Delivery · 28 August 2026
Export settings for 9:16 social video
Practical H.264 settings for 1080×1920 social masters: frame rate, bitrate, colour, audio, and what FramePad’s in-browser encoder can and cannot do.
By the FramePad editorial desk · 8 min read · Updated 2026-08-28
A master that survives the app’s second encode
TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube all transcode what you upload. Your job is to give them a clean, reasonably high-bitrate 1080×1920 H.264 file in rec.709 so their encoder has something to work with. A 3 Mbps mobile export will look soft after the second encode. A 50 Mbps 4K HDR will be tone-mapped and is wasted weight. Aim for the middle.
A working baseline: 1080×1920, 30 fps (or 24 if the source is 24), H.264 high profile, yuv420p, 12–20 Mbps for pieces under 60 seconds, AAC 320 kbps or 256 kbps, stereo, −14 LUFS. sRGB / rec.709. No HDR. No open GOP tricks. This is not a cinema deliverable. It is a social master.
What FramePad writes in the tab
Stills export as PNG from the canvas. Video can export a WebM from MediaRecorder, or H.264 when FFmpeg.wasm loads. WASM encode is convenient and private; it is not as fast as a local hardware encoder. For a 15-second clip it is enough. For a 3-minute piece, export a mezzanine from your NLE after you have used FramePad to choose the crop.
Proof sheets burn the overlay into a still so a reviewer who will not open the studio can still see the collision. Do not publish the proof sheet. Publish the clean master.
Audio, loudness, and captions as data
Social apps duck and compress audio. If your voiceover sits at −24 LUFS it will feel quiet next to the next video. If it sits at −8 it will clip. −14 integrated is a reasonable target. Captions should be uploaded as the app’s caption field or a sidecar if the app accepts one, not only burned in. Burned-in titles are for the hook. Captions are for the words.
None of the encode leaves FramePad’s tab as an upload. The privacy page lists the third-party scripts that do run. The cropper is the right place to start if the source is still 16:9.
Open the matching tool
Keep reading
TikTok vs Reels vs Shorts: where the overlays actually differ
A measured comparison of TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts UI overlays on a 1080×1920 canvas — caption wells, action rails, and where on-screen type survives.
How to crop 16:9 to 9:16 without cutting faces
A practical method for converting landscape video to 9:16 vertical: pan per shot, avoid centre-crop accidents, and know when blur padding is the better master.
Instagram Story vs Reel safe zones
Stories and Reels are both 1080×1920, but the progress bars, reply field, caption well, and tab bar do not match. Here is what to keep clear on each.
Meta ad placements and the 9:16 safe zone
Where Meta draws sponsored labels, profile rows, and CTA buttons on 9:16 placements — and how to proof a creative before you spend.