, while videos uploaded before that date remain long-form. So 1080 × 1080, 1080 × 1350 and 1080 × 1920 all qualify; a 1920 × 1080 landscape clip of the same length stays a regular upload.
Shorts thumbnails are 9:16
The recommended Shorts thumbnail is 2160 × 3840 with a minimum height of 640 pixels, the rotated counterpart of the 3840 × 2160 video thumbnail below. For the same vertical frame on TikTok, Reels and the other short-form feeds, the social video spec sheet lists each platform's size, length and file limit side by side.
YouTube file size limit, maximum length and accepted formats
The maximum file YouTube accepts is 256 GB or 12 hours, whichever is reached first, and unverified accounts are limited to 15-minute videos, per YouTube Help's page on uploading videos longer than 15 minutes. Verifying the account by phone lifts the 15-minute cap; the 256 GB and 12-hour ceilings still apply after verification.
Containers YouTube accepts and the one it prefers
YouTube's recommended container is MP4 with the moov atom at the front of the file (Fast Start) and no edit lists. Its format specifications also list MPEG-2 (.MPG), .WMV, .AVI, .MOV and .FLV as processable, with MPEG-4 named as the preferred format, so a non-MP4 export is re-encoded rather than rejected.
Encoding settings YouTube asks for
The recommended upload encoding settings are H.264 High Profile, progressive scan, two consecutive B-frames, a closed GOP of half the frame rate, CABAC, variable bitrate with no hard limit, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling and BT.709 colour for SDR. Audio is AAC-LC, Opus or Eclipsa Audio at 48 kHz, stereo or stereo plus 5.1.
Frame rate should match the recording: 24, 25, 30, 48, 50 and 60 fps are the common values, other rates are accepted, and interlaced footage should be deinterlaced first, so 1080i60 becomes 1080p30.
Recommended bitrate for each YouTube video size
YouTube recommends 8 Mbps for a 1080p SDR upload at 24 to 30 fps and 12 Mbps at 48 to 60 fps, scaling from 1 Mbps at 360p to 80 to 160 Mbps at 8K, with HDR roughly a quarter higher and not offered below 720p.
The table reproduces YouTube's SDR and HDR rows from the encoding page above. To turn a bitrate into a file size, or a file size into a bitrate, use the video bitrate calculator rather than working it out here.
| Size | SDR, 24 to 30 fps | SDR, 48 to 60 fps | HDR, 24 to 30 fps | HDR, 48 to 60 fps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8K | 80 to 160 Mbps | 120 to 240 Mbps | 100 to 200 Mbps | 150 to 300 Mbps |
| 2160p (4K) | 35 to 45 Mbps | 53 to 68 Mbps | 44 to 56 Mbps | 66 to 85 Mbps |
| 1440p (2K) | 16 Mbps | 24 Mbps | 20 Mbps | 30 Mbps |
| 1080p | 8 Mbps | 12 Mbps | 10 Mbps | 15 Mbps |
| 720p | 5 Mbps | 7.5 Mbps | 6.5 Mbps | 9.5 Mbps |
| 480p | 2.5 Mbps | 4 Mbps | Not supported | Not supported |
| 360p | 1 Mbps | 1.5 Mbps | Not supported | Not supported |
Audio bitrate, and why these are targets rather than limits
Audio recommendations are 128 kbps for mono, 384 kbps for stereo and 512 kbps for 5.1. The page states that no bitrate limit is required and that the video figures are offered for reference, and YouTube re-encodes every file, so a higher-bitrate master mostly buys a cleaner source for that re-encode.
Thumbnails for videos and Shorts: 3840 × 2160 and 2160 × 3840
YouTube's current thumbnail recommendation is 3840 × 2160 pixels at 16:9 with a minimum width of 640 pixels, uploaded as JPG or PNG, per YouTube Help's thumbnail article as read on 2026-09-05. The 1280 × 720 figure repeated across most guides is the older guidance: it still uploads because it clears the 640-pixel minimum, but it is no longer what YouTube recommends.
File limits differ by device
Thumbnail file limits depend on where you upload from: 2 MB for video thumbnails from mobile (10 MB for podcasts) and 50 MB for video, Shorts and podcast thumbnails from desktop. Shorts thumbnails are 9:16 at 2160 × 3840 with a 640-pixel minimum height, and podcast playlists use 1:1 instead of 16:9.
Vertical videos with 16:9 thumbnails get an auto-generated 4:5 crop
A vertical video given a 16:9 custom thumbnail is shown with an auto-generated 4:5 thumbnail on the home, explore and subscription pages; the custom image still appears in the watch feed, watch history and on non-mobile platforms. If the video is vertical, keep the subject inside the central 4:5 of the 16:9 image, or crop a 4:5 version in the image resizer to preview it.
Generating YouTube-sized video and thumbnails with AI models
Veo 3.1 renders the 16:9 and 9:16 shapes YouTube expects at 720p, 1080p and 4k, and Seedance 2.0, Wan 2.7 and HappyHorse 1.1 each offer a 1080p tier, so on Playcut's video generator a YouTube master or a Short can be generated at the delivery shape rather than cropped from another frame. Providers name tiers rather than pixels, so only Seedance 2.0 has a documented pixel size in the table below.
| Model | YouTube shapes offered | Tiers | Documented pixels |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veo 3.1 | 16:9 and 9:16 only | 720p, 1080p, 4k (8-second clips at 1080p and 4k) | None from Google; Playcut prepares 1920 × 1080 and 1080 × 1920 frames for 1080p image-to-video; 4k not published |
| Seedance 2.0 | 16:9, 4:3, 1:1, 9:16 (plus 21:9, 3:4) | 480p, 720p, 1080p, 4k | 1920 × 1088 at 1080p 16:9 per the provider's tier table; others not published |
| Wan 2.7 | 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3, 3:4 (text- and reference-to-video) | 720p, 1080p | Per-ratio pixels not published |
| HappyHorse 1.1 | 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3 and five more (text- and reference-to-video) | 720P, 1080P | Per-ratio pixels not published |
| Omni Flash | 16:9, 9:16 | 720p | Per-ratio pixels not published |
| Grok Imagine Video (classic) | 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:3 and others | 480p, 720p | Per-ratio pixels not published |
Seedance 2.0's 1080p 16:9 tier is 1920 × 1088, eight pixels taller than true 1080; YouTube accepts it, but trim to 1920 × 1080 for an exact match. Grok Imagine Video's 720p ceiling sits below the 1080p floor recommended above, so use it for drafts rather than masters, and note that HappyHorse and Wan take no ratio in image-to-video mode.
Thumbnails from image models: a 16:9 preset that is not exactly 16:9
Playcut's dimension table puts the Nano Banana Pro and Nano Banana 2 16:9 preset at 1376 × 768 at 1K, 2752 × 1536 at 2K and 5504 × 3072 at 4K (our sizes, not Google's), a 43:24 grid about 0.8% wider than true 16:9. For a 3840 × 2160 thumbnail, scale the 4K output to 2160 pixels tall (3870 × 2160) and crop 30 pixels of width; the 1920x1080 sheet linked above gives the same correction for the 2K tier.
Check the size of a video before you upload
Divide the file's width by its height: 1.78 means 16:9 and a full player, 0.5625 means a 9:16 Short, 1.0 is square and 1.33 is 4:3, and anything else is shown with padding. The dimensions are in the file's properties: Get Info on macOS, Properties then Details on Windows, or the clip inspector in your editor.
Reduce the dimensions to a ratio
Enter the width and height into the aspect ratio calculator to get the reduced ratio and the decimal in one step, then match the file against the tables above. A 16:9 file at 1920 × 1080 or larger is ready as a standard upload; a square-or-taller file at or under 1080 × 1920 and three minutes will be treated as a Short.