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Instagram Video Requirements

Why invest in Instagram marketing? It’s a hot spot for brand discovery.

Why invest in Instagram video? It drives double the engagement (or more) of posts with images alone.

Plus, social media has been skyrocketing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instagram in particular has seen more growth than other social networks, like Facebook, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020 social media usage instagram vs snapchat vs facebook

All this to say… It’s a good time to be posting videos to your brand’s Instagram account. But, for your video to enjoy all the reach and engagement it can, you need to follow Instagram’s video requirements.

Read on for your quick guide to the recommended Instagram video formats for your feed, Stories, Live, and IGTV.

Instagram Feed Video Requirements

Instagram posts can have one of three video formats: landscape, square, and vertical. If you’re uploading a video as a post, here are the specs you need to know.

File Type: MP4 or MOV
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 for landscape, 1:1 for square, and 4:5 for vertical
Minimum Resolution: 600×315 for landscape, 600×600 for square, and 600×750 for vertical
Maximum File Size: 4GB
Maximum Length: 60 seconds
Frame Rate: 23 to 60 FPS

While 600px is the minimum resolution for Instagram video posts, Instagram experts recommend using 1080px. This ensures your video is quality enough to attract views and engagement.

Speaking of engagement, post vertical or square videos whenever possible. You can’t tilt your phone when using Instagram, so if you upload a video in landscape format, it will be difficult for your followers to watch it. On the flip side, with a vertical video, your post takes up more real estate within the app and people can see more of the details of your video.

Instagram Feed Video Ad Requirements

You can use any of the same three video formats for your Instagram video ads (landscape, square, and vertical). To get your ad approved, make sure it meets these requirements:

File Type: MP4, MOV, or GIF
Aspect Ratio: 1.91:1 to 4:5 (4:5 is recommended)
Minimum Width: 500px
Minimum Resolution: 1080×1080
Maximum File Size: 30MB
Length: 1 second up to 2 minutes
Primary text: up to 125 characters
Headline Text: up to 40 characters
Hashtag Limit: 30

Instagram recommends including captions and sounds with your video ad, but they are not required.

Instagram Stories Video Requirements

You can also upload videos as Instagram Stories. Here are the specs.

File Type: MP4 or MOV
Aspect Ratio: 9:16
Minimum Resolution: 600×1067 (1080×1920 is recommended)
Maximum File Size: 4GB
Maximum Length: 15 seconds

Note: If you upload a video longer than 15 seconds, Instagram will split up your story into 15 second clips.

Instagram Live Video Requirements

Instagram Live has similar video requirements to Instagram Stories. The main difference is that you can record for up to 4 hours.

IGTV Video Requirements

You can upload both horizontal and vertical videos to IGTV. Here are the requirements for IGTV:

File Type: MP4
Aspect Ratio: 9:16 for vertical videos and 16:9 for horizontal videos
Minimum Resolution: 720 pixels
Maximum File Size: 650MB for videos shorter than 10 minutes, 3.6GB for videos up to 60 minutes
Minimum Length: 1 minute
Maximum Length: up to 15 minutes for videos uploaded on mobile, and 60 minutes for videos uploaded via web
Minimum Frame Rate: 30 FPS