TikTok video size and length: in the app and from a scheduling app

Export a TikTok at 1080 × 1920. Through the API that scheduling apps use, every account can post 3 minutes and only some can post 5 or 10 minutes; in the app, TikTok's own pages say 10 minutes recorded and 60 minutes uploaded. Below, each rule as TikTok's app, its website and its API give it, linked to the TikTok page it comes from.

The app and the API: two rulebooks

Uploading a video yourself and posting through a scheduling app follow different rules. TikTok publishes the API's in its developer docs, and the app's and the website's on its support pages.

Swipe the table sideways to see every column.

A dash means we found no figure for that rule on TikTok's support pages. The same comparison for Instagram is in our Instagram video size guide, and every network at once is on the video limits page.

How long a TikTok can be

Through the API, the limit belongs to the account. TikTok's developer docs: “All TikTok creators can post 3-minute videos, while some have access to post 5-minute or 10-minute videos.” No account gets more than 10 minutes that way: “The longest video a developer can send via the initialize Upload Video endpoint is 10 minutes.”

A posting tool can ask TikTok for one account's own limit (max_video_post_duration_sec), and TikTok's docs tell it what to do with the answer: “Different users have different maximum video-duration privileges. Developers should use this field to stop video posts that are too long.” They add: “TikTok users may trim developer-sent videos inside the TikTok app to fit their accounts' actual maximum publish durations.”

In the app, TikTok's support page says: “Videos you record in TikTok can be up to 10 minutes long.” and “Videos you upload in TikTok can be up to 60 minutes long.” It adds: “Note: If you select a sound before you record or upload your video, the video length will be determined by the sound length.” For the website, TikTok's support page says uploads can be up to 30 minutes, but the upload page itself allowed 60 minutes and files up to 30 GB when we checked on our own shop's account on October 4, 2026. Trust the upload page.

So: keep a TikTok to 3 minutes if it has to post from any tool to any account. A longer one posts on the accounts TikTok allows it, up to 10 minutes through a scheduling app.

Posted, or sent to your inbox

A scheduling app can hand a video to TikTok two ways: post it straight to the account, or send it to the account's TikTok inbox for you to finish in the app. For the second, TikTok's docs tell developers: “You should inform users that they must click on inbox notifications to continue the editing flow in TikTok and complete the post.” And a tool TikTok hasn't audited can't post in public. From the direct-post docs: “All content posted by unaudited clients will be restricted to private viewing mode.” Postango posts straight to the account, not to the inbox, and sets no privacy option of its own for TikTok. Who can see a video is shown on the video in the TikTok app, so check your first post there.

Aspect ratio and pixels

Make it 9:16, 1080 × 1920. TikTok's developer docs set no aspect ratio at all. Their only picture rule is 360 to 4,096 pixels on each side, so 1080 × 1920 fits, and so does a 4K phone video. TikTok's support page says website uploads must be “720x1280 resolution or higher” (TikTok), and TikTok Ads Manager's in-feed ad specs give “Vertical (recommended): 9:16, more than or equal to 540*960px”, then “Horizontal: 16:9, more than or equal to 960*540px. Square: 1:1, more than or equal to 640*640px”.

Upload the original export, not a copy saved out of another app. TikTok keeps out of its For You feed “Reproduced or unoriginal content that is imported or uploaded without any new or creative edits, such as content with someone else's visible watermark or superimposed logo” (TikTok).

The cover

In the app, you choose it. TikTok Support: “A video cover is the thumbnail that previews your video in places like your profile or search results. You can select a video cover before posting a new video.” Then: “Drag and place the frame anywhere on the video.”

Through the API, the tool posting the video can name a frame. When it names none, TikTok's docs say: “If not set, or the specified value is invalid, the cover is set to the first frame of the uploaded video.” So open on a frame worth stopping for.

Text safe zones

The safe zones TikTok publishes in Ads Manager are for ads, and it says their size varies: “The safe zone size is determined by the dimension (vertical, horizontal, or square), ad caption length, and any additional formats used.” On an ordinary post, TikTok's username, caption and buttons sit over the bottom and right of the video. Postango places the words it adds onto the video picture (not the caption under the post) 16% up the frame (307 pixels on a 1,920-pixel-tall video), centred, and they have stayed readable on the posts of the shops Postango's founder runs.

File size and format

TikTok's developer docs, for a video sent through the API:

• Formats: MP4 (recommended), WebM or MOV
• Video codecs: H.264 (recommended), H.265, VP8 or VP9
• Frame rate: 23 to 60 frames a second
• Picture: 360 to 4,096 pixels on each side
• File size: up to 4 GB
• Length: up to 10 minutes, though every account is only promised 3 minutes (above)

No audio format is named (TikTok). In plain terms: an MP4 file with H.264 video. On the website, TikTok's support page lists MP4 or WebM under 10 GB; the upload page itself allowed up to 30 GB when we checked.

Captions and hashtags

Through the API, the caption is one field, and TikTok's docs describe it: “The video caption. Hashtags (#) and mentions (@) will be matched, or deliminated by spaces or new lines. The maximum length is 2200 in UTF-16 runes.” So hashtags and @mentions count toward the 2,200.

How many hashtags: TikTok's docs set no number. In August 2025, MediaPost reported TikTok warning users that they can use up to five per post, with an in-app message: “Maximum 5 hashtags. Use accurate hashtags to get more views.” Search Engine Land, the same month: “TikTok hasn't formally announced the update.” We found no TikTok page that states a limit, so treat five as the safe number rather than a published rule. Instagram, by contrast, has published its limit: five (our guide to it).

Check your own file

The free video checker reads a video's length, aspect ratio and file size in your browser, without uploading it. For a 4-minute video it answers “Can't tell” for TikTok: it posts on an account allowed 5 or 10 minutes and fails on one allowed only 3 minutes.

The same guide for the other networks: Instagram, YouTube Shorts, Facebook Reels and LinkedIn. Every network's limits, side by side, are on the video limits page.

What Postango does with TikTok

Postango, which publishes this guide, posts to TikTok through its API. What that means for a video:

• No TikTok version. TikTok gets the file every other network gets (cross-posting, explained). A vertical video is 720 × 1280 on Starter, and 1080 × 1920 on Pro and Workshop. Workshop makes wide videos up to 4K; a vertical video is 1080 × 1920 at most on every plan. Postango doesn't check the file size against TikTok's 4 GB.
• Length. Posted whole up to 10 min. A longer video is split into parts there, labelled “Part 1 of 2” and so on, unless you choose on the review card to cut it to 10 min or leave TikTok out. TikTok itself lets every account post 3 min and only some longer. Postango can't see your account's limit, so the review card warns you about a video over 3 min, and if TikTok refuses it, the post shows as failed on your calendar. Posting it in parts doesn't use more videos. Each part takes one of your posting days, so the next video goes out on the next free day. Postango's editor sets each video's length from your footage.
• Five hashtags at most. Yours go first, Postango's caption writer is told never to use #fyp, #viral or #trending, and a caption past 2,200 characters is cut between words (all of Postango's hashtag rules).
• No cover. TikTok shows the first frame. Postango sends a cover only to Pinterest, which requires one.
• Posted, not sent to your inbox. Postango's videos go straight to the TikTok account, not to your inbox as drafts. Postango posts through the posting service Postango uses, which holds the sign-in for each account you link and sends each post to the network; posting straight to the account is that service's default, and Postango doesn't change it.

Questions

Sources

TikTok's support pages read on October 4, 2026; everything else on October 3, 2026.

• TikTok developer docs: media transfer guide
• TikTok developer docs: query creator info
• TikTok Support: camera tools (video length)
• TikTok Support: tools for creators (uploading in TikTok Studio)
• TikTok developer docs: upload content (to the creator's inbox)
• TikTok developer docs: direct post
• TikTok Ads Manager: in-feed ad specifications (updated June 2026)
• TikTok: For You feed eligibility standards
• TikTok Support: editing, posting and deleting (video covers)
• MediaPost: TikTok limits hashtags (Aug 21, 2025)
• Search Engine Land: TikTok limits posts to five hashtags (Aug 18, 2025)