Convert a Video to Vertical (9:16)

Convert a horizontal video to vertical without stretching it

A video shot horizontally (16:9) and shown on a vertical screen (9:16) only fills about a third of the height: it looks tiny, surrounded by big empty areas. To make it vertical without distorting it, there are three solutions, and the tool offers all of them. The blurred background puts an enlarged, blurred copy of the video behind the full video: it's the most common look on TikTok, Reels and Shorts, because nothing is cut off and the screen is filled. The solid background (black or white) keeps the whole video with bars: a clean look that's handy if you add captions in the bars afterwards. The crop zooms in until the whole screen is filled, but cuts off part of the picture: going from 16:9 to 9:16, about 68% of the width disappears, which is why there's a slider to choose the part you keep (a face, the action).

Which format should you choose: 9:16, 4:5, 1:1 or 16:9?

9:16 (1080 × 1920 pixels) is the full-screen vertical format of TikTok, Instagram and Facebook Reels and Stories, YouTube Shorts, Snapchat and WhatsApp Status. 4:5 (1080 × 1350) is the portrait format of the Instagram and Facebook feed: it takes up more space in the feed than a square, without being cropped. 1:1 (1080 × 1080) is the square, accepted everywhere, from social media feeds to LinkedIn. 16:9 (1920 × 1080) is still the format for YouTube, TV, presentations and computer screens. To simply trim the edges of a video by hand, without adding a background, use “Crop Video” instead.

Convert a vertical video to horizontal for YouTube

A video filmed on a phone in portrait mode and posted as is on YouTube shows up narrow in the middle of the screen, with black bars on each side. Choose the 16:9 format: the tool picks it on its own when the video is already vertical. With the blurred background, the sides are filled with a blurred copy of the video; with the solid background, with black or white; with the crop, the video is enlarged to fill the screen and only a horizontal strip of the picture remains (about 32% of the height), which you position with the slider. The result is a 1920 × 1080 (or 1280 × 720) MP4 with sound, ready to post as a regular YouTube video, drop into a presentation or play on a TV.

Quality, conversion time and sound

The video is re-encoded as MP4 (H.264) with its sound (AAC). The output resolution is 1080 pixels on the short side (1080 × 1920 for 9:16), or 720 for faster processing. By default, the tool picks 1080 for a short video (one minute or less) on a computer, and 720 otherwise, because the work happens in your browser and depends on how powerful your device is; you can change this at any time. Expect at least the length of the video on a recent computer, longer in Full HD, on a phone or for a 4K video, and keep the page open while it works. To save time, first keep only the part you need with “Cut / Trim Video”; to make the file smaller before sending it, run it through “Compress Video” afterwards.