Videos · Glossary

Square video size: 1080 x 1080 and where 1:1 plays

A square video is 1:1, most often 1080 by 1080 pixels, with 720 by 720 as a lighter option. LinkedIn accepts square video ads from 360 by 360 up to 1920 by 1920. Square plays in feeds on most social platforms and shows with side bars on YouTube's desktop player, which adapts to each video's shape.

Square video was the feed default for years because it looks the same on a phone held upright or sideways. It has since been overtaken by 4:5 and 9:16 on phones, but it is still the simplest shape for a post that has to work on every network at once.

Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder

4 min read · Published 21 October 2026

Square video sizes and limits
Size or rule	Pixels	Pixel count	Source
Common square	1080 x 1080	1,166,400	widely used feed size
Light square	720 x 720	518,400	smaller files
LinkedIn square minimum	360 x 360	129,600	LinkedIn video ad specs
LinkedIn square maximum	1920 x 1920	3,686,400	LinkedIn video ad specs
4:5 for comparison	1080 x 1350	1,458,000	feed portrait
9:16 for comparison	1080 x 1920	2,073,600	stories, reels
16:9 for comparison	1920 x 1080	2,073,600	YouTube landscape

Where square still fits

LinkedIn's video ad specs list square 1:1 alongside landscape, 4:5 and 9:16, with a minimum of 360 by 360 and a maximum of 1920 by 1920 pixels. Square posts fill a large part of a phone feed and look identical on desktop, where portrait videos are often shown smaller. They are a practical choice for one video that must run on several networks, and for content such as recipes, product turns and quote cards, where the subject is compact and central.

How players handle a square video

YouTube's help page explains that its player adapts to each video's aspect ratio, so a square upload plays square, with padding around it on wide screens. YouTube's recommended resolutions are for 16:9, so a square file is encoded at a shape the platform treats as non standard, and very short square or vertical uploads may be classed as Shorts. In feeds that crop to 4:5, a square video is shown in full with a small band or slightly letterboxed. Full screen stories show square with large bars above and below.

Shooting and framing for square

A square frame removes the left and right of a landscape scene and the top and bottom of a vertical one, so keep subjects central and leave space around heads. Text in square videos can be larger than in landscape because there is more height relative to width. When cropping a 1920 by 1080 video to square, the result is 1080 by 1080 with 420 pixels lost on each side; when cropping a 1080 by 1920 vertical video, 420 pixels go from the top and bottom.

Common mistakes

The first is cropping a landscape interview to square and cutting the person in half because they sat off centre. The second is uploading square to a 9:16 story placement and leaving two thirds of the screen as bars. The third is text placed near the edges, where some feeds round the corners or overlay buttons. The fourth is exporting at 720 by 720 for a feed that shows 1080 wide, which looks soft.

Square and the video builder

The video builder does not offer a square format. Square exists in the code at 1080 by 1080, and an old saved square video stays selectable and renders, but both format pickers offer only landscape 1920 by 1080 and vertical 1080 by 1920. For a square post, export the vertical or landscape video and crop it to 1080 by 1080, keeping each scene's subject central; captions are burned into the frames near the bottom, so check they survive the crop. The aspect ratio calculator and image cropper give exact sizes, and the blank PNG above is 1080 by 1080 for a matching cover image.

Questions people ask

Is 1080x1080 a good size for video?

For feeds, yes. It is large enough to look sharp on phones and laptops and small enough to upload quickly. For full screen stories and reels a 1080 by 1920 version fills the screen, and for YouTube a 1920 by 1080 landscape version suits the player best.

Can I upload a square video to YouTube?

Yes. The YouTube player adapts to the video's shape and shows a square video with padding on wide screens. Square videos of three minutes or less can be classified as Shorts, so post a 16:9 version if you want a standard long form upload.

Is square or vertical video better for Instagram?

For reels and stories, vertical 9:16 fills the screen. For feed posts, 4:5 takes more space than square and often gets more attention. Square remains useful for grid consistency and for videos reused across several platforms. If only one version can be made, 9:16 with the action kept central crops cleanly to both 4:5 and square.

How do I make a square video from a landscape one?

Crop the centre 1080 by 1080 from a 1920 by 1080 video, moving the crop window to follow the subject if they move, or place the full landscape video in the middle of a square frame with a background colour and a title above and captions below.

What file size is a one minute 1080 by 1080 video?

It depends on the bitrate. At about 8 megabits per second, a typical setting for 1080 lines, one minute is roughly 60 megabytes. Platforms recompress uploads anyway, so a reasonable bitrate matters more than squeezing the file to the smallest possible size.

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Sources

Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked 21 October 2026.