YouTube Shorts ad video specs: 6 to 60 seconds, 9:16 or 1:1

Google Ads' video specs page lists YouTube Shorts ad video as 9:16 at 1080 by 1920 or 1:1 at 1080 by 1080, from 6 to 60 seconds. Display & Video 360 words the minimum differently, as 5 seconds or longer, with looping after 60. Sume's Videos API accepts an aspect_ratio and duration, and Timeline 1.0 outputs 1080 by 1920 by default.

Two Google pages, two minimums

The two Google pages do not agree on the floor. If you buy in Google Ads, plan on 6 seconds; if you buy in DV360, the help page says 5. Cutting to 6 or longer satisfies both.

File requirements on the Google Ads page are broad: MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV, AVI, MOV, FLV, MP4, WebM and others, under 256 GB.

Producing it

For a generated clip, send aspect_ratio: "9:16" and a duration to POST /v1/videos. Each model has its own duration and resolution caps in the Video Router catalog, so confirm the model supports the length you need before you build a plan around it.

For an edited clip, Timeline's default 1080 by 1920 matches the Shorts size, and its fit option decides whether a landscape source is cropped (cover) or padded with a blurred copy (blur). Burned-in captions come from the Video captions API when the clip has speech; the docs say a silent clip fails with caption_no_speech unless you supply cues.

Limits

Sume does not check Shorts eligibility or loop behavior. Past 60 seconds DV360 says the ad loops, which is a viewing behavior, not a spec you can set.

The Google Ads page does not list a Shorts bitrate, so there is nothing to match there.