TikTok API video size: 4 GB max, and keeping AI clips under it

The TikTok Content Posting API accepts a video of up to 4 GB, and the same page caps API uploads at 10 minutes, with height and width between 360 and 4096 pixels. An AI-generated 9:16 clip of under a minute is nowhere near 4 GB, so the real work is keeping duration, frame rate and dimensions inside the other limits.

This post collects the size-related numbers in one place and shows how Sume video trim conforms a clip, including what it cannot do.

What are the upload limits?

These come from TikTok's Media Transfer Guide, which I read today.

Will an AI-generated clip ever hit 4 GB?

Almost never. Sume's video generators produce short clips, and Avatar video is planned at 4-60 seconds at 720p. A file that size is tiny next to 4 GB. The ceiling matters when you assemble a long edit, concatenate many scenes, or import a long source and re-use it.

The more likely failures are duration (a long source) and the per-user limit your creator has, since the page says end users may have 3, 5 or 10 minutes depending on account status. Read the creator's maximum before posting; our post on the creator-info duration field covers it.

How do I cut a clip down with Sume?

Video trim takes one media.sume.com clip, a start, and exactly one of end or duration. It returns a new MP4 and leaves the source untouched. The default precision is exact, a frame-accurate re-encode (libx264, yuv420p). An output object can conform width, height (256-2160) and fps (24, 25, 30 or 60) in the same job, exact precision only.

This keeps the first 60 seconds, forces 1080x1920 at 30 fps, and costs the documented $0.02 per job:

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-trim \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: tiktok-fit-001" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/edit.mp4",
    "start": 0,
    "duration": 60,
    "output": { "width": 1080, "height": 1920, "fps": 30 }
  }'

What can Sume not control?

Video trim has no bitrate, CRF or codec option. A request that sends crf, codec, vf or similar is refused with ffmpeg_fields_rejected, because the server compiles ffmpeg itself. So you cannot ask Sume to hit a target megabyte size. To shrink a file you shorten the range or lower width and height.

A source must be on media.sume.com and no longer than 1800 seconds, and a trimmed output cannot exceed 900 seconds. Both are below TikTok's 10-minute cap only when you pick a range of 600 seconds or less, so check the number you pass.

If you are unsure what you hold, video inspect returns probe facts for free. Probe first, trim second, then upload.

What should my pre-upload check be?

Run these four checks on the final file before you start a TikTok upload.

• Duration at or under the creator's own maximum.
• Frame rate between 23 and 60.
• Both edges between 360 and 4096 pixels.
• MP4 with H.264 unless you have a reason otherwise.