LinkedIn Video Specs: 2026 Guide
The exact LinkedIn video specs for organic posts and ads: MP4, H.264, sizes, ratios, and lengths, plus what the feed actually rewards.
If you only want the specs, because you probably came here mid-export: upload an MP4 encoded with H.264 video and AAC audio, at 1080p with a constant frame rate. An organic post can run up to 5 GB and 10 minutes. A video ad has to stay under 500 MB, and the length that works is nearer 15 to 30 seconds than the 30-minute ceiling LinkedIn allows. Choose one of four shapes: 16:9 landscape, 1:1 square, 4:5 tall, or 9:16 full-screen vertical. Hit those and the upload processes clean. Miss them and you get a rejected file, a spinner stuck on “processing,” or a video that looks soft once LinkedIn re-encodes it.
I once watched a product team lose most of an afternoon to a launch video that would not upload, an hour before the announcement went out. The file was a ProRes master straight from the editor. LinkedIn wanted an H.264 MP4. Five minutes of re-exporting fixed it, but only after the panic. So before any strategy, get the container right.
Organic posts and video ads play by different rules
This is the part most cheat sheets blur together. A native video you post to your feed or Company Page and a paid video you build in Campaign Manager sit under different limits, and mixing them up is how good files get rejected.
For an organic post, LinkedIn gives you room. You get up to 5 GB, a length of 3 seconds to 10 minutes on a Company Page (a personal profile stretches to about 15 minutes on desktop), a resolution range from 256x144 all the way to 4096x2304, and an aspect ratio anywhere from 1:2.4 to 2.4:1. The full list lives in LinkedIn’s Page video specifications, but you will never need most of that room in practice.
For a video ad, the box is tighter. The file has to come in under 500 MB, the frame rate must sit below 30 fps, and while LinkedIn technically permits a runtime of 3 seconds to 30 minutes, the number that matters is closer to 30 seconds. Longer than two minutes and completion falls off a cliff. You are paying for every second either way.
| Placement | Format | Aspect Ratio | Max Length | Max Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic feed / Page post | MP4 (H.264 + AAC) | 16:9, 1:1, 4:5 or 9:16 (range 1:2.4 to 2.4:1) | 10 min on a Page (up to 15 min on a personal profile, desktop) | 5 GB |
| Video ad (feed) | MP4 (H.264, AAC audio) | 16:9, 1:1, 4:5 or 9:16 | 3 sec to 30 min (target 15 to 30 sec) | 500 MB |
| In-stream video ad | MP4 (H.264) | 16:9 | Up to 90 sec | 500 MB |
| Recommended export | MP4, 1080p, constant 30 fps, 10 to 15 Mbps | 1920x1080 (16:9) or 1080x1920 (9:16) | Keep frame rate under 30 fps for ads | 48 kHz AAC audio |
Built from LinkedIn's official organic (Pages) and Campaign Manager ad specifications. Sizes and lengths are platform maximums; the export row is the practical target I use.
File format, codec, and frame rate
Export an MP4. It is the container LinkedIn built its pipeline around, and it holds quality without a bloated file. Inside that MP4, encode the picture with H.264 (LinkedIn also accepts VP8, but H.264 is the setting every editor exports by default and the one least likely to surprise you). LinkedIn dropped support for older wrappers like AVI and QuickTime MOV, so a .mov straight out of some cameras can fail with no obvious reason.
For audio, use AAC at a 48 kHz sample rate. Go lower and voices sound thin; there is no reason to go higher.
Frame rate is where the damage hides. Lock a constant 30 fps before you export. Variable frame rate, which phones and screen recorders love to produce, is the usual reason audio slides out of sync after upload or the picture stutters on playback. If your source is 24 or 25 fps, that is fine for organic (LinkedIn accepts 10 to 60 fps there); for ads, keep it under 30. Target a bitrate around 10 to 15 Mbps at 1080p, which gives LinkedIn’s encoder enough data to keep detail without you shipping a needlessly heavy file. If you juggle more platforms than LinkedIn, Sprout Social keeps a current cross-platform spec sheet worth bookmarking.
Aspect ratios and resolution
LinkedIn accepts four useful shapes, and the right one depends on where the video gets watched more than what you filmed.
- 16:9 (1920x1080). Horizontal. Right for webinar cuts, interviews, or anything repurposed from a landscape master. It reads correctly on desktop and eats the least vertical space in a mobile feed, which is exactly why it stops fewer thumbs.
- 1:1 (1080x1080). Square. The safe all-rounder. It claims more of a phone screen than 16:9 and does not get awkwardly boxed on desktop.
- 4:5 (1080x1350). Tall, without going full-screen. This is my default for a feed post I want people to actually stop on. It fills most of a phone without tipping into the immersive vertical player.
- 9:16 (1080x1920). Full mobile vertical, the TikTok and Reels shape. LinkedIn has leaned hard into this with a dedicated vertical feed, and it reports 9:16 videos showing a 24% lift in click-through over other shapes. For an ad, note that 9:16 serves only to mobile placements.
Whatever the shape, hold 1080p. A 16:9 video should be 1920x1080; a 9:16 should be 1080x1920. Upscaling a small source adds no detail, and uploading below 1080p leaves you at the mercy of LinkedIn’s compression. If you want the deeper breakdown of tall formats, I wrote a full guide to vertical video dimensions, and a wider one on picking the best video formats for each platform.
What a LinkedIn video ad needs in Campaign Manager
A paid video is not a bigger organic post. You are interrupting someone mid-scroll and paying for the privilege, so every spec bends toward landing the point fast and silent.
The hard rules: MP4, H.264, audio in AAC or MPEG4, file under 500 MB, frame rate under 30 fps. Standard feed ads can run 3 seconds to 30 minutes; in-stream ads cap at 90 seconds. Build for 15 to 30 seconds anyway. These come straight from LinkedIn’s ad specifications.
Captions are the spec people skip and regret. In Campaign Manager you can either burn captions into the video or upload a separate SRT file (text only, no styling). I burn them in for ads, because an SRT can be toggled off and LinkedIn reports that 92% of people watch mobile video with the sound off. If your ad only makes sense with audio, most of your spend never hears it. For a sense of what strong paid work looks like, these LinkedIn video ad examples are worth a scroll before you brief the next one.
Organic video: what the feed rewards
Specs get your file accepted. They do not get it watched. Two things move organic performance more than any setting.
First, upload natively. Post the file straight to LinkedIn instead of dropping a YouTube link. Native video autoplays silently as people scroll, and LinkedIn suppresses posts that push people off-platform, so a link gets a fraction of the reach. LinkedIn has said video viewing grew 36% year over year and that video is being created at twice the rate of other post formats, so the feed is favoring it right now (see LinkedIn’s own B2B video guidance). Short-form video also keeps topping HubSpot’s ranking of the formats marketers say deliver the best return, and for B2B that lands on LinkedIn.
Second, win the first three seconds. Autoplay means the video starts before anyone chose to watch, muted, in a feed full of text. Open on motion or a claim, not a title card or a slow logo animation. Put a caption on screen from frame one. I go deeper on openings in this piece on how to create video hooks, and the mechanics carry over from short-form video on other platforms.
The formats that hold up on LinkedIn are plain: a person talking to camera with real expertise, a tight screen demo that solves one problem, or text-and-motion explainers built to read silently. None of them need a big production. They need a clear point in the first line.
Fixing the upload problems I see most
Even a correct file can misbehave. Here is the order I troubleshoot in.
Upload fails or sticks on “processing.” Re-export as an MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio. This single step clears most failures, because the culprit is almost always a codec or container LinkedIn no longer accepts.
Video looks soft or blocky after posting. That is LinkedIn’s compression meeting a weak source. Re-export at a higher bitrate (10 to 15 Mbps for 1080p) and a constant frame rate. Upload the best-quality file that still fits under the size cap, not a version you already squeezed to save space; the encoder does better with more data to work from.
Audio and picture slip out of sync. Nearly always variable frame rate. Set your project to a constant 30 fps and re-export. A capable editor makes this a one-checkbox fix; if you are still shopping for one, I compared the best video editing software for exactly this kind of clean, compliant export.
Where that leaves you
Get the format and the framing right, and LinkedIn stops fighting you. The file uploads, and the picture holds the sharpness you exported. Everything after that is craft, which is the part no spec sheet can hand you. If you would rather one team own both the numbers and the story, that is what an embedded creative team like Moonb is for: video, motion, and design produced by people who learn your brand, without you standing up a department to do it. The specs above are the floor. Clear them, then go make something worth the upload.
Frequently asked questions
You can, since LinkedIn accepts resolutions up to 4096x2304, but it rarely helps. The platform re-compresses every upload, and a heavy 4K file often comes out looking worse than a well-exported 1080p one because the encoder has to work harder to shrink it. Export at 1920x1080 (or 1080x1920 for vertical) with a 10 to 15 Mbps bitrate and you get a sharper result at a fraction of the size.
Not necessarily. In Campaign Manager you can either upload an SRT or burn the captions into the video itself. I burn them in for ads, because an uploaded SRT can be switched off and most people scroll muted, so baked-in captions guarantee the message shows. Keep an SRT as well if accessibility and searchability matter for the placement, since screen readers and LinkedIn can read the text.
That is usually an aspect-ratio mismatch. A 16:9 video shows in full on desktop but takes a small slice of a phone screen, and some placements center-crop it. If mobile is where your audience sits, shoot or reframe to 4:5 or 9:16 so the important action stays in the middle of the frame and nothing vital gets clipped by the crop or the interface overlay.
