The full spec sheet
Everything below comes from TikTok's own pages, read on 4 September 2026. Where TikTok publishes nothing, this page says so instead of repeating a number from somewhere else.
| Spec | Value | Where TikTok publishes it |
|---|---|---|
| Aspect ratio, vertical | 9:16 | Ads Manager, in-feed specs |
| Minimum vertical size | 540 x 960 px | Ads Manager |
| Standard export size | 1080 x 1920 px | Industry standard, not a TikTok requirement |
| Horizontal | 16:9, at least 960 x 540 px | Ads Manager |
| Square | 1:1, at least 640 x 640 px | Ads Manager |
| File formats | .mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp, .avi | Ads Manager |
| Length, recorded in the app | Up to 10 minutes | TikTok Support, Camera tools |
| Length, uploaded | Up to 60 minutes | TikTok Support, Camera tools |
| Ad length | Up to 10 minutes | Ads Manager |
| Ad file size | 500 MB or less | Ads Manager |
| Ad bitrate | 516 kbps or more | Ads Manager |
| Profile photo | 98 x 98 px, square, under 50 KB | Ads Manager |
What 9:16 actually means
Nine units wide for every sixteen tall. On a phone held upright, that fills the screen, which is why it is the shape TikTok is built around.
Two numbers get confused constantly. The ratio is 9:16. The size is 1080 x 1920 pixels. The size satisfies the ratio, and so do 720 x 1280 and 2160 x 3840. TikTok's only published requirement for a vertical ad is 540 x 960 or larger, so anything from that size up is accepted, and 1080 x 1920 is what almost everyone exports because it matches phone screens without forcing TikTok to scale the file up.
Square and horizontal videos are allowed and TikTok publishes minimum sizes for both. They will letterbox in the feed, which is a design decision rather than a penalty.
The best aspect ratio for TikTok, and the ones that also work
There is one best answer and two that are accepted.
| Shape | Ratio | TikTok's published minimum | What it looks like in the feed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vertical, recommended | 9:16 | 540 x 960 px | Fills the screen |
| Square | 1:1 | 640 x 640 px | Bars above and below |
| Horizontal | 16:9 | 960 x 540 px | Small strip in the middle |
Vertical is not better because of an algorithm. It is better because it uses the whole screen on a device people hold upright, and a video that fills the screen holds attention longer than one that occupies a third of it.
If you are cutting the same asset for several platforms, 9:16 travels: Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are built around the same shape, so a single 1080 x 1920 export covers all three. What does not travel is the safe area, because each app puts its buttons and captions in different places.
How long a TikTok video can be
This is where most guides, including our own until today, get it wrong.
TikTok publishes two different limits in the same paragraph of its Camera tools article:
- Recorded in the app: up to 10 minutes.
- Uploaded from your device: up to 60 minutes.
There is a third rule worth knowing, in TikTok's own words: if you pick a sound before you record or upload, the length of that sound decides the length of the video.
One more, from the posting article: uploading through a web browser puts the whole video up with no trimming step. If you need to cut it down, upload in the app instead.
The safe zone, and why nobody can give you exact numbers
The safe zone is the part of the frame that is never covered by TikTok's own interface: the caption, the buttons down the right side, the username, the progress bar.
Every guide on this subject quotes exact pixel margins. TikTok does not publish them. What it publishes is a set of downloadable template files, and this explanation:
> The safe zone size is determined by the dimension (vertical, horizontal or square), the ad caption length and any additional formats used.
In other words the safe area is not fixed. A longer caption pushes it up. Add an anchor link and it changes again. That is why a single set of margins copied from a blog post will be wrong for half your videos.
What to do instead:
- Download the safe-zone template from the in-feed ad specifications page. There are four: standard left-to-right, standard with an anchor, and Arabic right-to-left versions of both.
- Drop the template over your export as a layer and check nothing important sits under it.
- Keep captions short. Your caption length changes your own safe zone.
- Preview the ad before it runs. TikTok warns that its preview is not device-specific, so treat it as a guide rather than proof.
For organic posts the same logic applies, minus the templates: keep faces and text away from the bottom third and the right edge, where the caption and the button rail sit.
