What Is YouTube Shorts Ratio? Is It 16:9 Or 3:4? (Know Which One To Use)

YouTube Shorts are all hearts after the June 2026 updates!

These are now one of the very few things on the internet not to have a dislike button. You can now play it at 2X speed. And the best part?

It now has a heart button.

Though there is no update this time for the YouTube Shorts ratio, it remains an important aspect of giving the Shorts a professional look and ensuring a seamless viewing experience.

Still, the various options in the YouTube Shorts video can be overwhelming. Is it 16:9? 3:4? or 1:1? 

Also, in my 10 years of working across social media platforms, I have helped brands and creators get their video formatting right. 

Aspect ratio is one of those small technical details that very subtly decides the performance of YouTube Shorts.

If you get the ratio wrong, your video will show up with clunky black bars or get buried by the algorithm.

However, when you get it right, it will fill the screen as intended. So, let’s discuss the right ratio for your YouTube Shorts and how to get it right.

What Is The YouTube Shorts Ratio?

Officially, the YouTube Shorts aspect ratio is 9:16, shown vertically. The ratio is such because of the way we hold the phone. 

Also, this aspect ratio is ideal because it allows the Short to take up the entire mobile screen without any awkward gaps on the sides.

The recommended resolution for these shorts is 1080 x 1920 pixels.

Again, if we refer to the YouTube Help documentation of Google, we will find out that a video spanning up to three minutes and having a square or vertical aspect ratio is considered a YouTube Short automatically. 

However, if you want to keep a video outside the Shorts feed entirely, you must use a wider ratio, such as 16:9. This ratio is for long-form, traditional videos. 

So, to directly address the question asked in the title, the YouTube Shorts ratio is not 16:9. It is not even 3:4 exactly, and this ratio is closer to a legacy Instragram portrait ratio. 

YouTube Shorts is built around 9:16, and while 1:1 (square) videos are technically allowed, they aren’t optimized for the format.

9:16 Vs. 16:9 Vs. 1:1, Where Each Format Fits 

9:16, 16:9, and 1:1 are the three most commonly confused ratios on YouTube. This is how they differ. 

Why 9:16 Actually Matters For Performance

The 9:16 ratio is not a cosmetic choice. Here are some data points that show why you must be particular about the ratio. 

The Daily Views 

The daily views for YouTube Shorts are now 200 billion on average, as Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube, has confirmed in his YouTube Official Blog, “From the CEO: What’s coming to YouTube in 2026.” 

Also, in 2026, YouTube will integrate various formats into YouTube Shorts videos. This includes “posting images directly into the feed.”

These new formats will help you engage with your viewers more if you use the optimized ratio.

The User Base 

Around 80% of YouTube’s user base watches Shorts in some capacity, according to Virlo, a social listening and analytics platform. 

So, YouTube Shorts are now just a side feature. It is crucial for how people use the platform. 

Also, remember that YouTube itself has more than 114 million active channels and over 2.6 billion monthly users across the platform as a whole.

So, being particular about the ratio will only help you to sustain and remain visible in this highly competitive landscape. 

What About 3:4?

3:4 is not an official YouTube Shorts ratio at all. 

It is the ratio that you will see in older Instagram portrait posts or certain print and photography contexts.

However, you can repurpose a video shot in 3:4 for Shorts. You just need to crop or reframe it to 9:16 before uploading.

Otherwise, YouTube will letterbox it with bars to fill the vertical frame. This will immediately make the video look unfit for the platform. 

Minimum And Maximum Resolution For Shorts 

If you want to get technical, keep these aspects in mind. 

If you are following any of these numbers, your video will not look stretched, pixelated, or cropped strangely once it hits different devices.

How To Make Sure That You Are Exporting The YouTube Shorts Videos Correctly? 

Here are some practical checks you need to make for exporting your shorts videos correctly. 

Real-World Case Studies: The YouTube Shorts Ratio Actually Moves The Needle

Theory is one thing.

However, here are some real cases where the creators and brands have built and maintained a strong audience base with the correct ratio formatting of their Shorts and videos. 

Jake Fellman: Built An Audience Almost Entirely On 9:16

Animator Jake Fellman is a classic example of how vertical-first formatting pays off. 

According to YouTube’s own creator blog, Fellman began actively posting Shorts in September 2020 and grew to nearly nine million subscribers within about a year.

Also, at his peak, he used to get tens of thousands of new subscribers every day. 

Business Insider and Variety also reported the success story of Jake Fellman with YouTube Shorts. 

These reports also highlighted that his channel had barely any traction with regular uploads.

The growth only kicked in once his short, vertical, native 9:16 clips started getting pushed by the algorithm.

He didn’t reformat old horizontal videos, but he built specifically for the vertical frame, and that’s a big part of why the Shorts shelf picked him up so aggressively.

Les Mills: Mixing Ratios With Intent, Not By Accident

Les Mills, a fitness brand, is an example of how you can use both YouTube Shorts ratios strategically. 

Think with Google has published a case study that highlights how the brand repurposed vertical, short-form content it had already made for social media.

Then, it ran a mix of vertical and horizontal creative through YouTube’s Video Action campaigns.

So, every viewer got the video in a ratio that fits their device. 

As a result, there was a sharp 52% rise in click-through rate, alongside a 10% drop in cost per acquisition and a 16% drop in cost per impression.

So, the “Always Go Vertical” case does not work here. You have to match the ratio based on where and how people are actually watching.

This smart strategy pays off directly in performance. 

Google Ads Internal Data: Vertical Assets Outperform Landscape-Only Campaigns

On the advertising side, Google has reported that when advertisers add a vertical creative asset into their Video Action campaigns, those campaigns deliver 10-20% more conversions per dollar than campaigns running landscape assets alone.

Also, the agency-reported client data has shown vertical assets driving double-digit lifts in click-through and view-through rates on mobile compared to landscape ads in the same campaign.

Google’s Own Shorts are quite blunt in this matter, and they do not care much about the alternative. 

So, the horizontal assets uploaded into Shorts placements have blurred bars filling the empty space, rather than a clean, full-screen frame.

Beauty Influencers: Consistent Performance Once Vertical Became The Default

A Digiday + case study analyzed 490 Shorts across 11 beauty influencers.

Some of these creators even had double-digit-million subscriber counts. Also, the group averaged well over 100,000 views per Shorts video.

Each video in that dataset was vertical and had a duration of 60 seconds. 

Thus, the videos reflected how thoroughly 9:16 has become the default for creators who depend on consistent short-form reach rather than one-off viral hits.

Case Studies At A Glance 

The Takeaway From These Case Studies 

The examples or case studies show that the success stories are not isolated flukes. 

A solo animator, a global fitness brand, aggregated ad platform data, and a multi-influencer study all point in the same direction.

Content built natively for 9:16, or deliberately paired with the right ratio for the placement, consistently outperforms content that treats aspect ratio as an afterthought.

What Are The Best Practices For Using The YouTube Shorts Ratio? 

Just picking 9:16 as the ratio is not the end of the story if you want your YouTube Shorts to perform well. 

Follow these best practices that actually work. 

1. Shoot Vertical From The Start And Don’t Just Crop Later.

If you are filming the content natively in the 9:16 format, it will help keep the composition, focus, and framing intact. 

However, if you are shooting a horizontal video and cropping it for the upload, it can lead to cutting off subjects, text, or important background detail that was fine in the original frame.

2. Design Around The Safe Zone

YouTube’s UI overlays elements like the like button, channel name, and description on top of your video, mostly along the right edge and bottom of the screen.

Keep faces, text, and key visuals centered and away from those edges so nothing important gets covered.

3. Match The Ratio To The Placement, Not Just The Platform

As we have seen in the Les Mills case study, you can run a mix of vertical and horizontal creative.

This mix needs to match where each viewer is watching. Also, it can outperform defaulting to a single ratio everywhere.

4. Avoid Square Ratios Unless You Have A Specific Reason To Use It

1:1 is technically accepted as the YouTube Shorts ratio. However, it leaves the top and bottom of the screen empty.

You can use this format to repurpose square content for YouTube. 

However, shooting new content in this format will not be a smart idea.

5. Keep Captions And Text Large And Legible In A Vertical Frame

Shorts are often consumed with the sound off. 

So, these Shorts must have on-screen texts, which are properly readable. 

A properly filled 9:16 frame gives text more room to breathe than a cropped or letterboxed video does.

6. Preview Before Publishing On An Actual Phone

You cannot trust the preview of the editing software completely.

The preview may not reflect exactly how safe zones, captions, and cropping will look once YouTube’s mobile player and interface elements are layered on top.

7. Stay Consistent Across Your Uploads

What does your audience expect?

Do they expect full-screen, vertical content?

Then, mixing in horizontal or square Shorts can create a jarring, less professional viewing experience even if each video is technically compliant.

The Right YouTube Shorts Ratio Helping Your Content Get Seen

Neither 16:9 nor 3:4 is the answer to what the ideal YouTube Shorts ratio is. 

The YouTube platform is purpose-built around 9:16. Also, every technical decision, from resolution to how the algorithm distributes Shorts, is designed around that vertical frame.

On the other hand, 16:9 is a format for long-form content, not Shorts.

Again, 3:4 is a ratio you will want to convert away from rather than shoot natively in.

Nail the ratio, and the rest of your Shorts strategy has a much better shot at actually being seen.