YouTube 1080p bitrate: 8 Mbps, and Sume has no bitrate field

YouTube recommends 8 Mbps for 1080p SDR uploads at standard frame rates (24, 25, 30) and 12 Mbps at high frame rates (48, 50, 60). Sume gives you no way to set a video bitrate: trim and video filter reject codec and crf, and Timeline callers never send codecs.

Read 2026-10-01: YouTube Help and Sume's video trim and Timeline docs.

What are YouTube's SDR video bitrates?

The page calls these recommendations for reference and says no bitrate limit is required; it also lists separate HDR numbers.

Why does Sume have no bitrate field?

The server compiles ffmpeg. A client that sends vf, filter, ffmpeg, cmd, codec or crf gets ffmpeg_fields_rejected, and the Timeline page says callers never send filtergraphs, codecs or shell fragments. A bitrate knob would be the same kind of flag, and the docs list none.

What can I control instead?

On trim you can pick precision (exact re-encodes with libx264 and yuv420p; keyframe copies the stream) and conform output width, height (256 to 2160) and fps. Choosing the output dimensions changes how many pixels YouTube sees, but the resulting bitrate is whatever the worker's encode produces.

How do I check what I got?

Measure the file you receive. The method for reading a bitrate with ffprobe is in how to check a video bitrate; compare the number with the table above rather than assuming it. Since YouTube states no limit is required, a result below its reference is not by itself a failure.