What Type Of Files Can Be Uploaded To Youtube

YouTube admittedly takes a little more piece of work than most other social media marketing platforms. Here, long-class video content, similar to IGTV, dominates, and video takes a significant amount of time to plan, create, and edit, even before you lot factor in things like keyword research or adding in closed captions. With and then many big details to tackle before you lot tin even upload a single video, information technology's easy to overlook 1 tiny particular that may seem inconsequential just that actually has a big impact on your content: the best YouTube video format.

With YouTube supporting and then many dissimilar file formats, it's easy to overlook this particular and merely choose the first choice that looks good, merely this can touch the quality of the video one time uploaded. We don't desire your content or your campaigns to exist negatively impacted, then in this post, nosotros're going to take a expect at the best YouTube video format and everything technical that you need to be keeping in heed.

Why Does The YouTube Video File Format Matter?

Dissimilar types of video file formats exist for a reason: each one has slightly different methods of organizing the content within them, so it can affect playback, even if merely slightly. Different types of file formats and file containers may or may not be uniform with certain types of players.

Some file formats can have a single video and create a larger file size than others, which can affect the power to upload information technology to certain platforms, besides.

Since YouTube is all well-nigh video, information technology's of grade of import to choose the video file format that will do good you most.

The Deviation Between File Containers & File Codecs

Ane affair that we want to wait at actually speedily is the difference betwixt video file containers and video file codecs, because this will be relevant in a few minutes.

Video file containers will include how the video content is organized, and will include options that about people are familiar with, like .MP4 or .MOV which are used for Facebook video and Instagram file formats. Most file formats are ultimately named after their container.

File codecs, on the other hand, is what's used to compress and and so decompress the file. Certain, low-quality codecs can consequence in poor pinch and decompression; though they can create smaller video files in many cases, the video quality is as well much poorer.

Equally long as your video file is under YouTube's maximum limit, always opt for the lossless codecs that yield the highest quality of video, fifty-fifty if it takes a little longer for it to upload.

What Video Formats Does YouTube Accept?

YouTube accepts the following video formats:

.MOV
.MPEG4
.MP4
.AVI
.WMV
.MPEGPS
.FLV
3GPP
WebM
DNxHR
ProRes
CineForm
HEVC (h265)

Nearly all video editors and creators will give you lot the option to choose what file format you'd like to save your content in, and the majority at least over .MOV, .MPEG4, and/or .MP4 file formats.

What'south the All-time YouTube Video Format?

The best YouTube video format based on the platform's recommendations is the .MP4 file type. Additionally, YouTube too recommends opting for the post-obit in order to be able to create loftier quality 1080p HD content:

H.264 codec (which is ane of the most efficient options out in that location, allowing for a small file size without sacrificing video quality)
xv-20 mbps
A standard aspect ratio of xvi:nine (this is peculiarly important for mobile)
An audio codec of AAC-LC

That beingness said, if you absolutely can't upload .MP4 files for any reason, .MOV files can piece of work well, as well. However, try to go on the H.264 codecs and attribute ratios consistent for ideal video quality on the platform.

YouTube accepts a number of unlike video formats, but they have recommendations for what tin can generate the best results and virtually loftier quality video on their platform.

What Other Technical Requirements Exercise I Need to Know

When you're creating your YouTube video and getting information technology ready for upload, at that place are a few more technical requirements and general all-time practices that you'll want to exist aware of in social club to 1) be able to fifty-fifty upload your video on YouTube and 2) ensure that it looks dandy and is most likely to be well received past your audience.

Hither are the other technical requirements that you should be keeping in heed to aid your channel skyrocket to success:

The maximum file size that you tin upload is either 128GB or 12 hours, whichever is less. Some older videos may be longer than 12 hours, but that cut-off has been reduced. (Although really, that'due south for the all-time; y'all're going to lose people similar crazy if you lot're going more than 12 hours and it sounds like a nightmare to edit).
Stick to that 16:9 aspect ratio. Y'all really desire your videos to show up well when users are watching, whether they're watching on desktop or mobile. It's particularly important on mobile– especially with 70% of views coming from mobile— and so that the video tin can scale properly to full screen, making information technology easier for users to see and appoint with.
Create customized YouTube thumbnails instead of using screen grabs. As your video is uploading, YouTube will automatically generate potential thumbnails, simply they do this at random and they tin can easily expect like this:
Instead, use drag-and-drib design software like Snappa to create compatible, recognizable thumbnails. It will help your channel look corking, build brand awareness, and prevent that fun we-wait-drunk miracle yous'd like to avoid when representing your brand.

Decision

YouTube is an outstanding marketing platform, simply it's too one that requires a big time investment. Creating video isn't easy and it typically isn't super quick, then you don't want to throw all that hard piece of work away at the concluding infinitesimal by choosing the wrong file format.

Stick to .MP4 video formats for YouTube, and don't forget to double bank check all of the other recommendations for all-time results. It'll accept a little actress work, simply information technology's well worth the effort, especially as yous start seeing your channel abound and drive off-platform results, too.

Need a little help updating your YouTube channel'south visuals so that it will wait great before users even showtime watching your videos? Acquire more about how to practise this with Snappa here.

What practice y'all think? Which YouTube file format has worked best for you? What video length has performed well on your channel? Leave a comment below and let us know!