Best Export Settings for Instagram Reels and TikTok

Use this as your export preset. It sits comfortably inside the limits both platforms publish.

Instagram Reels. Meta's publishing specification for Reels lists MOV or MP4, HEVC or H.264 video with progressive scan, closed GOP and 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, 23 to 60 fps, a maximum video bitrate of 25 Mbps (VBR), AAC audio at up to 48 kHz in mono or stereo, 128 kbps audio, 3 seconds minimum and 15 minutes maximum, and a 300 MB file cap for files published through the API (which is what scheduling tools use). It recommends 9:16 to avoid cropping or blank space. Meta's ads guide for Reels lists 1440x2560 as a recommended size and files up to 4 GB.

TikTok. TikTok's Content Posting API accepts MP4 (recommended), WebM and MOV, with H.264 (recommended), H.265, VP8 or VP9, 23 to 60 fps, 360 to 4096 pixels per side, and files up to 4 GB. TikTok's in feed ad specs ask for 9:16 at 540x960 or larger, a bitrate of at least 516 kbps, and files up to 500 MB. Maximum length depends on your account, so check the limit shown in your upload screen.

Two numbers to remember: both platforms reject frame rates under 23 fps, and Meta caps video bitrate at 25 Mbps. Exporting at 40 Mbps does not help, it just makes a bigger file.

1080x1920 is what both apps display on most phones, and it is the size every editor has a preset for. Going higher (1440x2560 or 4K) mostly adds upload time; the file still gets transcoded. If your source is 4K horizontal, use that resolution for cropping, not for the export: crop the vertical frame from the 4K master and scale it down to 1080x1920. Our guide on converting horizontal video to vertical has the pixel math.

Never export below 1080 wide if your source is at least 1080p. A 720x1280 export gets scaled up by the player and looks soft next to everything else in the feed.

Export at the frame rate you recorded. If you shot 30 (29.97) fps, export 30. If you shot 25 fps in a PAL country, export 25. Converting 24 or 25 to 30 adds duplicated frames and visible judder in pans.

60 fps is worth it for gameplay, sports and fast screen recordings, and only if the source was recorded at 60. For talking heads and podcasts, 30 fps looks the same and gives the encoder more bits per frame at the same bitrate.

Both platforms accept HEVC, and HEVC produces a smaller file at the same visual quality. So why do we still recommend H.264?

Because the platform transcodes your file either way, and the viewer never sees your HEVC encode. What matters is that the upload is clean, and at 10 to 16 Mbps an H.264 file of 1080x1920 is clean. H.264 also exports faster on most machines, previews everywhere, and avoids the color surprises some editors produce when they write 10 bit HEVC.

Use HEVC if your file size is the bottleneck (long Reels near a size cap, slow upload connection) or if you are delivering HDR iPhone footage on purpose. Otherwise H.264 High profile is the safe default.

For 1080x1920 at 30 fps, 10 to 12 Mbps VBR is a good target. Push to 16 Mbps for footage with grain, confetti, water or fast motion, and around 16 to 20 Mbps for 60 fps. Stay under Meta's 25 Mbps cap.

Advice on page one ranges from 2 to 3 Mbps to 15 Mbps. Low bitrates are a bad idea: the platform encoder starts from a file that already has blocking in dark areas and gradients, and it cannot invent the detail back. A healthy upload gives the platform encoder clean material to work with.

Quick file size math: size in MB is roughly bitrate in Mbps x seconds / 8. A 60 second clip at 12 Mbps is about 90 MB. That fits under every limit above, including the 300 MB cap for Reels posted through scheduling tools.

For reference, Clipzi exports vertical clips at 1080x1920 with a delivery bitrate around 12 Mbps, rendered from your original upload rather than from a preview copy.

Use AAC (AAC LC) at 48 kHz, stereo, 128 kbps minimum; 192 to 320 kbps costs almost nothing in file size. Meta lists 48 kHz as the maximum sample rate for Reels, so do not export 96 kHz audio.

Loudness matters more than codec. Speech that peaks around -1 dBTP and sits at a consistent level holds up better against the music and voices around it in the feed than a quiet, dynamic mix.

Every upload is transcoded into several versions at different resolutions and bitrates. The app picks one based on the viewer's connection and screen, and switches during playback. That is how a video plays on a weak 4G signal. The version people watch is encoded at a fraction of the bitrate you exported.

You cannot turn that off. You can control three things: the quality of what goes in, how many lossy steps happened before (export once, from the original), and the in app settings that decide whether the high quality version gets made in the first place.

Premiere Pro: in the Export screen choose H.264, set the frame size to 1080x1920, match the sequence frame rate, Bitrate Encoding VBR 1 pass with a target of 12 Mbps, and AAC audio at 48 kHz. Save it as a preset.

CapCut desktop: Export, resolution 1080p, frame rate to match the source, Codec H.264, Format MP4, and set bitrate to Higher or Customize around 12 Mbps.

DaVinci Resolve: Deliver page, MP4, H.264, 1080x1920 custom resolution, quality restricted to about 12,000 Kb/s, AAC audio.

If you are cutting many clips from long recordings, Clipzi handles this part for you: it finds the best moments, reframes them to 9:16 with captions, and exports a file at the settings in this guide. Free plan: 2 long videos in total, no credit card. More workflows for podcasters and for turning a podcast into clips.