YouTube Video Size
& Aspect Ratio
Type the dimensions and length. You get the aspect ratio, the resolution tier, whether it will actually publish as a Short — and how much of the player frame it fills once YouTube pads the rest.
- ● Shorts eligibility, both conditions
- ● Exact frame fill, not a guess
- ● Every resolution tier compared
- ● Runs entirely in your browser
Aspect ratio 1:1 or narrower. 9:16 fills the phone; 1:1 and 4:5 also qualify.
Raised from 60 seconds in October 2024. Guides still saying a minute are out of date.
Both, not either. A flawless 9:16 video three seconds too long publishes to the watch page — the single most common reason a Short "didn't work".
Exact fit — the video fills the frame with nothing wasted.
Bars left and right. The video occupies 32% of the frame width; nothing is cut off.
Ratio and length are checked separately, so when a video does not qualify you can see which one failed instead of guessing.
A 16:9 video in the Shorts player fills about 32% of the screen. Knowing that before you upload is the difference between reframing and re-shooting.
Three minutes for a Short, not sixty seconds. That changed in October 2024 and a lot of tools never noticed.
It is arithmetic on two numbers. No upload, no API call, no account — it works offline once the page has loaded.
How to
How to check your YouTube video size
Your editor's export settings show them, or right-click the file → Properties → Details on Windows, Get Info on a Mac.
Any separator works. Length accepts 45, 1:30 or 2m15s — whichever your editor reports.
Short or watch page, and which of the two conditions decided it. Then the ratio, the resolution tier and the pixel count.
The two previews show what the video looks like in each player. If the fill is low, reframe before you export rather than after you upload.
Reference
Every resolution YouTube accepts
Widths shown at 16:9. For a Short, swap them — 1080p vertical is 1080×1920, not 1920×1080.
The line that matters is 1440p. Below it YouTube uses its older codec; at or above it, the newer one. Two exports of the same footage, one at 1080p and one at 1440p, do not look the same even played back at 480p.
| Tier | Landscape | Vertical |
|---|---|---|
| 240p | 426×240 | 240×426 |
| 360p | 640×360 | 360×640 |
| 480p | 854×480 | 480×854 |
| 720p (HD) | 1280×720 | 720×1280 |
| 1080p (Full HD) | 1920×1080 | 1080×1920 |
| 1440p (2K) | 2560×1440 | 1440×2560 |
| 2160p (4K) | 3840×2160 | 2160×3840 |
| 4320p (8K) | 7680×4320 | 4320×7680 |
Limits
What this checker cannot do
You type the numbers; nothing is uploaded. That is the trade for a tool that costs nothing to run and cannot leak your footage.
Dimensions are only part of quality. A 4K export at a starved bitrate looks worse than a well-encoded 1080p, and no dimension checker sees that.
It applies the two published rules. YouTube also considers signals it does not document, and a qualifying video is not guaranteed distribution in the Shorts feed.
The Shorts UI overlays the bottom and right edge with buttons and captions. The fill number is geometric — it does not know what is covered.
The three-minute limit was sixty seconds until October 2024. Specs move, and a page stating them is only as current as its last edit.
It tells you a 16:9 video fills a third of the Shorts frame. Making it fill more means reframing in the edit — there is no upload setting for it.
One tool, every intent
However you searched for it, this is the page
People arrive wanting the Shorts aspect ratio, the right video size, or an answer to why a vertical video did not become a Short. Same two inputs answer all three.
Before you export
Check the target dimensions against the format you want. Discovering that a three-minute-five-second cut cannot be a Short is far cheaper before the render than after the upload.
Repurposing between formats
Cutting a landscape video into Shorts? The frame-fill preview shows exactly how little of the phone screen a straight 16:9 crop uses — about a third — which is usually the argument for reframing rather than exporting as-is.
Matching the thumbnail
Thumbnails are 16:9 at 1280×720 whatever the video is. The thumbnail size guide covers the file limits, and Shorts use a frame from the video unless you set one.
Setting up a channel's artwork
Different specs entirely — the banner guide covers the safe area, which is the part that catches everyone out.
Also known as
- youtube video size
- youtube video aspect ratio
- yt shorts aspect ratio
- yt shorts dimensions
- yt short size
- youtube shorts resolution
- youtube aspect ratio calculator
- what size should a youtube video be
- how long can a youtube short be
- why is my short not a short
- youtube video dimensions
- does youtube crop my video
Related YouTube tools
Keep the workflow going
Grab a thumbnail at every resolution YouTube stores, build an embed at the right dimensions, or check a published video's real numbers.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What size should a YouTube video be?+
1920×1080 (1080p, 16:9) for the watch page, and 1080×1920 (9:16) for Shorts. Uploading at 1440p or 4K is worth it even if nobody watches at that resolution — YouTube switches to a better encoder above 1080p, and the improvement is visible at every playback quality.
What is the aspect ratio for YouTube Shorts?+
9:16 is the standard, but the actual rule is looser: any video that is square or taller qualifies. A 1:1 or 4:5 upload is a valid Short — it just leaves black bars on the sides of a phone screen. 9:16 is what fills the frame.
Why did my vertical video publish as a normal video instead of a Short?+
Almost always the length. A Short must be square-or-taller *and* 3 minutes or shorter — both, not either. A perfectly framed 9:16 video at 3 minutes and 5 seconds lands on the watch page. The checker above shows which of the two conditions failed.
How long can a YouTube Short be?+
Three minutes. It was 60 seconds until October 2024, so a lot of guides still say a minute — if a tool or article tells you 60 seconds, it has not been updated.
Does YouTube crop my video if the aspect ratio is wrong?+
No — it fits the whole frame in and pads the rest. Nothing is cut off, but a 16:9 video in the Shorts player fills only about 32% of the screen, with the rest as bars. That is why reframing beats hoping.
Is uploading in 4K worth it if my audience watches on phones?+
Usually yes, for a reason that is not about resolution. Above 1080p YouTube encodes with VP9/AV1 rather than the older codec, which means less compression damage — and that cleaner encode is what a phone viewer at 480p is watching a downscale of.