What are the Best Video Formats for Facebook?

If you are a big fan of Facebook, chances are you upload videos to share them with your friends. But have you ever encountered an uploading error? If yes, it could be that your video file format is not supported on this platform or your file is larger than required. In this post, we’ll provide a deep insight into video formats for Facebook.

Best video formats for Facebook

Common Facebook Video Formats

Currently, Facebook supports 19 types of video files as follows”

Mobile Video (3g2, 3gp, 3gpp)
Windows Media Video (asf, wmv)
AVI Video (avi)
MPEG Video (dat, mpe, mpeg, mpg)
Graphics Interchange Format (gif)
DIVX Video (divx)
DV Video (dv)
Nullsoft Video (nsv)
Matroska Format (mkv)
M2TS Video (m2ts)
Flash Video (f4v, flv)
MPEG-4 Video (m4v, mp4, mpeg4)
MOD Video (mod)
DVD Video (vob)
TOD Video (tod)
QuickTime Movie (mov, qt)
AVCHD Video (mts)
Ogg Media Format (ogm, ogv)
MPEG Transport Stream (ts)

Best Video Format for Facebook

Two video formats that Facebook particularly endorses for its platform are MP4 and MOV. Facebook recommends using these two format types as they are typically lightweight and can keep their HD quality unchanged during the uploading and compression processes.

MP4 is the best video format for Facebook as well as other social platforms because of its high performance and adequate balance between video quality and size. Of course, other video formats are also supported on this social media platform including AVI, WMV, and Flash, but you may get unsatisfied with the video quality when it is successfully uploaded to Facebook.

What are the Best Video Formats for Facebook?

For the best quality and the best video formats for Facebook, you should use an online video converter to convert any type of video format to MP4, then upload your video to Facebook for the best quality.

It just takes you a few minutes to visit the website https://vidconverteronline.com/ to convert your file.

Here are Facebook’s detailed other formatting guidelines and technical suggestions for its platform:

The highest resolution source video available; avoid pillar boxing or black bars. Your video can only look as great as the source material, after all.
File sizes must be below 4GB
H.264 compression
Fixed frame rates
Progressive scan
AAC audio compression at 128kbps+
Square pixels

Other Technical Requirements

In addition to video formats for Facebook and the above technical requirements for video format, Facebook also has other guidelines you may need to know:

Videos must have a maximum length of 240 minutes. If you plan to use videos for ad campaigns, a 30-second video or a 1-minute video is the best. For organic posts, keep your video under two minutes.
Facebook story video length should be no more than 15 seconds long.
Video sounds and captions are both optional. Over 80% of all videos on Facebook are watched without any sound.
The best aspect ratios for landscape are 16:9, 1:1 for square, and 2:3 for vertical videos and Stories.
For ad campaigns, the video’s thumbnail shouldn’t have more than 20% text.

Common video formats for Facebook

What is the best video size for Facebook?

Facebook supports file sizes up to 10 GB. Uploading large files may take longer in case of a slow internet connection. Videos must have a length of fewer than 240 minutes. The longer your video is associated with the larger file size. Insisting on long videos may affect the video quality on Facebook and the time it takes to upload.

Apart from video formats for Facebook, you may need to look at Video dimensions.

1280 x 720 for Landscape and Portrait is recommended for Facebook. For Landscape and Portrait, the width is at least 120 pixels (length depends on aspect ratio). The aspect ratio of Landscape is 16:9 while Portrait aspect ratio is 9:16.

It’s worth noting that not every video size can be up to 4GB. While 360 video accepts up to 1.75GB, Carousel can max out at 2.3GB. If you upload a video into stories that exceed the max, it will split into 15-second clips.

Why Video Formats Matter on Facebook?

Common Facebook video formats supported have been listed above, but they may lead to poorer video quality on Facebook. Having the format right will ensure the video quality is at its best and your viewers are getting the best watching experience possible.

How do you know about video formats for Facebook

Why can’t upload videos to Facebook?

If you're having trouble uploading a video on Facebook, it could be the video format you are trying to upload may not be supported by the platform. You must first make sure that the video format you are trying to upload is in any of the following: .mp4, avi, MOV, or .mpg. Almost all video formats for Facebook are supported, but it's recommended to use .mp4 in your video uploads.

Another reason for the failure is that file uploads exceed the maximum file size of Facebook. Before uploading your video, make sure the best video size for Facebook is not over 1G.

How to Upload a Video on Facebook

You may want to share your favorite personal moments on Facebook. You can do this easily using the Facebook desktop website or the Facebook mobile app. Videos are shared as posts, but you can easily limit who can see your video.

Method 1: Using the Facebook Mobile App

Step1: Open Facebook app → Tap "What's on your mind?"
Step 2: Tap the "Photo/video" button at the bottom of the post field. This will open your gallery.
Step 3: Choose the video you want to upload. You can select more than one video to upload at once. Tap "Done" to add the selected video(s). You'll see it/them on your new post.
Step 4: You can also record a new video to upload to Facebook. The steps can be different for iOS and Android:

Learn more about common video formats for Facebook

For iOS, tap the “photo” button at the bottom of your post, then tap the “Camera” in the top-left corner of your Camera Roll. Tap the “Camera” at the bottom, then tap the Shutter button to start recording. After finishing, you "Use" to add it to your post.

For Android, tap the “photo” button in your post, then tap"+" at the top of the screen. Here you can record a new video. Once you finish recording, it will be added to your video list.

Step 5: Add text to the video. You can briefly describe the video content or type your emotions.
Set who can see your post. Tap the “audience” menu at the top. Choose “only me” if you want to keep your video private, “public” for everyone to see, tap “friends” if you only want your friends to see your post.
Now after making sure everything is alright, tap "Post" to upload the video. This may take a few seconds for longer videos, depending on your video size and your internet connection.

Tips: Run a quick test internet speed before uploading a video to make sure your connection is sufficient.

Method 2: Using Facebook website

Step 1: Access Facebook.com and click “photo/video”.
Step 2: Click the "Add Video" button.
Step 3: Click “Choose file” to browse for the video. Facebook supports almost all common video formats, including mp4, mov, mkv.
Step 4: Add more information such as a title, description, and feelings. This information is optional but recommended.

Supported video formats for Facebook

How to post HD video on Facebook. How?

Your video may have been blurry after being uploaded to Facebook. To avoid that, you should follow the steps below:

Method 1:

Go Settings, scroll down and navigate Facebook
Tap on the arrow to expand the menu. Scroll down and toggle Upload HD if you want to upload HD video.

Method 2:

Go to the Facebook app, click on the menu icon at the bottom.
Click on Settings.
Select “Account Settings” and then “Videos and Photos”.
Toggle “Upload HD”.

With this simple guide on how to post HD videos on Facebook, you’ll be confident to share your wonderful moments with your friends.

Conclusion

Any video has a specific type of file format. If you want your videos to perform well on Facebook, you should be aware of this platform’s requirement for videos supported. This article has just covered everything you need to know about video formats for Facebook. Hope it will be helpful for you. Cheers!