Video Specs for Every Platform: The Cross-Posting Cheat Sheet
File size, length, format and caption limits for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Threads and Telegram — in one table you can keep open while you edit.
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Every platform accepts video, but each one has its own rules for length, file size and text. Upload a 12-minute file to a destination that stops at 10 and you find out the hard way — usually after the other platforms have already gone live.
This cheat sheet collects the limits that matter when you publish the same video to many places. They're the limits of each platform's official publishing API as of October 2026, which is what scheduling tools (including PostGaadi) have to follow. The in-app limits on your phone can occasionally differ.
The quick table
| Platform | Length | Max file size | Formats | Text limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | No practical limit for verified channels | 256 GB | MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI | Title 100, description 5,000 |
| Instagram Reels | 3 s – 15 min | 300 MB | MP4, MOV | Caption 2,200, up to 30 hashtags |
| Facebook Page video | Depends on format | 1 GB | MP4, MOV | Very long posts allowed |
| Facebook Reels | 3 – 90 s, vertical 9:16 | 1 GB | MP4, MOV | Very long posts allowed |
| TikTok | 3 s – 10 min (varies by creator) | 4 GB | MP4, MOV, WebM | Caption 2,200 |
| 3 s – 30 min | 500 MB | MP4 | Post text 3,000 | |
| 4 s – 15 min | 2 GB | MP4, MOV, M4V | Title 100, description 800 | |
| Threads | Up to 5 min | 1 GB | MP4, MOV (H.264 or HEVC) | Text 500 |
| Telegram (Bot API) | — | 50 MB | MP4 | Caption 1,024 |
The one export that works almost everywhere
If you only want to export once, these settings are accepted by every destination above:
- Container: MP4
- Video codec: H.264
- Audio codec: AAC
- Frame rate: 24, 25, 30 or 60 fps — keep whatever you shot
- Resolution: 1080×1920 for vertical short-form, 1920×1080 for horizontal
For short-form, shoot and edit vertical (9:16). Reels, TikTok, Shorts, Threads and Facebook Reels are all built around it, and Facebook Reels requires it.
Where cross-posting usually breaks
Length
The tightest common limit is Facebook Reels at 90 seconds, then Threads at 5 minutes and TikTok at 10 minutes (TikTok sets a maximum per creator, and some accounts get less). If a video is longer than a destination allows, either trim a version for that platform or post it as a regular video where that's an option.
File size
Most phone exports are small, but long 4K files are not. Instagram's 300 MB and LinkedIn's 500 MB ceilings catch long, high-bitrate exports. Re-exporting at 1080p usually fixes it without a visible quality loss on a phone screen.
Text
Write your caption for the strictest destination first, then expand it where there's room. Threads stops at 500 characters and Telegram at 1,024, while Instagram and TikTok allow 2,200. Put the most important line first — every platform truncates captions in the feed anyway.
How PostGaadi helps
When you add destinations to a campaign, PostGaadi reads your file's length, resolution, codec and size, and checks your caption against each platform's limit before anything is published. A destination that won't accept the file is flagged with the reason, and when a platform needs a different codec or container, a compatible copy is created for it automatically.
Tip: keep this page bookmarked. We update the table when platforms change their publishing limits.
Try PostGaadi for free
Upload one video, check it against every platform's rules, and publish to YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and more at once.
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