YouTube Shorts export settings: 1080x1920 and fps in a Timeline render
A Sume Timeline render defaults to 1080x1920, a vertical Shorts frame. You can set fps to 24, 25, 30 or 60 and width/height to even values from 256 to 2160.
A Timeline 1.0 render comes out at 1080x1920 unless you say otherwise, which is the vertical frame a Short uses. If you set anything, set output.fps to 24, 25, 30 or 60 once for the whole series, and keep width and height even numbers between 256 and 2160.
What counts as a Short is on YouTube's Get started with Shorts page (read 2026-10-03); the render fields are from the Timeline 1.0 doc.
What are the output fields?
Omit fps and the render keeps the source cadence. Setting it makes every slot conform to that rate; a source at a different rate is met by repeating or dropping frames, which can judder on motion and is reported as output_fps_resamples_sources.
| Field | Allowed | Default |
|---|---|---|
| width, height | Even integers, 256 to 2160 | 1080 x 1920 |
| fps | 24, 25, 30 or 60, or omit | Omitted |
| fade_in_seconds, fade_out_seconds | 0 to 5 s | None |
| render.strategy | auto, chunks past 12 segments | auto |
Which fps should a series use?
The docs do not prescribe one for YouTube. Pick the rate most of your source clips already use, usually 30 for phone footage, and keep it. Sixty doubles the frames without adding picture detail from a lower-rate source.
What about a landscape clip?
Set the slot's fit: cover crops to fill, contain letterboxes, stretch distorts, and blur fills the bars with a blurred copy of the clip. For a clip you cannot crop, blur is the usual pick for a vertical frame.
{
"audio": {"url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/vo.wav", "duration_seconds": 25},
"video": [{"source_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/wide.mp4", "start": 0, "duration": 25, "fit": "blur"}],
"output": {"width": 1080, "height": 1920, "fps": 30}
}What Sume does not do
It does not upload to YouTube or decide whether a video is a Short. Length and format rules stay with YouTube.
Sources
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