File-size limits as average bitrate for a 60-second clip

For a 60-second clip, the tightest file-size limit among the platforms we read is a free ArtStation account, which allows an average of about 3.3 Mbps, and the loosest is TikTok's API, which allows over 500 Mbps by size alone. A size cap in megabytes means different things depending on length, so dividing by 60 seconds puts every platform on the same scale. The table does that for the pages we read on 2026-10-05.

The reason to bother is that people quote file sizes as if they were quality settings. A 25 MB limit sounds small next to 4 GB, but at 60 seconds it is a bitrate about 160 times lower, and that is the number the encoder actually works with. Converting to megabits per second first is what lets you compare one clip against all of them at once.

Ceiling for a 60-second clip

The arithmetic is the size in megabytes times 8, divided by 60. The size figures use 1 MB as 8 megabits. A few platforms also set a bitrate cap, and where they do, the effective ceiling is the smaller of the two numbers.

Two notes on the sources. ArtStation's page gives different sizes for free and premium accounts, so both rows are shown. Linktree's 50 MB is for a video background specifically, not for every upload on the service.

Effective ceilings

Read the table in two ways. The first is by size alone, and it tells you which platform will reject a heavy file. The second adds the stated bitrate guidance, and for Reels and Odysee, that guidance is far below what the size cap allows. For Reels, the page lists a maximum video bitrate of 25 Mbps with VBR, so the real ceiling is 25 Mbps, not 40. For Odysee, 8 Mbps is a recommendation for viewer experience, so the file cap is irrelevant at 60 seconds.

That leaves a short ranking for a one-minute clip: free ArtStation, then Linktree, then Odysee's recommendation, then premium ArtStation, then Reels at 25 Mbps, then the platforms where size is not the practical limit.

Compute for any length

One export can serve several of these if you target the tightest. A 60-second clip averaging under 3.3 Mbps would pass all seven on size, though quality at that rate depends on the content and resolution. The script below computes the table for any clip length, so you can see the effect of cutting to 30 seconds, which doubles each ceiling.

LIMITS_MB = {
    "artstation_free": 25,
    "linktree_background": 50,
    "artstation_premium": 250,
    "instagram_reels_api": 300,
    "truth_social": 450,
    "tiktok_api": 4000,
}
CAPS_MBPS = {"instagram_reels_api": 25.0}

def ceilings(seconds):
    out = {}
    for name, mb in LIMITS_MB.items():
        by_size = mb * 8 / seconds
        out[name] = round(min(by_size, CAPS_MBPS.get(name, by_size)), 2)
    return out

print(ceilings(60))
print(ceilings(30))

What Sume lets you change

Sume has no bitrate field in video trim, which refuses codec and crf style fields, so you steer the size by length, width, height and fps, then probe size_bytes and duration_seconds to measure the average. The related preflight post puts the check into code. A trim is $0.02 per job at the public rate.

Caveats

These are averages over the whole file. A clip with a busy scene can run well above the average in places. And the platform pages do not say how they count megabytes, so keep a few percent of margin on any number near its cap.

Finally, recheck the pages before you build a pipeline on these numbers. Help pages and developer references get edited without announcement, and a cap that is quoted in a table is only as current as the day it was read.