YouTube Shorts dimensions and export settings in Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, from YouTube's own pages

Google autocomplete, checked on 24 October 2026, finishes "youtube shorts dimensions" with "premiere pro" and "davinci resolve".

It finishes "youtube shorts settings premiere pro" with "sequence" and "export".

So the question is not what a Short is. It is which boxes to tick.

Here is the complication. YouTube does not publish a Shorts export preset. It publishes two separate things: a page that says what counts as a Short, and a page of upload encoding settings written for every video on the platform. Neither one says "1080 by 1920".

So this post stitches them together, says where the stitch is, and walks the setup in both editors.

Step 1: What YouTube says a Short is

YouTube's page on uploading Shorts from a computer, read on 6 November, gives two requirements.

Up to 3 minutes.

A square or vertical aspect ratio.

That is the whole definition on the page. No pixel count, no frame rate, no bitrate.

So where does 1080 by 1920 come from? It is the standard 9:16 vertical frame at the same width as 1080p. Phones shoot it, campaign briefs ask for it, and every vertical preset in both editors starts there. It is a working convention, and I am calling it that rather than pretending YouTube mandates it.

If a campaign brief names a different size, the brief wins. It is the person paying you.

Step 2: What YouTube says about encoding

The second page is YouTube's recommended upload encoding settings, also read on 6 November.

Here is the part that matters for a clip.

Container: MP4, with the moov atom at the front of the file, which editors usually call Fast Start.

Video: H.264, High Profile, progressive scan, 4:2:0 chroma, variable bitrate. The page also lists two consecutive B-frames, a closed GOP of half the frame rate, and CABAC. Most export presets already do those.

Audio: AAC-LC at 48 kHz, stereo. The page also lists Opus and Eclipsa Audio, but AAC is the simple choice in an MP4 from either editor.

Frame rate: encode at the frame rate you recorded. Common rates are 24, 25, 30, 48, 50 and 60.

Bitrate for standard dynamic range: 8 Mbps for 1080p at 24 to 30 fps, and 12 Mbps at 48 to 60 fps.

Colour: BT.709.

Now the stitch. That bitrate table is written for 1080p, and a 1080 by 1920 vertical frame has the same pixel count as a horizontal 1080p frame. So using the 1080p row for a vertical Short is a reasonable reading. YouTube does not say it in those words.

Step 3: Set up the sequence in Premiere Pro

One warning first. Menu names move between versions. If yours differs, look for the same setting under a nearby name.

Go to File, New, Sequence. Open the Settings tab and set Editing Mode to Custom.

Set the frame size to 1080 horizontal and 1920 vertical. Pixel aspect ratio: Square Pixels.

Set the timebase to match your footage. A 30 fps podcast recording gets a 30 fps sequence.

The faster route is to drop one clip on an empty timeline with New Sequence From Clip, then change only the frame size in Sequence Settings. That keeps the frame rate honest.

Save it as a preset. You will make this sequence hundreds of times.

Then the common mistake: horizontal footage scaled to fit inside the vertical frame, with black bars above and below. Scale it to fill instead, and reframe the speaker by hand. The bars tell a viewer the clip was an afterthought.

VALORAE Arc, the group's short-form clipping agency, goes further on podcast footage: cut between single-speaker shots rather than cropping the wide one, because a tall frame suits one face.

Step 4: Export from Premiere Pro

In the export screen, pick H.264 as the format. That gives you an MP4.

Check that the frame size and frame rate match the sequence. "Match Source" presets usually get this right, so start from one.

Set bitrate encoding to VBR. Aim the target around YouTube's figure for your frame rate: 8 Mbps at 30 fps, 12 Mbps at 60. Going higher costs upload time and does little after YouTube re-encodes it. Going much lower is where faces start to smear.

Audio: AAC, 48 kHz, stereo.

Tick the box that renders at maximum depth only if you have time to spare. It is slower and rarely visible on a phone.

Step 5: Set up the timeline in DaVinci Resolve

Resolve sets resolution at two levels: the project and the timeline.

For a one-off vertical cut, create a new timeline and turn off the option to use project settings. In the format settings, set the timeline resolution to a custom 1080 by 1920. Some versions show a tick box for vertical resolution, which flips the numbers for you.

For a project that is only Shorts, set the same thing once in Project Settings under the master settings, and every timeline inherits it.

Set the timeline frame rate to match your footage before you cut. Resolve is strict about changing it later, and that is a good thing. It stops you from mixing rates by accident.

The same black-bar warning applies. Use the inspector to zoom and reposition rather than letting the clip sit letterboxed.

Step 6: Export from DaVinci Resolve

On the Deliver page, Resolve has a YouTube preset. It is a sensible start, but check two things before rendering.

First, that the resolution says 1080 by 1920 and not a horizontal size. The preset can default to landscape.

Second, set format to MP4 and codec to H.264. Match the frame rate to the timeline. Leave the quality on automatic, or set a bitrate near YouTube's figure if your version lets you.

Audio: AAC, 48 kHz.

The free version of Resolve covers all of this. Nothing in a Shorts export needs Studio.

Step 7: The checks that matter more than the settings

Here is the contrarian part. Settings are rarely why a clip fails.

A clip with perfect export settings still dies if the first second is dead air.

So once the preset is saved, spend the saved time on three checks. Captions sit inside the middle of the frame, clear of the title and buttons at the bottom. The clip is under 3 minutes, or it will not be treated as a Short. And any music or third-party footage is cleared, because a claimed Short over a minute is blocked until the claim is resolved.

The same file often goes to Reels as well. Instagram's numbers are not identical, and VALORAE Media lists them in Instagram's 1.91:1 to 9:16 range and 30 fps floor.

I have not tested every version of both editors, and I will not claim to. If a menu has moved by the time you read this, the destination is the same: 1080 by 1920, native frame rate, H.264 in MP4, AAC at 48 kHz.

The short version

• A Short is up to 3 minutes with a square or vertical frame. YouTube says nothing more.
• Work at 1080 by 1920 unless the brief says otherwise.
• Match the frame rate you shot. Never convert it to look smoother.
• Export H.264 in MP4, High profile, VBR, near 8 Mbps at 30 fps or 12 at 60.
• Use AAC audio at 48 kHz.
• Fill the frame. No black bars.
• Save the preset once, then spend the time on the first second.

Editors trade presets and check each other's exports in the VALORAE Cast Discord at valoraecast.com.