Social video specs in 2026: one export that fits every feed

The specs converged years ago: 9:16, 1080×1920, MP4, H.264. What still differs is the length cap, the thumbnail crop and the amount of frame each app covers with its own buttons. Those three details are why a clip that looks fine in one feed looks broken in the next.

The numbers that matter

• Frame: 1080×1920, 9:16, MP4 with H.264. Higher resolution is allowed everywhere and pays off nowhere in a feed.
• YouTube Shorts caps at three minutes, up from sixty seconds since October 2024.
• TikTok accepts uploads from fifteen seconds to sixty minutes, while in-app recording stops at ten.
• Reels extended its ceiling to twenty minutes, which changes nothing about what the feed rewards.
• Frame rate 30 or 60, consistent within a clip.

Safe zones, the part people skip

The text-safe area is roughly 1080×1420 centred in the frame. Above it sit the handle and system icons, below it the caption and action buttons, at slightly different heights per app. Design for the centre third and a single export survives all of them. Push captions to the bottom edge and they disappear under the description in at least one feed.

Beyond the four defaults

It needs no different render, just the same master file uploaded in the right place, which is the cheapest reach available if any of your audience reads Russian.

A checklist before export

1. 1080×1920, MP4, H.264, audio normalised so the feed does not bury you.
2. Twenty to sixty seconds, which clears every cap without a second edit.
3. Captions inside the centre third, faces never against an edge.
4. A separate 1:1 cover frame for the Instagram grid.
5. First three seconds carrying an actual hook, because that is the window the recommender measures.

How Monty handles it

Monty renders to these rules by default: 1080×1920, captions synced to speech and kept inside the safe area, music ducked under the voice, loudness levelled, and a version built per platform. It posts to YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok and Telegram, and the same master is ready for Dzen without a re-export.