What each platform asks for
These are the figures Upload Doctor checks against. Each is either a limit, something the platform documents as a requirement, or a recommendation: guidance, a safe default or our own rule of thumb. We last checked them in October 2026. Platforms change their requirements from time to time, so treat the platform's own page as the final word.
- TikTok: vertical 9:16 at 1080×1920 is recommended, and 30 fps is a safe frame rate. TikTok's developer docs list 23 to 60 fps, MP4 (recommended), WebM or MOV, and H.264 as the preferred codec. Finished uploads can run up to 60 minutes.
- YouTube: 16:9 as MP4 with H.264 and AAC is the safe choice. YouTube re-encodes every upload, so keep your full resolution and frame rate. Accounts that aren't verified can upload up to 15 minutes, verified accounts up to 12 hours or 256 GB, and HDR is accepted.
- YouTube Shorts: square or vertical, up to 3 minutes. 9:16 at 1080×1920 fills the screen, and YouTube says Shorts can be uploaded at up to 1080p.
- Instagram Reels: 9:16 at 1080×1920. Instagram accepts shapes from 1.91:1 to 9:16, asks for at least 720 pixels and 30 fps, and says reels can be up to 20 minutes, though it doesn't recommend reels over 3 minutes to new audiences.
- Instagram feed: 4:5 at 1080×1350 takes the most room on a phone. Instagram says feed photos run from 1.91:1 to 4:5, and we treat video the same way. Instagram may also show feed video as a Reel, so the Reels guidance is worth following.
- X: 16:9 or square, with 1280×720 (or 720×1280, 720×720) as the recommended size. X's developer docs list shapes from 1:3 to 3:1, up to 60 fps, H.264 High Profile with AAC-LC and at least 5 Mbps. Length limits depend on the account: standard accounts have long been capped at 2 minutes 20 seconds, and the docs now list 20 minutes.
- LinkedIn: up to 5 GB, 3 seconds to 15 minutes for personal posts (10 minutes for Pages and the mobile app), 256×144 up to 4096×2304, shapes from 1:2.4 to 2.4:1, 10 to 60 fps and 192 kbps to 30 Mbps.
- Facebook: MP4 (MOV also works) up to 10 GB and 240 minutes, 1080p or lower, with stereo AAC audio at 128 kbps or more. Meta says video ratios from 16:9 to 9:16 are supported, depending on where the video appears.
Loudness: we couldn't find a published loudness target for these platforms, so Upload Doctor aims for −14 LUFS with true peaks under −1 dBTP. That is the level Spotify publishes, and YouTube measures out close to it. Read more in our guide to LUFS targets.
What the checkup looks at
- Shape. Vertical apps are built around 9:16. A 16:9 video plays as a thin strip on TikTok and Reels, and it can't be a YouTube Short at all.
- Resolution. 1080×1920 is the vertical standard. Smaller looks soft, and bigger is re-compressed on upload anyway.
- Frame rate. TikTok accepts up to 60 fps but 30 is the usual choice, X accepts up to 60, and Instagram asks for at least 30.
- Length and file size. Compared with each platform's published limits. A video that's too long can't be shortened automatically, so we link to the video trimmer.
- Container and codecs. MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio is accepted everywhere. HEVC, 10-bit H.264 and WebM often upload fine, and also cause the most surprises.
- HDR. HDR can look washed out where an app doesn't handle it. YouTube accepts HDR, so we leave it alone there.
- Rotation. Phones often store video sideways with a flag that turns it upright, and some upload pages ignore the flag.
- Sound and loudness. Integrated loudness and true peak, measured the way streaming services do it (ITU-R BS.1770, the same method as the loudness meter).
- Bitrate. Far more data than a picture needs only slows the upload, and far too little gives blocky video. Re-encoding can't bring back detail that is already gone.
What Fix everything does, and what it leaves alone
Only the checks that failed or warned are changed, and the panel lists every change before anything runs.
- One pass. The picture and the sound are encoded together. Loudness is normalized with the same gain and look-ahead limiter as the loudness meter, and handed to the encoder as part of the same conversion.
- No needless re-encoding. If only the container or the sound needs fixing, the picture is copied untouched, so there is no quality loss and it finishes in seconds.
- Reshaping. Choose a blurred background, which keeps the whole picture, or a crop that fills the frame. To control exactly what stays in frame, use Resize for Social.
- It checks its own work. The finished file goes through the same checkup, so you see every row go green, or exactly what is left.
What it can't do: shorten a video that is too long, add detail to a low-resolution or heavily compressed one, or add sound that isn't there. Those are flagged so you can deal with them. Very quiet sound is raised by at most 24 dB, and by less when reaching the target would take heavy limiting that squashes it, so a few clips may still end up a little under the target. HDR is converted by your browser's colour handling, so check the result looks right. Sound tracks over 20 minutes are too long to measure in the browser, so their loudness is left alone.
Check that buttons and captions stay clear
TikTok, Reels and Shorts draw buttons, captions and a header over your video. After fixing, open the result in the safe zone checker to see what gets covered. For the full story on vertical video, read our guide to vertical video for Shorts, Reels and TikTok.