Video Uploading Tips: Instagram Edition

New to posting videos on Instagram? Looking for video uploading rules or strategies to implement so your videos don’t look cut off in your profile? Don’t worry! We’ve got you covered with our video that goes into the basic tips into uploading videos on Instagram. We explain the certain aspect ratios, resolution sizes, as well as the recommended device needed to upload videos onto the platform. Know all the components of uploading to Instagram, and soon your videos will be IG ready!

Instagram is probably one of, if not the most confusing platforms to upload videos to. With what seems like a million different aspect ratios and rules, it can be overwhelming. That’s why we’re here to provide you with the basics and have you racking up views and likes in no time.

First of all, there are two types of videos on Instagram: regular videos, which are under 60 seconds, and IGTV videos, which are over 60 seconds. Each of the two types of videos has two aspect ratios. Regular videos can have aspect ratios of either 1.9:1 or 4:5, while IGTV can have videos with aspect ratios of either 16:9 or 9:16. IGTV videos, on top of being over 60 seconds in length, have to be both an MP4 file and under a 3.6 GB file size.

IGTV videos, similar to YouTube, have thumbnails, which is a picture that users see before viewing the video. These thumbnails have a totally different aspect ratio of 1:1.55. The minimum resolution of them can be 492 x 792 pixels, but Instagram recommends a resolution of 1240 x 1920 pixels.

While Instagram can be used on both mobile devices and computers, it is very limited on computers. The only videos you can upload from computers are IGTV videos, not regular videos. Keep this in mind when you need to upload regular videos. 

Lastly, you can connect your Instagram and Facebook accounts to allow simultaneous uploads between the two platforms. This can be very helpful in reducing time if you run multiple social media pages.