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YouTube

lastmod 2025-09-15created 2016-05-1419 edits

An American video-sharing site.

YouTube's recommended upload encoding settings are as follows.

Container: MP4

  • No Edit Lists (the video might not be processed correctly if there are any)
  • moov atom at the front of the file (Fast Start)

Audio codec: AAC-LC

  • Channels: Stereo or Stereo + 5.1
  • Sample rate 96khz or 48khz

Video codec: H.264

  • Progressive scan (no interlacing)
  • High Profile
  • 2 consecutive B frames
  • Closed GOP. GOP of half the frame rate
  • CABAC
  • Variable bitrate: a bitrate lower than the baseline is recommended, but there is no bitrate limit.
  • Chroma subsampling: 4:2:0

Frame rate

Content should be encoded and uploaded at the same frame rate it was recorded at.

Common frame rates include 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, and 60 frames per second; other frame rates are also accepted.

Interlaced content should be deinterlaced before uploading. For example, 1080i60 content should be deinterlaced to 1080p30, going from 60 interlaced fields per second to 30 progressive frames per second.

Bitrate

The recommended bitrates for uploads are below. Audio playback bitrate is not related to video resolution.

To view newly uploaded 4K videos, use a device or browser that supports VP9.

Type

Video bitrate, standard frame rate
(24, 25, 30)

Video bitrate, high frame rate
(48, 50, 60)

2160p(4k)

35~45Mbps

53~68Mbps

1440p(2k)

16Mbps

24Mbps

1080p

8Mbps

12Mbps

720p

5Mbps

7.5Mbps

480p

2.5Mbps

4Mbps

360p

1Mbps

1.5Mbps

Type

Video bitrate, standard frame rate
(24, 25, 30)

Video bitrate, high frame rate
(48, 50, 60)

2160p(4k)

44~56Mbps

66~85Mbps

1440p(2k)

20Mbps

30Mbps

1080p

10Mbps

15Mbps

720p

6.5Mbps

9.5Mbps

480p

Not supported

Not supported

360p

Not supported

Not supported

Type

Audio bitrate

Mono

128Kbps

Stereo

384Kbps

5.1

512Kbps

Resolution and aspect ratio

The standard aspect ratio for YouTube on desktop is 16:9. If you upload a video with a different aspect ratio (vertical, square, etc.), the player automatically adjusts to the size of the video, giving the best viewing experience for the aspect ratio and device.

For the default 16:9 aspect ratio, encode at these resolutions.

  • 2160p: 3840x2160
  • 1440p: 2560x1440
  • 1080p: 1920x1080
  • 720p: 1280x720
  • 480p: 854x480
  • 360p: 640x360
  • 240p: 426x240

Projects

Lite YouTube Embed
A faster youtube embed.
https://github.com/paulirish/lite-youtube-embed
  • Video embed code that is much faster than the standard iframe-based YouTube embed code
  • Shows only a clean poster image and button, then loads and runs the YouTube player on click
  • Supports asynchronous JS loading
  • Can use a custom poster image instead of YouTube's
  • Supports the YouTube player's various option parameters as-is
  • Developed by Paul Irish of the Google Chrome team

Script to remove the ID appended to file names after downloading with yt-dlp

See Yt-dlp#Script to remove the ID appended to file names after downloading for details.

Tools

  • youtube-dl
  • yt-dlp
  • yt-fts - YouTube full-text search
  • glancer - Turn YouTube videos into HTML viewed as images
  • YouGlish
    • Search for a word and it finds YouTube videos containing its pronunciation
    • Plays just the spot where the word is pronounced, with subtitles, so you can hear many different people's real pronunciation
    • US/UK/Australian/Canadian/Irish/Scottish/New Zealand pronunciations can be selected separately
    • Supports recording and playing back your own voice
  • Infinite-Storage-Glitch - Use YouTube as storage for any kind of file
  • YouTubeDrive - Store files on YouTube
  • Miyagi - Create interactive online courses from YouTube videos

Media Streaming Servers

See also

Favorite site

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