Social media platforms re-encode every video you upload. They downscale, compress, and transcode to their internal formats. You have no control over this processing. But you do control what you upload, and uploading at the platform's recommended resolution produces the best post-processing result.
Uploading at a resolution the platform does not expect forces server-side scaling, which adds an extra processing step and can introduce softness or artifacts.
Recommended resolutions by platform (2026)
YouTube: - Standard: 1920x1080 (16:9) - Shorts: 1080x1920 (9:16) - 4K: 3840x2160 (16:9, if your source is 4K) - YouTube processes at native resolution and generates lower-resolution streams automatically.
Instagram: - Feed posts (landscape): 1080x566 (1.91:1) or 1080x1080 (1:1) - Feed posts (portrait): 1080x1350 (4:5) - Reels: 1080x1920 (9:16) - Stories: 1080x1920 (9:16) - Instagram downscales anything wider than 1080px to 1080px width.
TikTok: - Standard: 1080x1920 (9:16) - TikTok accepts other resolutions but 9:16 gets the best treatment.
Twitter/X: - Landscape: 1280x720 (16:9) minimum, 1920x1080 recommended - Portrait: 720x1280 or 1080x1920 - Square: 720x720 or 1080x1080 - Twitter compresses aggressively. Higher upload resolution gives the encoder more data to work with.
Facebook: - Feed: 1280x720 minimum, 1920x1080 recommended - Reels: 1080x1920 (9:16) - Stories: 1080x1920 (9:16)
LinkedIn: - Landscape: 1920x1080 (16:9) - Square: 1080x1080 (1:1) - Portrait: 1080x1350 (4:5) or 1080x1920 (9:16)
Aspect ratio vs. resolution
Resolution is the pixel count (e.g., 1920x1080). Aspect ratio is the shape (e.g., 16:9). Platforms care about both.
If your video is 16:9 but you need 9:16 for Reels, you cannot just change the resolution. You need to crop or rotate the content. Changing a 1920x1080 video to 1080x1920 without cropping would stretch and distort the image.
If your video is 16:9 and you need 1:1 for Instagram feed, crop the sides or add blur/black bars.
Why uploading at the right resolution matters
When you upload 4K (3840x2160) to Instagram (which maxes at 1080px width), Instagram downscales your video. This is an extra processing step that the platform performs with its own (often aggressive) compression settings. The result is often worse than if you had downscaled to 1080x1920 yourself with high-quality settings before uploading.
By matching the platform's target resolution (such as 1080x1920 for vertical reels) using the MediaBrew resolution tool, you skip aggressive server-side scaling and ensure the platform's encoder gets clean, pre-scaled pixels.