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.

Twitter

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 unavailable 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 and 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 apply when posting to Instagram Business profiles through Instagram's API. Posting with an Instagram Reminder profile is manual and will still go natively through the Instagram mobile app.

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 sometimes fail to post and can be less consistent than MP4 videos.

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
Picture size: 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.

Instagram Stories

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
Picture size: The required aspect ratio is between 0.1:1 and 10:1
Video bitrate: VBR, 25Mbps maximum
Audio bitrate: 128kbps
Duration: 60 seconds maximum, 3 seconds minimum
File size: 100MB maximum

Caution: Picture size: Although the required aspect ratio is between 0.1:1 and 10:1,we recommend 9:16 to avoid cropping or blank space

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 must be verified to post videos 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
Length: Three seconds to 30 minutes. We recommend uploading videos that are 15-30 seconds long.
File size: Between 75 KB and 200 MB
File format: MP4
Codec format: H.264 or VP8
Frame rate: Less than 30 FPS (frames per second)
Audio format: AAC or MPEG4
Audio size Less than: 64KHz
Video captions: Must be in SRT format

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), and taller than 1.91:1. We recommend making your videos square (1:1) or vertical (2:3 or 9:16).

TikTok

MOV, MP4, or WEBM are acceptable video file formats.
Your video file must be 500MB in size or smaller.
Your video must be more than 3 and less than 60 seconds long (we recommend no more than 59 seconds)
Frame rates for videos must range from 23 FPS to 60 FPS.
A 360px minimum is required for both the height and width of the video.
The maximum character count for your description text is 150.

Google My Business

Important: Google currently doesn't allow videos to be posted via their API.

WordPress

Important: WordPress currently doesn't allow videos to be posted via their API.