Quick Answer
The best format to export from Premiere Pro for social media is H.264 at 1080p. This format provides a good balance of quality and file size for sharing on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Some key settings to use:
- Codec: H.264
- Resolution: 1920×1080
- Bitrate: 10-20 Mbps
- Frame Rate: Same as source (often 23.976 or 29.97)
Lower resolutions like 720p may also be acceptable, but 1080p ensures your video won’t appear soft or pixelated, even on larger screens. Stick to standard 16:9 aspect ratios. Keep bitrate on the higher end for minimal compression artifacts. Match frame rate to your source footage for smooth playback.
Exporting for Social Media in Premiere Pro
Here are the steps to export for social media within Premiere Pro:
- Go to File > Export > Media.
- Select H.264 as the Format.
- For Preset, choose Match Source – High bitrate.
- Set Resolution to 1920×1080.
- For Bitrate, enter 10-20 Mbps.
- Set Frame Rate to Same as Source.
- Make sure Audio is set to AAC, Stereo, 48 kHz.
- Pick an output filename and location.
- Click Export.
This will render out a high quality 1080p H.264 MP4 file suitable for uploading to social platforms. The Match Source preset ensures the export uses the same frame rate as your sequence settings. A multi-pass VBR bitrate between 10-20 Mbps provides great quality with a reasonable file size.
Optimizing Exports for Different Social Platforms
While the 1080p H.264 settings above are a good standard export, you may need to customize your export settings further for certain social platforms. Here are some platform-specific tips:
YouTube
YouTube recommends uploading the highest quality source file possible. So exporting minimal compression H.264 files directly from Premiere is a good approach.
Key YouTube guidelines:
- Resolution: Up to 4K (2160p)
- Bitrate: No specific limits, higher is better
- Aspect Ratios: 16:9 recommended
- File Types: MOV, MP4
- Audio: AAC, Stereo or Surround 5.1
For longer videos like vlogs, consider 720p to balance quality and file size. For short clips and trailers, go with 1080p or 4K.
Facebook recompresses uploads, so providing the highest quality source won’t necessarily improve results. 720p or 1080p H.264 exports from Premiere work well.
Key Facebook guidelines:
- Resolution: Up to 1080p
- Bitrate: 8Mbps max recommended
- Aspect Ratios: 16:9, 1:1, 9:16
- File Types: MOV, MP4, MPEG4
- Audio: AAC
Use higher bitrates for 1:1 and 9:16 vertical videos. Facebook Live supports up to 4K video.
Instagram has a maximum upload resolution of 1080p. 720p H.264 exports from Premiere are typically more than enough for great looking results.
Key Instagram guidelines:
- Resolution: Up to 1080p (portrait/landscape)
- Bitrate: 3-6Mbps recommended
- Aspect Ratios: 1:1, 4:5, 16:9
- File Types: MOV, MP4
- Audio: AAC
Use higher bitrates for portrait mode and IGTV longer form content. Stick with common aspect ratios like 16:9 landscape and 1:1 square.
Twitter caps video resolution at 1280×720. Standard 720p H.264 exports from Premiere work well here.
Key Twitter guidelines:
- Resolution: Up to 1280×720
- Bitrate: Not specified, 5Mbps is more than enough
- Aspect Ratios: 16:9
- File Types: MOV, MP4, MPEG4
- Audio: AAC
Due to the 720p limit, you don’t need to export 1080p videos. Twitter does not officially support vertical video either.
TikTok
TikTok has a maximum resolution of 1080p, but standard definition 480p exports are commonly used to save bandwidth. Bitrates under 5Mbps are recommended.
Key TikTok guidelines:
- Resolution: Up to 1080p
- Bitrate: 800 Kbps – 4.5 Mbps
- Aspect Ratios: 9:16, 1:1
- File Types: MP4, MOV
- Audio: AAC
Given the lower resolutions, using 720p or even 480p H.264 exports from Premiere sacrifice little visible quality while matching common user uploads.
File Size Considerations
In addition to resolution, bitrate, and other settings, pay close attention to the final output file size when exporting for social media. Here are some reasonable file size targets:
Platform | Video Length | Target File Size |
---|---|---|
YouTube | 0-5 minutes | 50-100MB |
YouTube | 5-20 minutes | 100-200MB |
0-5 minutes | 15-50MB | |
5-20 minutes | 50-100MB | |
0-1 minute | 10-15MB | |
0-2 minutes | 10-20MB | |
TikTok | 0-1 minute | 5-15MB |
These are rough guidelines – your targets depend on your content type, length, desired quality, and platform-specific limits. Experiment to find optimal settings.
To reduce file size, tweak resolution, bitrate, frame rate, codecs and more. But be careful not to sacrifice too much visual quality in the process.
Other Export Settings Tips
Beyond the core settings covered above, here are some other export tips for social media:
- Use 2-pass VBR encoding for better quality than a single CBR pass.
- For 1080p, consider up to 20Mbps bitrate for high action content like gaming videos.
- Match the frame rate to your source footage (often 29.97 or 23.976) for fluid motion.
- Always export audio as AAC instead of MP3 for best quality.
- Remove letterboxes and scale to fit canvas for vertical videos.
- Add 3-5 seconds of black filler to the start and end to allow for platform padding.
- Enable GPU decoding acceleration for faster export times.
Test, compare, and refine your export presets to create optimized versions for each major platform you publish to. And re-export periodically as social media guidelines evolve.
Alternative Export Options
Exporting directly from Premiere Pro provides the maximum quality and control. But sometimes alternatives like Adobe Media Encoder Queue can speed up your workflow.
Third-party converter tools like Handbrake and Format Factory can also quickly transcode files to social media specs without re-rendering from scratch.
And many cloud services now offer video encoding including:
- Dropbox
- Google Drive
- Adobe Creative Cloud
- Box
- Amazon S3
- Microsoft OneDrive
- Wistia
Upload the large high quality master files, then use the cloud platform’s built-in presets to transcode proxies suitable for social sharing.
Just ensure cloud converted files don’t suffer generation loss from repeated re-encoding. Test quality and tweak settings as needed.
Conclusion
Exporting videos for social platforms involves balancing quality, resolution and file size. For most situations, 1080p H.264 video encoded at 10-20Mbps bitrate will provide stellar results. Tweak settings as needed based on your specific content, length, target platform and bandwidth limitations, using the guidelines provided above.