YouTube Shorts

At the end of this page you have a 1080 × 1920 film of 180 seconds or less that YouTube files as a Short. The same page can also make the 16:9 film: see Vertical social for the layout and YouTube for the wide upload.

The limits

The sourced table is in Video specs by platform. Read from YouTube Help on 2026-10-31:

• A video with a square or vertical aspect ratio, up to three minutes long, is a Short. YouTube states this for uploads from 2024-10-15.
• The maximum Shorts resolution is 1080p. YouTube publishes no pixel size, no frame rate and no file size for Shorts.
• YouTube states no loudness target.

The vawe 9:16 final is 1080 × 1920, which is inside the 1080p limit.

Safe zone (estimate)

YouTube publishes no pixel values for the Shorts interface.

As an estimate, use the Meta numbers for Reels ads: 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side kept free. They are a Meta suggestion for Instagram ads, not a YouTube rule. The pixel values for 1080 × 1920 are on Instagram Reels.

Make the film

bin/vawe new my-short --request "a 30 second tip about the product" --aspect 9:16 --length 30

bin/vawe still films/my-short/page.html --at 3 --aspect 9:16

bin/vawe dev films/my-short/page.html --aspect 9:16
bin/vawe ship films/my-short/page.html --aspect 9:16
bin/vawe ship --status --wait

Sound and captions

The moves caption-karaoke and caption-editorial in prompts/moves/ are two caption styles for words on screen. YouTube gives no loudness target, so the default mix is a safe start: it lands near -20 LUFS. See Loudness and the mix.

Limits

• A final is 60 fps. ship has no fps flag, and YouTube publishes no frame rate for Shorts.
• The Shorts upload help page says “vertical”. The newer three-minute page says “square or vertical”. This guide follows the newer page.
• A film of exactly 180 seconds is at the limit. Leave a margin.

From the blogHTML video aspect ratio: 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1