Platform sizing guides
YouTube Aspect Ratio: Videos & Shorts Calculator
Choose YouTube video and Shorts dimensions, resize 16:9 or 9:16 frames, and compare landscape-to-portrait crops without stretching.
Choose the viewing format before setting export dimensions. YouTube’s desktop player uses 16:9 as its standard but adapts to other shapes. The calculator below starts at 1920 × 1080; the portrait presets open the full calculator with the selected dimensions.
Resize With This Ratio — 16:9
Change either side. The other updates proportionally. Results show whole pixels and the exact value before rounding.
Exact height: 1080 px
YouTube — dimension presets
Select a size to open the calculator in this language. Width comes first. These are working canvases, not a complete list of accepted formats or upload limits.
| Layout | Ratio | Calculate size (px) | Use and limitations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Widescreen Full HD | 16:9 | 1920 × 1080 | 16:9 landscape export example. |
| Widescreen HD | 16:9 | 1280 × 720 | Same shape, fewer pixels. |
| Widescreen UHD | 16:9 | 3840 × 2160 | Use when the source supports this detail. |
| Portrait Short | 9:16 | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 fills a portrait canvas. |
| Square Short | 1:1 | 1080 × 1080 | Square shape; check duration and upload eligibility too. |
Standard video versus YouTube Shorts
For standard channels, YouTube categorizes square or vertical videos uploaded on or after October 15, 2024 as Shorts when they are up to three minutes long. Shape alone does not determine every upload outcome: older uploads and channel-specific rules can differ. A 16:9 export is wider than it is tall and suits the standard watch-page format. Check YouTube’s linked Shorts guidance before delivery.
Resize Full HD to HD without changing the frame
A 1920 × 1080 source resized to 1280 pixels wide needs 720 pixels high: 1280 × 9 ÷ 16 = 720. Both sides scale by two-thirds. The output contains 921,600 pixels rather than 2,073,600, but neither the subject’s proportions nor the 16:9 shape changes. Upscaling the same source to 3840 × 2160 does not recreate detail that was never recorded.
Turn a landscape recording into a portrait Short
A 9:16 crop from 1920 × 1080 retains an exact 607.5 × 1080 region before whole-pixel rounding, about 31.64% of the source area. Scaling that narrow region to 1080 × 1920 enlarges it; it does not retain the entire landscape shot. Follow the speaker or subject with the crop in your editor, and use separate cuts when two subjects are too far apart to fit.
Do not add black bars just to satisfy 16:9
YouTube advises against baking padding or black bars into a video simply to fit its player, because the player adapts to the uploaded frame. Keep an intentional portrait or square composition in its native shape. Padding can still be an editorial choice for a deliberately designed canvas, but it is not a universal upload requirement.
Check the finished export
Inspect captions, faces and titles in the actual player on a phone and desktop. The preview here models frame geometry only; it does not reproduce Shorts interface overlays, encode footage or upload a file. Confirm the exported width and height in your editor, and check duration, sound and compression separately from aspect ratio.
Plan a different shape without stretching
Compare cropping and padding in the main calculator before editing. The tools plan dimensions only; they do not upload or edit your image or video.
Open the aspect ratio calculatorRelated dimensions
Additional references (English)
Official references and scope
References reviewed on October 6, 2026. Pixel examples and crop calculations are our own geometry calculations. Platform specifications can change; check your exact publishing destination. External references may be in English.
YouTube video resolution and aspect ratios — Desktop player behavior and widescreen export sizes.
YouTube three-minute Shorts — Shorts classification, dates and channel-specific exceptions.