YouTube Aspect Ratio: The Ultimate Guide for Content Creators

To enhance the quality of your content and grow your audience and brand as a creator, you need to understand the best aspect ratio for YouTube thumbnails, videos, and shorts. This guide explains the correct aspect ratio you should choose when uploading content on YouTube.

What's the Best Aspect Ratio for YouTube Videos?

The aspect ratio means how the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the video frame are related to one another. Before recording, you can set your YouTube video aspect ratio in the camera. If you forget to set it, you can use a video editing tool like UniFab to change it in post-production.

Most Used YouTube Aspect Ratios

Here are the three most used YouTube aspect ratios you can choose before starting to upload videos on the YouTube channel:

• 1:1: At a 1:1 aspect ratio, your video frame appears like a perfect square. For mobile playback, the YouTube app adjusts the video frame to fit any aspect ratio; however, when played on a desktop, YouTube adds padding or black bars around a 1:1 video to fill gaps for a better viewing experience.
• 4:3: The 4:3 aspect ratio is a traditional TV display. In this aspect ratio, you'll have black bars on the side to fill the blank space on the desktop, though mobile playback will adjust to fit on the screen.
• 16:9: YouTube recommends the 16:9 aspect ratio for a good viewing experience because, with this aspect ratio, your video covers the entire screen, both on desktop and mobile devices, without any padding.

Setting the correct aspect ratio is not enough to ensure your videos look great. When uploading videos on YouTube, consider dimension, size, length, file format, and video quality.

The correct and best aspect ratio for YouTube videos is 16:9. Similarly, the platform's permissible video size is 128GB, while the maximum dimensions are 3840x2160 pixels, and the video length is 12 hours. The recommended video format for high-quality videos is MP4.

What's the Best Aspect Ratio for YouTube Shorts?

The best YouTube shorts aspect ratio is 9:16 with a resolution of 1080x1920 pixels. 9:16 is the best aspect ratio for most smartphones because it covers the entire mobile screen without black bars.

The proper aspect ratio and resolution ensure your shorts display the best quality on smartphones, where they are usually viewed. However, more than choosing the standard YouTube shorts aspect ratio, it is necessary to ensure your videos have the potential to go viral. Choose the accepted video formats, correct dimensions, and size to make your videos viral. Plus, always upload the best-quality video in under 60 seconds and keep it vertical for maximum reach and visibility.

Other video social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, and Instagram Reels use the same video format and screen size. So, perfectly aligned YouTube shorts aspect ratio (9:16) allow you to upload the same content to multiple platforms.

What is the Best YouTube Thumbnail Aspect Ratio?

The YouTube video thumbnail is this platform's key component that acts as a visual teaser or akin to a book cover. A representative video image determines whether a viewer will click on your video or choose another. So, your YouTube thumbnail should be captivating with the right aspect ratio.

The best YouTube thumbnail aspect ratio is 16:9 with 1280 X 720 pixels resolution. YouTube allows you to upload a 2MB maximum file size image as a thumbnail image on YouTube. Upload eye-catching YouTube thumbnail images with dimensions 1280 pixels wide x 720 pixels tall in accepted image file formats such as JPG (or JPEG), GIF, PNG, and BMP.

Use the recommended YouTube thumbnail aspect ratio, file format, dimensions, and high-quality images to increase traffic and potential subscribers for your YouTube channel.

Best Tool for Upscale YouTube Videos

You must choose the correct YouTube video resolutions to balance quality and file size. Quality videos matter a lot, in addition to other parameters. For example, suppose you have set all other parameters such as YouTube aspect ratio, length, format, etc., but your video needs to be better recorded or low-quality. In that case, it will not be pleasing visually.

If your video quality cannot grab viewers' attention, you can upscale your videos with any online tool. However, UniFab AI Video Enhancer is the most recommended software for upscale YouTube videos.

UniFab AI Video Enhancer is a powerful tool that can upscale ordinary videos to 720p, 1080p, 4K, and 8K to add more details. It uses two different AI models, Universal and Animation, to analyze each frame and enhance details, creating crisp, more vibrant, high-quality visuals at any resolution you set.

This AI-powered software will automatically add new pixel dots to your poor-quality video, upscaling it to 4K. With a user-friendly interface, UniFab is easy to use and available at an affordable price. It meets all your video enhancement needs. Using UniFab, you can easily remove noise, recover lost details, and enhance your poorly shot videos to the look you want. Try UniFab AI Video Enhancer and enjoy visually appealing videos that lead to higher retention rates.

FAQs

Can I make a square YouTube Short (1:1)?

No, a vertical format with a 9:16 aspect ratio at 1080×1920 pixels (resolution) is required for YouTube Shorts. Square videos with a 1:1 aspect ratio don't meet this standard and will not qualify as Shorts on YouTube. You can upload a square video, but in this format, YouTube creates borders at the top and bottom to convert it to a vertical format.

What video formats does YouTube support?

YouTube supports multiple video formats, including MOV, MPEG, MP4, WMV, AVI, MPEG PS, FLV, HEVC, WebM, and 3GPP.