TikTok ad specs for 2026

TikTok In-Feed ad specs: sizes, dimensions and files

In-Feed ads, the auction format you buy in TikTok Ads Manager, take 9:16 video of at least 540×960 px, up to 500 MB and 10 minutes long. TikTok lists their video specs on one help page (TikTok Ads Help: In-Feed ads, updated June 2026); here they are, one fact per row:

Read the minimum resolution as a floor for the upload, not a target. TikTok's creative guidance asks for at least 720p (TikTok creative best practices, updated June 2025), which for a vertical video means 720×1280 px or more, so a 540×960 file uploads but falls short of TikTok's own advice.

An export that clears every row

• Frame: 9:16 at 1080×1920 px, above both the 540×960 floor and the 720p advice.
• File: .mp4 with H.264 video and AAC audio at 128 kbps or more. The container is on TikTok's list, and that encoding meets Meta's Instagram Reels ad spec, so one file can run on both.
• Size and bitrate: under 500 MB, at 516 kbps or more. A short 1080p ad is nowhere near 500 MB; the bitrate floor only matters if you compress hard to shrink the file.
• Sound: voice-over, music or both. TikTok's creative guidance lists sound as a basic, not an extra.

Is there a recommended length for TikTok ads?

Not on TikTok's spec page. The In-Feed ads page sets a ceiling, 10 minutes or no limit for Spark Ads, and stops there: no minimum and no recommended length (TikTok Ads Help, updated June 2026). A recommended range does show up in a search snippet of a TikTok PDF, but we couldn't open that PDF to read it in context, so we don't quote it as TikTok's figure.

The timing TikTok does recommend is about the opening: get the content proposition across in the first 3 seconds and land the hook within the first 6 (TikTok creative best practices, updated June 2025). That turns “how long?” into “what happens by second 3?” and leaves length to testing:

• Front-load the product. Show it and say what it does before second 3, so a viewer who scrolls away at second 4 has still seen the offer.
• Cut to the script, not to a number. Our rule of thumb, not TikTok's: a proposition, two proof points and a call to action fit in 15–30 seconds. Add time only when it adds proof, such as a demo or a before-and-after.
• Test two lengths. Run a short cut and a longer cut of the same ad as separate ads and let cost per result decide which one stays.

TikTok safe zones: templates, not numbers

TikTok doesn't publish its ad safe zones as measurements. The In-Feed ads page says they vary with the video's dimensions, the caption length and the ad format, and offers them as downloadable templates, with no pixel values in the text (TikTok Ads Help, updated June 2026). Pixel margins quoted elsewhere don't come from that page, so check any you find against the template.

1. Step 1

   Match the template

   Download the template for your ad's dimensions and format from the In-Feed ads page. A 9:16 template tells you nothing about a 1:1 ad.

2. Step 2

   Edit with it on top

   Add the template as a locked top layer at the video's full size, and keep the product, on-screen text, logo and call to action inside the clear area for the whole video, end card included.

3. Step 3

   Check with the real caption

   The safe zone shifts with caption length, so check the frame against the template for the ad caption you'll actually run, then preview the ad on a phone before launch.

Running the same file as a Reels ad? Meta publishes its Reels safe zone as percentages: keep key elements out of the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% on each side (Meta Ads Guide: Instagram Reels). Check the frame against both; our Reels ad specs guide turns Meta's percentages into pixels.

TikTok's creative guidance for ads

TikTok's creative best practices for ads set three pacing rules (for the proposition, the hook and on-screen text) and three basics: sound, 9:16 at 720p or more, and the safe zone (TikTok creative best practices, updated June 2025). What each means for a product ad:

In a 15–30-second ad, that timing leaves room for one proposition, one or two proof points and a call to action. If a second benefit deserves its own opening, make it a second ad rather than a longer one: you get a cleaner test and two openings instead of one.

Labeling AI-generated TikTok ads

If an ad is fully generated or significantly edited with AI, TikTok requires its AIGC label or a clear disclaimer, caption, watermark or sticker, and ads with undisclosed AI content can be rejected or restricted (TikTok ads policy: misleading and false content, updated April 2026). Three things to do:

1. Switch on the disclaimer in Ads Manager. The built-in “AI-generated content disclaimer” adds a text label at the bottom of the in-feed video, for Spark and non-Spark ads alike (TikTok Ads Help: ad disclaimers, updated September 2025).
2. Label organic posts too. TikTok requires creators to label AI-generated content that contains realistic images, audio or video (TikTok Support), with the label it introduced on 19 September 2023 (TikTok Newsroom).
3. Don't wait for an automatic label. TikTok says C2PA Content Credentials let it label uploaded AI-generated content automatically (TikTok Newsroom, 9 May 2024). Treat that as a backup: the disclaimer you switch on is the one you control.

How Meta, YouTube, the FTC and the EU AI Act treat the same video is covered in Do you have to label AI-generated video ads?

TikTok video length: organic posts vs ads

Organic posts can run far longer than any ad needs: up to 10 minutes recorded in the TikTok app and up to 60 minutes uploaded, according to TikTok's English help page (TikTok Support: camera tools, no date shown). Side by side with the ad limits:

TikTok's own pages don't agree across languages: other language versions of the camera-tools page still show older figures than the English one. Go by the English page and by what your app actually lets you post.

If a scheduler or another app posts for you through the Content Posting API, its limits apply, and the API accepts a picture size from 360 px to 4096 px in height and width (TikTok for Developers: Content Posting API, updated 4 August 2026). A 1080×1920 file sits inside both bounds. For a product ad, none of these ceilings is the real constraint; the first 3 seconds are.

Making TikTok ads from a product page

ProductToReel turns a product link or photos into 12–20-second 9:16 videos at 1080×1920 (H.264 MP4) with AI voice-over, burned-in captions, music and a call-to-action end card. Storyboards are free without sign-up; a paid render makes all three videos. Every video carries C2PA Content Credentials marking it as AI-generated, but TikTok may not label your ad from them, so switch on TikTok's AI-generated content disclaimer and check the captions and the end card's call to action against the safe-zone template for your format. The videos show no people and use an AI voice, so they're for In-Feed ads and regular posts, not TikTok Shop affiliate videos. See the TikTok video generator and the example videos.