Screen resolution for video: YouTube, Shorts, Reels, OBS & editing
Jump to: YouTube OBS and streaming TikTok and Reels Recording vs editing vs export Monitor resolution while editing
Resolution for video isn’t one number. It’s three: what you record at, what you edit at, and what you export at. Getting any one wrong degrades the final output even if the other two are correct.
Here’s what each platform actually needs.
YouTube
| Quality label | Resolution | Aspect ratio | Min bitrate (H.264) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 720p HD | 1280×720 | 16:9 | 5 Mbps |
| 1080p FHD | 1920×1080 | 16:9 | 8 Mbps |
| 1440p QHD | 2560×1440 | 16:9 | 16 Mbps |
| 4K UHD | 3840×2160 | 16:9 | 35–45 Mbps |
| 4K HDR | 3840×2160 | 16:9 | 44–56 Mbps |
Export at 1920×1080 unless you have native 4K footage. Upscaling 1080p to 4K before uploading doesn’t improve quality — YouTube re-encodes to its own bitrate targets regardless.
The 1440p trick is real though. YouTube’s compression pipeline treats videos with a 1440p or 4K label differently. They get higher bitrate allocations in the VP9 and AV1 encoding pass, which makes 1080p playback look noticeably cleaner than a native 1080p upload. If you shoot in 4K but deliver to 1080p viewers, export at 1440p or 4K for better perceptual quality at the viewer’s end.
Frame rate: match your source. 24fps for cinematic content, 30fps for general video, 60fps for gaming and fast motion.
OBS and streaming
OBS has two resolution settings that confuse most new streamers.
Base (canvas) resolution — the coordinate space OBS uses for your scene layout. Set this to your monitor’s native resolution. For most setups: 1920×1080.
Output (scaled) resolution — what actually gets encoded and sent to Twitch, YouTube Live, or wherever. This is what matters for stream quality.
| Upload bitrate | Output resolution | Frame rate | Platform ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2,000–3,000 Kbps | 1280×720 | 30fps | Twitch basic, YouTube Live |
| 4,500–6,000 Kbps | 1920×1080 | 60fps | Twitch Partner, YouTube Live |
| 8,000–12,000 Kbps | 1920×1080 | 60fps | YouTube Live (recommended) |
| 15,000–51,000 Kbps | 3840×2160 | 60fps | YouTube Live 4K (requires verification) |
Twitch caps non-Partner accounts at 6,000 Kbps. At that bitrate, 1080p60 works but fast motion gets blocky. If your content has a lot of movement (FPS games, action scenes), 720p60 at 6,000 Kbps often looks better than 1080p60 at the same bitrate because each frame gets more data.
OBS scaling filter matters too. Use Lanczos when downscaling (e.g., 1080p canvas to 720p output). It’s slower to render but sharpest. Bilinear is fast and soft. Area is good for pixel art.
TikTok, Instagram Reels, YouTube Shorts
All three platforms want 1080×1920 at 9:16 aspect ratio. That’s vertical video — phone orientation, tall and narrow.
| Platform | Recommended resolution | Aspect ratio | Max file size | Max duration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TikTok | 1080×1920 | 9:16 | 4 GB | 60 min |
| Instagram Reels | 1080×1920 | 9:16 | 1 GB | 15 min |
| YouTube Shorts | 1080×1920 | 9:16 | 256 GB | 3 min |
| Instagram Stories | 1080×1920 | 9:16 | 4 GB | 60 sec per story |
If you’re shooting on a phone, you’re already at the right aspect ratio. If you’re shooting on a camera in landscape (16:9), you have two options: reframe for vertical in your editor by cropping, or shoot with a vertical mount.
Don’t crop a 1920×1080 landscape video to 9:16 — you’ll end up with 607×1080, well below the 1080×1920 target. Shoot vertical from the start if TikTok or Reels is the destination.
Instagram feed posts use different dimensions:
| Feed format | Resolution | Aspect ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Square | 1080×1080 | 1:1 |
| Portrait (recommended) | 1080×1350 | 4:5 |
| Landscape | 1080×608 | 1.91:1 |
Portrait (4:5) takes up the most real estate in the feed, so most creators use it for static posts.
Recording vs editing vs export
These are three separate stages and they don’t have to match.
Record at the highest resolution your camera supports. 4K if possible. More pixels give you crop flexibility in the edit — you can push in on a subject without losing quality on a 1080p timeline. And downscaling 4K to 1080p sharpens the image because you’re averaging multiple pixels into one.
Edit at your delivery resolution. If you’re delivering 1080p, set your editing timeline to 1920×1080. Editing at 4K when your export is 1080p wastes render time and RAM.
Export at exactly what the platform expects. Match the resolution table for your platform. Don’t round up hoping for better quality — export at the native delivery spec.
The common mistake is recording at 1080p when the target is 4K YouTube. You’re starting below your delivery ceiling and the platform can’t create quality that wasn’t captured. Record high, deliver to spec.
Monitor resolution while editing
Your editing monitor resolution affects what you see in the preview, not the output file.
Editing 4K footage on a 1080p monitor means you’re viewing a downscaled preview. The export still contains all 4K data. You just can’t review it at full pixel detail on that display.
For practical editing work, a 1080p monitor is fine for 1080p delivery. For 4K color grading or sharpness review, you need a 4K display. A 27-inch 4K monitor at 100% zoom shows you genuine pixel-level detail; the same footage on a 1080p monitor is interpolated.
If you’re unsure what resolution your current display is outputting right now, the screen resolution checker shows your live display metrics. For context on how CSS pixels relate to physical pixels (relevant when editing on a MacBook Retina or HiDPI display), see the viewport vs resolution vs DPR guide.
One practical note: phone displays are increasingly used as secondary monitors for color reference. A 6.7-inch Samsung Galaxy at QHD+ (3088×1440) has higher pixel density than most desktop monitors. If you’re checking vertical video on your phone before publishing, that’s actually a good accuracy check — your audience is watching on the same hardware.