Best Video Aspect Ratio for TikTok, Reels & Shorts

For TikTok, Instagram/Facebook Reels, and YouTube Shorts ads, the answer is the same everywhere: 9:16 vertical at 1080×1920. All three platforms serve these placements full-screen on a phone, and anything shot or exported at 16:9 or 1:1 gets letterboxed with black bars — an instant signal to a scrolling thumb that the clip isn't native to the feed. On Flovaly specifically, some generation surfaces already default to 9:16 and some don't — worth knowing before you build a campaign around the wrong one.

The standard: 9:16 at 1080×1920

TikTok, Reels, and Shorts all recommend the same spec: 1080×1920 pixels, vertical, MP4 with H.264. TikTok technically accepts 1:1 and 16:9 too, but only 9:16 fills the screen — square and horizontal ads run with visible black bars top or side, which reads as off-platform content before the hook even lands. YouTube goes further and treats 9:16 as a hard requirement for a video to qualify as a Short at all. One more spec worth keeping in mind: every platform overlays its own UI (captions button, profile, follow prompt, sound icon) in slightly different spots near the edges, so keep your product, face, and on-screen text centred in roughly the middle 4:5 of the frame rather than right up against the top or bottom.

When 1:1 or 16:9 is still the right call

Vertical isn't universal, even for ad work. Meta's classic Feed and some Audience Network placements still perform fine at 1:1, and a square export cross-posts more safely to Facebook Feed than a clip cropped hard for 9:16. YouTube in-stream and pre-roll ads (the kind that play before or during a horizontal video someone chose to watch) are still 16:9 — a Short-format vertical clip looks wrong letterboxed into a landscape player. If a placement plan spans both short-form feeds and traditional in-stream slots, budget for two exports rather than force-fitting one aspect ratio everywhere.

Which Flovaly outputs are already 9:16 by default

Three of Flovaly's generation paths render vertical without you doing anything: UGC product ads (the Nano Banana Pro compositing flow), Viral Centre's template scenes (the compose-then-animate effects, not just the direct PixVerse presets), and the Talking Actor node inside Workflows. All three request 9:16 from the underlying video model automatically, so a clip built in any of those three surfaces comes out ready for TikTok, Reels, and Shorts placements with no reframing step.

Where Studio still defaults to landscape

The Studio's own Video and Talking Actor generation — the composer where you pick a base model (Seedance 2.0 Pro, Sora 2 Pro, Veo 3.1 Fast, or Kling 3.0) and hit Generate directly — requests 16:9 from that model instead. There's no aspect-ratio toggle in that composer today, so a base clip generated this way comes back horizontal by default. If you're building a TikTok or Reels ad through this specific path, the practical fix is either to reframe/crop the exported clip to 9:16 afterward in your editor of choice, or to route the same idea through UGC or Workflows instead, where vertical is already the default. This is a per-surface detail rather than a platform limitation — the same underlying models support 9:16 fine, Flovaly just requests a different ratio depending on which part of the product you're in.

The actor-creation ratio toggle is cosmetic today

One more detail worth knowing if you're building a custom actorfrom a text description rather than your own photo: the Create-actor modal shows a control that cycles between 9:16, 1:1, and 16:9 for the reference photo, but changing it doesn't currently change what gets generated — the AI-drawn reference photo always renders square, regardless of which ratio is selected. It has no effect on the aspect ratio of videos you later generate with that actor either, since that's set separately per generation surface as described above. If you specifically need the actor's own reference photo to start out vertical or horizontal (useful mainly for framing in downstream image edits), upload your own photo instead of using the prompt-based Create flow — an uploaded photo keeps whatever aspect ratio it was shot in.

Quick reference

• TikTok, Reels, Shorts ads:9:16, 1080×1920. Use UGC, Viral Centre, or Workflows' Talking Actor node on Flovaly for vertical output with no extra step.
• Meta Feed / cross-posting: 1:1 still works and avoids letterboxing on non-vertical placements.
• YouTube in-stream / pre-roll:16:9 — this is what Studio's Video and Talking Actor composer already outputs by default.
• Safe zone:keep faces, product, and on-screen text inside the centre 4:5 of the 9:16 frame so platform UI doesn't sit on top of it.

The short version: if the ad is going anywhere in a vertical scroll feed, aim for 9:16 and pick the Flovaly surface that already renders it that way — UGC, Viral Centre, or a Workflows Talking Actor node. Save Studio's direct Video/Talking Actor composer for landscape placements, or plan on a reframe pass afterward. See how the credit cost compares across surfaces in the full AI video ad cost breakdown, or start a clip with the $1 trial.

FAQ

What aspect ratio should I use for TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts ads?

9:16 vertical at 1080×1920 for all three. They're all built for full-screen phone playback, and anything shot at 16:9 or 1:1 gets letterboxed with visible black bars, which reads as off-platform content to a scrolling viewer.

Does Flovaly generate videos in 9:16 by default?

It depends which surface you use. UGC product ads, Viral Centre template scenes, and Workflows' Talking Actor node all request 9:16 automatically. Studio's own Video and Talking Actor composer (the one where you pick Seedance, Sora, Veo, or Kling directly) requests 16:9 instead, with no aspect-ratio toggle exposed for that path today.

Can I choose the aspect ratio when creating a custom actor on Flovaly?

The Create-actor modal shows a toggle that cycles between 9:16, 1:1, and 16:9, but it currently doesn't change the generated reference photo — that always renders square. If you need a specific starting aspect ratio for the actor's reference photo, upload your own image instead of using the prompt-based Create flow.

Is 1:1 or 16:9 ever better than 9:16 for social ads?

For short-form feed placements, no — 9:16 wins across TikTok, Reels, and Shorts. 1:1 still has a place for Meta Feed placements and cross-posting, and 16:9 is the right call for traditional YouTube in-stream and pre-roll ads that play inside a horizontal video player.

What resolution should the video be, not just the aspect ratio?

1080×1920 is the sweet spot every platform recommends — enough detail to survive compression on re-upload without pushing file size past TikTok's ad limits. Going higher than 1080p wastes bandwidth, since Shorts and Reels both cap what they actually serve to viewers around Full HD regardless of the source resolution.

FAQ