TikTok is still the short-form, vertical video app. That means getting your video dimensions and sizing right is crucial if you want your content to perform well on TikTok.

The best TikTok video dimensions are 1080x1920 resolution with a 9:16 aspect ratio. This will give you the highest resolution and visual experience for your viewers, filling up the whole screen on most mobile devices without looking pixelated or grainy.

That’s the TL;DR. To get the full guide to TikTok dimensions and posting limitations, keep reading.

The best sizes, dimensions, and lengths for TikTok videos

There are a few things that go into getting your TikTok video dimensions right. Let’s break them down.

TikTok video aspect ratios

Portrait orientation is almost always the correct choice for posting on TikTok, however you can upload videos with any of the following aspect ratios:

• 9:16
• 1:1
• 16:9
• 3:4

Why use portrait orientation on TikTok

TikTok pioneered the short-form vertical video format, so users expect vertical orientation when scrolling their FYP. There's also evidence that the TikTok algorithm pushes down videos that aren't the right aspect ratio to keep a good user experience for viewers.

Vertical videos fill the whole screen, making it easier for viewers to see your video, and can be easily repurposed for YouTube Shorts and IG Reels.

While you can post TikToks with different dimensions, keep in mind that any videos that aren’t 9:16 will have black bars on the top and bottom of the screen to fill up the blank space. We recommend resizing landscape and square videos to portrait before posting on TikTok, although things might be changing.

TikTok is testing landscape orientation

TikTok recently started testing long-form, horizontal videos on the platform and they really want users to adopt this new feature. According to some creators in the Creativity Beta Program, any horizontal videos longer than one minute will be boosted for the first 72 hours after posting.

Unlike regular horizontal videos uploaded to TikTok, these won’t have those annoying black bars above and below. Instead, there’s a little “Full Screen” button that users can tap to view the landscape video in horizontal mode by flipping their screens.

In order to take advantage of “Full Screen” mode when posting horizontal videos on TikTok, your video must be:

• 16:9 aspect ratio
• 1 minute or longer
• Uploaded, not filmed in app

TikTok video sizes

TikTok recommends uploading high resolution videos, however there is a limit to video file sizes. There’s no lower limit (although why would you upload compressed, tiny videos?), but the upper TikTok video size limits are:

• 500MB for desktop uploads
• 287MB for iOS uploads
• 72MB for Android uploads

Supported file types include:

• MP4 
• MOV
• 3PG (ads only)
• AVI (ads only)
• MPEG (ads only)

TikTok video length limits

How long can a TikTok be? Up to 30 minutes long, turns out.

They keep changing this, so it’s a little hard to keep track of, but here are all the known TikTok video lengths currently supported on the app.

Upload or recording:

• 15 seconds
• 1 minute
• 3 minutes

Upload only:

• 10 minutes
• 15 minutes (Creativity Beta users only)
• 30 minutes (Creativity Beta users only)

As you can see, TikTok video limits are trending longer and longer. While the 15-minute and 30-minute limits have not yet been released to all users, it seems likely that they will.

TikTok ad specifications

TikTok ads have a slightly different set of rules than regular videos posted to the platform. 

TikTok ad aspect ratios

There are two different placements you can choose for your TikTok ads:

• Newsfeed App Series placement: for ads with 1:1 and 16:9 aspect ratios
• In feed TikTok placement: for ads with 9:16 aspect ratio

TikTok ad video resolution and file size

TikTok requires all ads to have the following minimum resolutions:

• 540x960
• 640x640
• 960x540

All ads must be 500MB or smaller.

TikTok ad video length

Sometimes it seems like a TikTok ad is an hour long, but there’s a strict video length limit.

• Limit: 5-60 seconds
• Recommended: 9-15 seconds

How to get the right TikTok video dimensions

Now that you know what all the requirements are for TikTok videos, how do you get them right for your own content? There are two ways:

1. Film and edit your videos inside the TikTok app or 
2. Resize existing content to the correct length and size.

That first one doesn’t require much explanation–you can’t create a video in TikTok that doesn’t meet the app requirements. But what if you’ve already created great content and want to post it on TikTok?

You can use an online video editor like Kapwing to repurpose horizontal and square videos for TikTok. 

Quickly resize for TikTok

If your video is already short, use the automatic resizer to convert it to 9:16 aspect ratio. Simply upload your video, click the crop button, and select the correct size preset. 

Remove the extra padding from the background to resize the canvas and you’re ready to export your new, vertical video for TikTok. You can use the Safe Zones filter to make sure everything is properly framed and visible.

Find great clips for TikTok

If you want to turn a longer video into a short clip for TikTok, don’t waste time scrubbing through the whole video to find the best parts. Use the Find Highlights tool instead. 

Open your video with Repurpose Studio and set your clip aspect ratio to 9:16. It will take a few minutes for Kapwing to generate clips from your long video.

Once the clips are ready, they’ll be the right size, length, and format to post on TikTok. If you need to make any changes, open any clip as a project to edit. Otherwise, you can download right from Repurpose Studio then share to TikTok.

TikTok video dimensions FAQs