Best practices: Social platforms' video guidelines
When posting videos to any social media platforms via their API (how third-party platforms like Sendible integrate to social sites), you'll find that there are restrictions in place that will cause your posts to bounce if you exceed them.
This is not the case when logging in and posting directly to your social media accounts (natively). However, all social media platforms apply restrictions for users posting via their API, and these restrictions differ from channel to channel.
This article will outline all these video restrictions, and you can jump to the social site you need by clicking on the social site on the right of this article.
Important: Copyright, as outlined by national or international law, is the ownership of intellectual property. This can include images, video and other media that you post and we strongly recommend that you consult each social media's community guidelines as well as contacting an attorney if you aren't sure if you have copyrights or may have infringed on them.
Recommended:
- Recommended Video Codec: H.264 High Profile
- Recommended Frame Rates: 30 FPS, 60 FPS
- Recommended Video Resolution: 1280x720 px (landscape), 720x1280 px (portrait), 720x720 px (square)
- Recommended Minimum Video Bitrate: 5,000 kbps
- Recommended Minimum Audio Bitrate: 128 kbps
- Recommended Audio Codec: AAC LC
- Recommended Aspect Ratio: 16:9 (landscape or portrait), 1:1 (square)
Advanced:
- Frame rate must be 60 FPS or less
- Dimensions must be between 32x32 px and 1280x1024 px
- File size must not exceed 512 MB
- Duration must be between 0.5 seconds and 140 seconds
- The aspect ratio must be between 1:3 and 3:1
- Must have a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio
- Only YUV 4:2:0 pixel format is supported
- Audio must be AAC with a Low Complexity profile. High-Efficiency AAC is not supported
- Audio must be mono or stereo, not 5.1 or greater
- Must not have open GOP (group of pictures)
- Must use progressive scan
Tip: We do not support selecting a video thumbnail because it is not available through their API. The placeholder for the thumbnail is set to display the 1st-second frame.
Facebook Posts
- No larger than 250 MB
- Up to 59 minutes in length
- Adding a YouTube link will post as a link preview which, when clicked on, will open YouTube in a new tab to play the video.
Tip: We support selecting a video thumbnail for Facebook posts. Refer to the article Attach and send videos
Facebook Reels
- Resolution: 540 x 960 (540p) minimum
- Aspect Ratio: 9x16
- Frame Rate: 23 FPS minimum
- Duration: 4 seconds minimum, 60 seconds maximum
- File type: MP4 or MOV
Instagram Posts
Note: The following restrictions mainly apply when posting to Instagram Business profiles through Instagram's API. Posting with an Instagram Reminder profile is manual and will still go through the Instagram mobile app natively.
- Format: MOV or MP4
- Frame rate: 23-60 FPS
- File size: 100 MB maximum
- Bitrate: VBR, 25 Mbps maximum
- Duration: greater than 3 seconds but less than 60 seconds (we recommend no more than 59 seconds)
- Audio codec:
- AAC
- 48 kHz sample rate maximum
- 1 or 2 channels (mono or stereo).
- Video codec:
- HEVC
- H264
- Progressive Scan
- Closed GOP
- 4:2:0 chroma subsampling
- Picture size:
- Maximum columns (horizontal pixels): 1920
- Minimum aspect ratio [cols / rows]: 4 / 5
- Maximum aspect ratio [cols / rows]: 16 / 9
Important: MOV videos might fail to post in some instances and can be less consistent than MP4 videos, but we are looking to address this.
Tip: We support selecting a video thumbnail for Instagram posts. Refer to the article Attach and send videos
Instagram Reels
- Container: MOV or MP4 (MPEG-4 Part 14), no edit lists, moov atom at the front of the file.
- Audio codec: AAC, 48khz sample rate maximum, 1 or 2 channels (mono or stereo).
- Video codec: HEVC or H264, progressive scan, closed GOP, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling.
- Frame rate: 23-60 FPS.
- Picture size:
- Maximum columns (horizontal pixels): 1920
- Required aspect ratio is between 0.01:1 and 10:1, but we recommend 9:16 to avoid cropping or blank spaces.
- Video bitrate: VBR, 25Mbps maximum
- Audio bitrate: 128kbps
- Duration: 90 seconds maximum, 3 seconds minimum
- File size: 100MB maximum
Caution: Although you can publish Reels with longer durations and different aspect ratios, only reels with durations between 5 and 90 seconds and aspect ratios of 9:16 are eligible to appear in the Reels tab.
YouTube
- File size: 250 MB maximum
- Up to 59 minutes with a verified account otherwise no more than 15 minutes
- Channel icon: 800 x 800 pixels (this will get rendered to 98 x 98 pixels)
- Video thumbnail: 1280 x 760 pixels
- Channel art: 2560 x 1440 pixels
- Make sure you check the template as cropping varies widely from TV to mobile to desktop.
Important: Your YouTube account will need to be verified for you to post videos with a duration longer than 15 minutes.
Tip: We do not currently support selecting a video thumbnail; we are looking into how to fit this into our roadmap. The placeholder for the thumbnail is set to display the 1st-second frame.
- Native videos available to both Company Pages and Profiles (auto-playing video within LinkedIn.com)
- Up to 200 MB for Company Pages
- YouTube links will display normally and will auto-play
Tip: We do not support selecting a video thumbnail for LinkedIn profiles and LinkedIn Company pages because it is not available through their API. The placeholder for the thumbnail is set to display the 1st-second frame.
- mp4, .mov or .m4v file types
- H.264 or H.265. Encoding
- Minimum 4 seconds, maximum 15 minutes video length
- The aspect ratio must be Shorter than 1:2 (width: height), taller than 1.91:1. We recommend making your videos square (1:1) or vertical (2:3 or 9:16).
Google My Business
Important: Google currently doesn't allow videos to be posted via their API, but this may change in the future.
WordPress
Important: WordPress currently doesn't allow videos to be posted via their API, but this may change in the future.