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Best Video Size for YouTube Shorts

Last updated: September 21, 2026

The best video size for YouTube Shorts is a vertical 9:16 frame exported at 1080p, and Photo Video Maker lets you build that straight from your gallery photos.

The best video size for YouTube Shorts is a vertical 9:16 frame, exported at 1080p so it looks sharp on a phone screen. Get this set before you add photos, filters, or music, since resizing after the fact usually means recropping everything you already placed.

Why does YouTube Shorts need a specific video size?

Shorts plays full-screen on a phone, in the same vertical feed style as other short-form video. If you upload a square or widescreen video, YouTube either crops it to fit or adds space around it, and you lose control over what gets cut off. Starting with the right aspect ratio means your photos fill the screen exactly the way you intended, with nothing important sliced off at the top or sides.

This is the same reason a video built for a widescreen player looks wrong squeezed into a phone feed — the frame shape has to match where the video is actually going to be watched. For Shorts, that's a tall vertical rectangle, not a wide one.

What resolution should you actually export at?

Once the shape is right, resolution decides how crisp the picture looks. Photo Video Maker exports at 480p or 1080p. For YouTube Shorts, 1080p is the better default — it holds up well on modern phone screens and doesn't look soft or blurry when someone watches full-screen. 480p is worth using if you're short on storage or need a smaller file to send quickly, but for anything you want to look polished on Shorts, 1080p is the one to pick.

How do you build a Shorts video from your own photos?

Start with the photos already on your phone — Photo Video Maker works with JPG, PNG, and WebP files straight from your gallery, so there's nothing to convert or reformat first. Pick a set that tells one small story: a day out, a pet growing up, a handful of shots from an event. Six to twelve photos is usually plenty for a Short; too many and the pacing drags.

1. Select your photos from the gallery and use drag and drop to put them in the order you want them to appear.
2. Set the aspect ratio to vertical, 9:16, before you touch anything else.
3. Apply a filter — there are 17+ filters to try, and each one shows up in real-time preview so you can see exactly how it looks before committing.
4. Add a frame overlay if you want one; there are 249 frame overlays to choose from, covering all kinds of occasions and moods.
5. Drop in music from the built-in music library, or bring in your own audio if you already have a song picked out.
6. Add text and stickers if you want captions or a title on screen.
7. Pick a transition between photos — there are 8 transition effects — and preview the whole thing before you export.

Export as MP4 at 1080p, and the file is ready to upload straight to YouTube. No extra conversion step, no separate app needed to finish the job.

What if your photos aren't already vertical?

Most phone photos are landscape or square, not tall, so this comes up almost every time. When a landscape photo drops into a vertical frame, you get a choice: zoom in so the photo fills the screen edge to edge, or center it with space around it so nothing gets cropped. Neither is automatically wrong. A close-up or a portrait usually looks better zoomed in, since there's less risk of cutting off something important. A wide scenic shot, on the other hand, often looks better centered, so you keep the whole view instead of losing the edges.

Try both options on your first photo before applying a choice to the rest of your set. It's usually obvious within a few seconds which one suits your photos better, and that saves you from redoing the whole video later.

Does the same size work if you're also posting elsewhere?

Vertical 9:16 isn't just a YouTube Shorts thing — it's also the shape used by Instagram and TikTok, along with regular sharing through WhatsApp. So a video built at 9:16 and 1080p works for Shorts and doubles as a video you can post to other vertical feeds without rebuilding it from scratch. If you want a deeper look at getting the ratio exactly right, the guide on the best aspect ratio for Instagram Reels covers the same vertical setup in more detail, and the steps carry over directly to Shorts.

If you haven't put together a photo slideshow before, it's worth starting with the basics of pairing photos with music before worrying about export settings — the walkthrough on how to make a video from photos with music covers picking photos, timing them to a song, and previewing the result before you save anything.

What should you check before you hit export?

Watch the whole preview once, start to finish, before saving. Check that the aspect ratio looks right on a full vertical frame, that no photo is awkwardly cropped, and that your music doesn't cut off abruptly right as the video ends. These small details are what separate a Short that feels finished from one that feels rushed. Once you're happy, export as MP4 at 1080p and upload directly to YouTube — no extra steps needed.

Photo Video Maker is available on Google Play, with a Free tier to get started and a Premium tier if you want the full set of tools. Once you've built one Shorts-ready video this way, the next one goes faster — you'll already know which filters and frame overlays you reach for, and which songs from the music library tend to fit. Check the blog for more export tips as you build out more videos, and visit Photo Video Maker to get started.

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