Posting Videos to Threads: Sizes and What Actually Works

Post vertical video to Threads at 1080 × 1920 pixels (9:16). The app’s feed is built around a full-height phone screen, so a portrait clip fills it edge to edge while a landscape clip appears as a small band in the middle of a mostly empty post. Shoot or export at 1080 × 1920, keep the first frame readable, and burn your captions in — most people scroll with the sound off.

Updated October 2026.

The sizes that work

Threads is a text-first network with a phone-first feed, which is why the vertical shapes outperform everything else. The table below lists the practical export sizes. The pixel figures are the ones the common social video encoders produce; treat the platform’s own upload limits as something to check in the app, since they change.

Shape	Aspect ratio	Pixels	Where it works on Threads
Vertical	9:16	1080 × 1920	Best default. Fills the phone screen in the feed.
Portrait	4:5	1080 × 1350	Good compromise if the clip is also going to Instagram.
Square	1:1	1080 × 1080	Safe for talking-head clips and product shots.
Landscape	16:9	1920 × 1080	Only if the footage is genuinely wide, such as screen recordings.

If you only take one thing from this page: design at 1080 × 1920 and let everything else be a crop of it. Upscaling a 720p clip to fill the screen softens it noticeably on a modern phone, and re-framing after the fact is far more work than starting vertical.

Why portrait wins on Threads

• The screen is portrait. A 9:16 clip occupies the whole viewport; a 16:9 clip occupies roughly the middle third, with dead space above and below. More pixels of your video means more of the scroll-stopping work is being done by your footage.
• Thumb reach. The feed is designed for one-handed scrolling, so the eye lands in the centre column. Vertical video sits exactly where the eye already is.
• It survives re-posting. A vertical clip posted to Threads can be reused on Instagram Reels, Shorts and Stories without cropping. A landscape clip has to be rebuilt for each of them.

Safe zones: keep text out of the edges

Every social app draws its own interface over your video. Even on a platform that overlays very little, you should assume the top strip and the bottom strip are not fully under your control.

As a working rule for a 1080 × 1920 export, treat the top 250 pixels and the bottom 350 pixels as reserved, and keep your key text, logo and subtitles inside the remaining middle band. That leaves roughly 1080 × 1320 pixels of guaranteed visible area — still plenty, and a shape close to 4:5. If you compose for that middle band first and let the background bleed to the full height, the clip looks intentional whether or not the overlay appears.

Captions matter more than the crop. A large share of viewing happens muted, so burned-in subtitles in the lower-middle band, clear of the reserved footer, are worth more than any colour grade. Keep them to two lines maximum and use a solid or heavily shadowed background behind the text so they stay legible over any frame.

Frame rate, duration and file size

There is no single technical recipe that fits every upload, but a set of defaults gets you there without guesswork:

• Frame rate: 30 frames per second suits almost everything. Shoot at 60 only if you want to slow the clip down in editing, and export at 30.
• Duration: the app caps post length and that cap has changed over time. If you are making a clip for Threads, check the current limit in the app before you cut, and keep a 30-second and a 90-second export of anything you might want to reuse.
• Bitrate: export at a high setting and let the platform re-encode. Uploading a compressed file that then gets compressed again is what produces the mushy, blocky look people blame on the app.
• Audio: never rely on it. Mix so the clip still makes sense at zero volume, and add music for people who do have sound on.

One master, every placement

The efficient way to work is to design the clip once at the most demanding shape and derive the rest from it.

1. Generate or edit the clip at 9:16, 1080 × 1920. For a clip that also has to work on YouTube or a website, generate a second version at 16:9 rather than cropping the vertical one.
2. Compose the important content inside the middle band so a crop to 4:5 or 1:1 still keeps the subject and the words.
3. Export the vertical master at the highest bitrate your editor offers, then let the platform handle the rest.
4. Keep the same hook in the first second of every version, so a viewer who sees two of them recognises the second one instantly.

Making the companion graphic with AI

Threads posts and cross-posts usually need a still as well — a cover frame, a carousel image, or an announcement card next to the video. The social media designer builds that still from a text description.

1. Describe the post. One or two sentences covering what the graphic needs to communicate: a launch, a quote, a date, a promotion.
2. Pick a platform. The tool lists Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok. Threads is not one of the named options, so pick the closest shape for the placement you have in mind.
3. Choose a style and a template. Styles are modern, minimalist, bold, elegant, playful and professional; templates are quote, announcement, promotion, educational, lifestyle and minimalist.
4. Add a brand name and colours if you want the still to match your other posts. You can also attach a product photo, in which case the model list narrows to the Nano Banana 2 and Pro variants that keep your product unchanged.
5. Generate one to four variations and pick the closest, then pair it with your video.

Be aware of the honest limit: the designer produces a graphic, not a video, and it does not offer a pixel-size control. Use it for the still, and handle the video specs above at export time. If your Threads content is a photo and a video together, this is the fastest part of the job. Generating the video itself means working from the short vertical video tools, which share the same 9:16 output shape.

What it costs

Each still is one image from the model you select, and the number of variations multiplies the price. The cost is displayed on the generate button before anything runs, so there is no surprise. New accounts start with 10 free credits and no card, and the plans page shows what each monthly allowance covers if you are posting daily.

Common mistakes

• Posting landscape by default. It is the single biggest reason a good clip underperforms in a portrait feed.
• Text in the bottom strip. It gets covered by the interface overlay, and viewers see a half-hidden call to action.
• Relying on audio. No captions means the muted majority never gets the message.
• A slow first second. The first frame is the thumbnail and the hook at the same time.
• Re-uploading an already compressed file. Export once from the original, at a high bitrate.
• Cropping a vertical clip to landscape. Generate the second shape instead of cutting the top and bottom off the first.

If you are building a set of shapes, the same rules that apply to Instagram Reels and to AI video aspect ratios generally carry across to Threads. And if you want the still to line up with everything else you post, our guide to the social media designer walks through building a consistent set.

Frequently asked questions

What size video should I post to Threads?

1080 × 1920 pixels, which is 9:16 vertical. It fills the phone screen in the feed, and it can be reused on Instagram Reels, Stories and YouTube Shorts without re-framing. Use 1080 × 1350 (4:5) only when the same clip has to serve a feed that prefers it.

Does Threads crop landscape videos?

It does not usually crop them, but it does not expand them either. A 16:9 clip sits as a band in the middle of a portrait screen with empty space above and below, so it occupies a much smaller share of the feed than a vertical clip of the same length. The fix is to generate or export the clip vertically rather than rescale a landscape one.

How long can a Threads video be?

There is a limit, and it has changed since launch, so check the current figure inside the app rather than trusting a number written down months ago. As a practical habit, keep the master clip short and export a longer version separately — short clips hold attention in a scrolling feed regardless of what the cap allows.

Should I add captions to Threads videos?

Yes. A large share of viewing happens with the sound off, so burned-in subtitles do more for completion rate than almost any other change. Place them in the lower-middle of the frame, clear of the bottom strip where the interface overlays, and keep them to two lines.

Can I make the images for a Threads post with AI?

Yes. The social media designer generates a still from a description plus a style, template and colour choice, and it can keep a real product photo unchanged when you attach one. It produces graphics rather than video, and it does not currently list Threads among its platforms, so treat it as the still-maker that sits alongside your clip.

Start with the social media designer for the still and keep your video exports at 1080 × 1920 — the credit cost of any graphic is shown before you generate it.