The recommended TikTok video size
TikTok is a vertical, full-screen app, so the resolution that fills the frame cleanly on a phone is 1080×1920 pixels — Full HD in portrait orientation. That is the size you should target on export from any editor.
You can upload smaller (720×1280) and TikTok will accept it, but the feed upscales it and detail softens. Going larger than 1080p rarely helps because TikTok re-encodes and compresses every upload anyway.
- Resolution: 1080×1920 px (Full HD vertical).
- Aspect ratio: 9:16 for full-screen.
- Frame rate: 30 fps standard, 60 fps for smooth motion.
- Format: MP4 (H.264) is the safest; MOV also works.
Aspect ratios TikTok supports
9:16 is the only ratio that fills the entire screen. TikTok also accepts 1:1 (square) and 16:9 (landscape), but those are letterboxed with blurred or black bars, which looks unfinished and usually underperforms.
If your footage is horizontal, reframe it to vertical in your editor rather than uploading a small letterboxed clip. Vertical, full-bleed video consistently earns more watch time.
Safe zones: keep content away from the UI
TikTok overlays its own interface on every video: the caption and username sit along the bottom, and the like, comment, share and sound icons run down the right edge. Anything important you place there gets covered.
As a rule of thumb, keep text and key subjects out of roughly the bottom 480 pixels and the right 110 pixels of a 1080×1920 frame. Center your hook text in the upper-middle third where nothing overlaps.
Length, file size and format limits
TikTok now supports videos from a few seconds up to 10 minutes, with longer uploads available to many accounts. For format, MP4 or MOV with H.264 video and AAC audio is the most compatible combination.
In-app recording caps file size around 72 MB on Android and roughly 287 MB on iOS, but uploading a pre-edited file from your gallery allows larger sizes. Keep the bitrate reasonable — TikTok compresses everything, so a 10–15 Mbps 1080p export is plenty.
Cover and thumbnail size
Your cover image uses the same 1080×1920 canvas as the video. But remember the profile grid crops covers to a narrower portrait (roughly 1:1.29), so keep titles and faces centered so they survive the crop on your profile.
Need the cover from an existing post? Pull the full-resolution thumbnail with the cover extractor instead of screenshotting.
Export settings that just work
In CapCut, Premiere, or any editor, set the canvas to 1080×1920, frame rate to match your footage (30 or 60 fps), and export H.264 MP4 at around 10–15 Mbps. That gives you a crisp file that survives TikTok's re-compression.