Every platform has an aspect ratio it favors in its feed, and shipping the wrong one usually means your video gets pillarboxed, cropped, or quietly deprioritized. Here's what each major platform actually wants right now, and how to frame for more than one at once.
Quick reference table
| Platform | Primary ratio | Recommended resolution |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok | 9:16 (vertical) | 1080 × 1920 |
| Instagram Reels | 9:16 (vertical) | 1080 × 1920 |
| Instagram Feed | 4:5 or 1:1 | 1080 × 1350 / 1080 × 1080 |
| YouTube Shorts | 9:16 (vertical) | 1080 × 1920 |
| YouTube (standard) | 16:9 (landscape) | 1920 × 1080 or 3840 × 2160 |
| Facebook Feed/Reels | 9:16 or 1:1 | 1080 × 1920 / 1080 × 1080 |
| X (Twitter) | 16:9 or 1:1 | 1920 × 1080 / 1080 × 1080 |
| 16:9 (landscape preferred) | 1920 × 1080 |
The two ratios that actually matter
Despite the number of rows in that table, almost everything reduces to two shapes: 9:16 vertical for short-form, mobile-first feeds (TikTok, Reels, Shorts), and 16:9 landscape for long-form and desktop-first viewing (YouTube, most professional/broadcast use). If you shoot both from the same take, you cover the large majority of distribution without a third format.
Safe zones: what actually gets covered up
Vertical feeds layer UI on top of your video — captions, usernames, like/comment/share buttons, and progress bars. Keep your subject and any on-screen text away from these areas:
- Bottom ~15–20% of a 9:16 frame — usually covered by captions and the caption text itself.
- Right-side ~10–15% — like, comment, share, and profile icons live here on most vertical feeds.
- Top ~5–10% — status bars, "Following/For You" tabs, or live indicators.
Landscape 16:9 video for YouTube doesn't have the same persistent overlay problem, but leave margin near the edges anyway — thumbnails and end screens often crop in slightly.
Framing for both ratios in one shot
If you're recording portrait and landscape simultaneously rather than cropping one from the other, you get true native framing for both — but it still helps to compose with both crops in mind:
- Center your subject rather than using rule-of-thirds placement toward an edge — off-center framing that works in 16:9 often pushes a subject fully out of a 9:16 crop.
- Avoid critical text or graphics near the very top, bottom, or sides of either frame.
- If there are two people in frame, widen your landscape shot rather than tightening your portrait one — it's easier to lose empty background than to lose a person.
DualFrame captures a native 9:16 and 16:9 file at the same time, so you're never cropping one ratio out of the other. 4K, up to 60fps, one-time purchase.
See DualFrameHow often do these specs change?
Platforms adjust maximum video length and feature-specific formats (carousels, duets, collabs) more often than they change core aspect ratios. 9:16 and 16:9 have been the stable defaults for several years and are unlikely to shift soon — the safest approach is still to shoot native versions of both rather than betting on a single ratio surviving every re-crop a platform's algorithm might apply later.
For the full workflow on getting both ratios from one recording, see how to record vertical and horizontal video at the same time, or jump straight to posting one video to TikTok and YouTube without reshooting.