MP4 is on both lists: YouTube uploads and TikTok non-Spark ad formats

MP4 and MOV are on YouTube's supported-formats list and on TikTok's non-Spark in-feed ad list, so an MP4 from Sume can go to both. YouTube's page (read 2026-10-08) names MOV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4, MP4, MPG, AVI, WMV, MPEGPS, FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm and HEVC (H.265). TikTok's ad page (read 2026-10-08) lists .mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp and .avi for non-Spark ads, and .mp4 or .mov for Spark Ads.

The overlap

Matching names is loose: YouTube writes 3GPP and MPEG-1 or MPEG-2, TikTok writes .3gp and .mpeg. The table treats .3gp as 3GPP and .mpeg as an MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 container, which is a reasonable reading but not stated by either page.

What Sume returns

Timeline 1.0 returns an MP4 and video trim returns an MP4 (the exact precision re-encodes with libx264 in yuv420p). Video filter also returns an MP4 and keeps the geometry of the source. So the answer for a single delivery file is MP4, the first row, which is allowed in every column. The docs do not describe a way to choose another container, so you would convert elsewhere if a platform wanted something else.

• YouTube: MP4 listed.
• TikTok non-Spark: .mp4 listed.
• TikTok Spark: .mp4 listed.
• Sume Timeline, trim and filter: MP4 out.

The remaining differences

The format is the easy part. Length, size and ratio still differ: a Short is 3 minutes or less at 1080p or lower, while a non-Spark TikTok ad runs up to 10 minutes and 500 MB. See the Spark comparison for the ad side and the H.264 post for what YouTube recommends inside the MP4.

Check the container yourself

A file name ending in .mp4 is not proof of the container. If you want to be sure what you are uploading, ffprobe will print the format name and the codecs. A format_name that contains mp4 is an MP4 family container, and the same command works for .mov, since both share the same base format.

This matters most when a file passed through other tools before upload. Sume's own outputs are described as MP4 in the docs, so the check is mainly for files you edited elsewhere.

ffprobe -v error -show_entries format=format_name,duration:stream=codec_name \
  -of default=noprint_wrappers=1 final.mp4

When MP4 is not enough

Format is only the first gate. A correct container can still hold a clip that is too long, too large or too small for the platform, and the platform pages list those limits separately. Check the format first because it is the cheapest check, then length, then size, then bitrate.