How to resize a video for Instagram, TikTok and YouTube

Step by step

1. Open your videoOpen Resize video and drop in your file. It opens in your browser, with no sign-up.
2. Pick the formatChoose 9:16 for TikTok, Reels and Shorts, 4:5 for Instagram and LinkedIn feeds, 1:1 for square posts or 16:9 for YouTube.
3. Fill or fitFill the frame crops the edges so there are no bars. Show everything keeps the whole picture and adds bars, which you can colour to match your video.
4. ReframeDrag the video on the preview until the subject sits where you want it, and scale it up a little if you need to. The video is cropped or fitted, never stretched.
5. Check text and captionsMake sure titles and captions are inside the new frame and clear of the app’s buttons. Captions re-wrap to fit the new width.
6. ExportClick Export, download the MP4 and upload it to the platform.

Which size for which platform

Most platforms are built around four shapes. Use 1080 pixels on the short side unless you have a reason not to. The full table, with safe zones, is in our video sizes cheat sheet.

• 9:16 (1080×1920): TikTok, Instagram Reels and Stories, YouTube Shorts, Facebook Reels.
• 4:5 (1080×1350): Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn feed posts.
• 1:1 (1080×1080): square feed posts on any platform.
• 16:9 (1920×1080): YouTube, websites, presentations and TVs.

Crop or fit? How to choose

Fill (crop) looks native: the video covers the whole screen, which is what viewers expect on TikTok and Reels. The cost is what gets cut off. Turning a 16:9 video into 9:16 keeps only about a third of the width, so it suits footage with one subject in the middle — a person talking, a product, a single action.

Fit keeps everything, with bars above and below (or at the sides). Choose it for wide shots, screen recordings, slides and anything with text near the edges. Bars don’t have to look empty: put a headline in the top bar and captions in the bottom one, or colour the background to match your brand.

When the subject moves

A single crop position won’t work if the person walks across the frame or the conversation switches between two people. Split the clip where the action moves (press S at the playhead) and drag each part into place. For a smooth move, use keyframes: set the position at one moment, move the playhead, set it again, and the frame glides between the two.

Common mistakes

• Stretching the video to fill a new shape. Faces get wide or thin and it looks broken; always crop or fit instead.
• Uploading landscape with black bars to TikTok or Reels. The video ends up tiny on a phone screen.
• Text near the edges. After resizing, titles that were fine in 16:9 can end up cut off or under the app’s buttons.
• Expecting more detail than the source has. Cropping a 1080p landscape video to vertical enlarges a small part of it, so it looks softer. Film in 4K if you know you’ll crop.

One edit, several platforms

Edit once in the shape you need most, then change the format for each platform and export again. With no clip selected, the right-hand panel shows the Format presets (16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5 and 21:9). Studio screen recordings re-frame the screen, the camera bubble and the captions for each format at once.

Free exports are HD with a small watermark; paid plans remove the watermark and add Full HD and 4K. There are more tips for each platform on the Instagram Reels and TikTok pages.

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