TikTok Video Size & Dimensions (2026)

TikTok’s native format is 1080 × 1920 pixels at 9:16, which fills the entire phone screen. TikTok does allow square (1:1) and landscape (16:9) videos, but they play with black bars on the sides or top/bottom, which looks out-of-place in a feed full of full-screen vertical content. Start at 9:16 whenever you can.

TikTok’s minimum acceptable resolution is 720 × 1280, but content below 1080p appears noticeably soft on most phones. Upload at 1080 × 1920 for crisp, algorithm-friendly quality. TikTok also processes some 4K uploads (2160 × 3840), which display at higher quality on supported devices, but 1080p is the safe default for widest compatibility.

The TikTok safe zone is the central portion of the frame. TikTok overlays username, captions, and song info at the bottom, and like/comment/share buttons on the right side. Keep all critical text and faces roughly within the center 75% of the frame width and the top 70% of the frame height to avoid overlap with these UI elements.

TikTok accepts MP4 and MOV with H.264 video codec. MP4 is the universal choice and processes fastest. The platform recompresses all uploads internally, so high-bitrate exports do not guarantee higher quality in the final published video — TikTok sets its own output bitrate. That said, uploading a high-quality source file gives TikTok’s encoder the best material to work with.

Audio should be AAC stereo, ideally at 192 kbps or higher. TikTok’s compression is aggressive on audio, so starting with a high-quality audio track keeps the output acceptable. Videos without audio are still allowed, but do not get music attribution or trend-linking.

Avoid variable frame rate (VFR) files — some screen recorders produce VFR by default, which can cause audio sync issues after TikTok re-encodes the video. Export at a fixed frame rate (30 fps is standard for screen content) before uploading.

Limelight for Mac includes a 9:16 vertical export mode built in. After recording your Mac screen, open the export panel and select “9:16 Vertical”. Limelight auto-crops and reframes the recording into a 1080 × 1920 MP4 that uploads directly to TikTok without any conversion step.

Limelight also tracks your cursor and auto-zooms into each click, keeping the active area centered in the vertical frame. This is especially useful for app demos and software tutorials on TikTok, where viewers follow along on their phones and need the content to stay large and readable even in 9:16.

Limelight shows your keystrokes on screen during recording — on-screen shortcut keys perform well on TikTok in productivity niches. The keystroke display is sized and positioned to fit within TikTok’s safe zone automatically.

Use text overlays, not just audio. A large portion of TikTok is watched muted. Text captions and on-screen labels dramatically increase watch time for tutorial and educational content.

First 2 seconds decide everything. TikTok’s algorithm measures whether viewers swipe away in the first couple of seconds. Hook with a surprising visual or a title that names the outcome: “This shortcut saves 2 hours a week.”

Loop-friendly endings. TikTok loops videos automatically. If the ending feels like a natural restart of the beginning, loop-watching pushes your average view duration above 100%, which is a strong positive signal to the algorithm.