Determining the right video length for your branded videos can be tricky. While social media is the ideal place to post videos about your brand, each platform has different criteria for your uploads. Some things are hard and fast rules--Instagram will automatically trim videos that are too long. Other things are best practices to improve both the user experience and use of the algorithm. Keep reading for our crash course on video length for YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
1) YouTube Videos: 12 hours Max (for Verified Accounts)
While non-verified YouTube accounts have a 15-minute limit, verified accounts are able to upload videos up to 12 hours long. In fact, if you have a verified account, you have much wider possibilities all around. In addition to the vastly increased time limit, verified users have the ability to upload videos of substantially higher quality with greater options. For instance, verified uploads can process up to 8k resolution (though we suggest 4k at 3840x2160). Max file size opens up to 256gb (more than 100x the unverified 2gb limit) with increased frame rate options (24fps, 25fps, 30fps). Even if you're sticking to posting videos 15 minutes and under, we highly recommend verifying your YouTube account to utilize these upgraded features for higher-quality video. You can find the original How-To guide for verifying your YouTube account here.
2) Instagram Reels: 90 Second Max
While Instagram has been pushing its users to post and view more reels (to compete with TikTok), it's still ultimately a photo platform. Because of this, Instagram reels has the shortest video time limit of other social media apps, clocking in at a 90 second max. Video resolution should be 1080x1920 (HD vertical) with a frame rate of 24fps to 60fps and a max 4gb file size. This means that just about any video shot on your smartphone will meet the requirements (though we definitely do not recommend recording all of your branded content on your phone). Check out our post about Reels from 10/24
3) TikTok Videos: 10 Minutes Max
Like reels, TikTok video resolution should be 1080x1920 (your smartphone's default). While your videos can be up to 10 minutes, we suggest keeping them under 3 minutes long. With the mass amounts of videos the TikTok algorithm funnels to its users, a video much longer than 3 minutes will struggle to keep the attention of your audience. While it can depend on your video's topic, 7 second videos still perform the best. Like Instagram, TikTok supports frame rates from 24fps to 60fps. However, max file size is smaller than that of both YouTube and Instagram, at 72mb for Android users and 278.6mb for ios users.
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