Wistia export: H.264 MP4 at 5,000 to 8,000 kbps, 26 GB cap

Wistia accepts files up to 26 GB and recommends an H.264 MP4, 640 to 3840 px wide, at 5,000 to 8,000 kbps and a constant 15 to 60 fps. Audio is AAC, 44.1 kHz, 2-channel stereo. ProRes is converted to H.264 on upload. Specs are from Wistia Support, read 2026-10-01.

What does Wistia recommend?

What can Sume match, and what can it not?

Frame rate and size: output.fps of 24, 25, 30 or 60 sits inside 15 to 60, and width up to 2160 sits inside 640 to 3840 (3840 itself is out of range). Sume's docs list no bitrate or codec field. The render endpoints refuse codec, crf and filtergraph keys with a 400, so you cannot tune the encode from the request.

How do I render a 1080p MP4?

Timeline 1.0 (POST /v1/timeline-1.0/render) takes output.width and output.height as even integers from 256 to 2160 and output.fps of 24, 25, 30 or 60, or omits fps to match the sources. It needs an Idempotency-Key, accepts only media.sume.com sources, and returns one MP4 at $0.10 per output minute, rounded up. The unbilled POST /v1/timeline-1.0/plan previews the cost first.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/timeline-1.0/render \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: wistia-1080p-001" \
  -d '{
    "audio": { "mode": "silence", "duration_seconds": 120 },
    "output": { "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "fps": 30 },
    "video": [
      { "source_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/shot.mp4",
        "start": 0, "duration": 120, "fit": "cover" }
    ]
  }'

How do I verify bitrate?

Probe the finished file with Video inspect 1.0. With frames: false it is a probe only, it is unbilled, and it reports width, height, container, fps and duration_seconds. It does not report file size, codec or bitrate, so check those with a local tool before you upload.

Wistia says it recommends these settings primarily to reduce file size and upload time, so a test upload is the quickest check.

Is the 26 GB cap a concern?

No for Sume renders. A Timeline output is at most 30 minutes (audio.duration_seconds up to 1800).