How to Make a Video Vertical (9:16) for TikTok, Reels and Shorts

TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts are built for phones held upright. They expect vertical video in a 9:16 shape: nine units wide for every sixteen tall, usually 1080 × 1920 pixels. A landscape clip posted as it is shows up as a thin strip with black bars, and it looks out of place in the feed.

There are two ways to turn a horizontal video into a vertical one, and picking the right one matters more than which app you use. This guide explains both, then shows how to do it on iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac or any browser.

Crop or blurred background?

Cropping cuts a tall slice out of the middle of your wide video and stretches it to fill the screen. Your subject ends up big and full-screen, which is ideal for one person talking, a product or a pet. The catch: a 9:16 slice keeps less than a third of a 16:9 frame’s width, so anything at the sides is gone.

Fitting on a blurred background keeps the whole wide picture in the middle of the vertical frame and fills the space above and below with a blurred, zoomed copy of the same video. Nothing is lost, which suits two people side by side, landscapes, screen recordings, game footage and slides. The picture is smaller, but the blurred fill looks deliberate rather than like black bars.

A quick test: if everything important happens in the middle third of the frame, crop. If not, use the blurred background.

On iPhone

The Photos app can crop videos. Open the video, tap Edit, then the crop tool. Tap the aspect-ratio button and choose 9:16, rotating the crop box to portrait if needed. Drag the video inside the box to position your subject and tap Done. Photos saves the crop over your video, but you can always revert to the original. Photos doesn’t offer a blurred background, so for that you’ll need an editing app or a browser tool.

On Android

Google Photos and many phone makers’ gallery apps can crop videos. Open the video, tap Edit, go to the crop section and pick a 9:16 aspect ratio if your version offers one, or drag the edges by hand. Options vary between phones and app versions, so if you don’t see a crop option for video, use an editing app or a browser tool instead. Save it as a copy so you keep the original.

On Windows

Clipchamp, the video editor included with Windows 11, lets you change a project’s aspect ratio. Add your video to the timeline, choose 9:16 from the aspect-ratio control next to the preview, then choose whether the video should fill the frame (crop) or fit inside it. Export at 1080p.

On Mac

iMovie’s projects are widescreen, so it isn’t a good fit for vertical video. Recent versions of the Photos app on Mac can crop a video much like on iPhone, and Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve let you set a vertical project size. For a quick result without installing anything, a browser tool is easiest.

In any browser, with crop or blur

ClipCocoon’s Make Video Vertical does both methods on any computer or phone, without uploading your video:

1. Open the tool and add your landscape video. 9:16 is already selected.
2. Choose Crop to fill and slide the box over the preview to keep your subject in frame, or choose Fit on blurred background to keep everything.
3. Press Resize video. Short clips take seconds.
4. Download your 1080 × 1920 video, or open it straight in Auto Captions to add captions next.

The same tool also makes square (1:1) and 4:5 videos for the Instagram feed: see Resize for Social.

Getting a sharp result

• Start from the best file you have. A vertical crop of a 1080p landscape video is only about 600 pixels wide before it is enlarged to 1080. It will look fine on a phone but softer than footage shot vertically. 4K footage crops much more cleanly.
• Crop once. Each export costs a little quality, so make it vertical from the original rather than from an already edited version.
• Mind moving subjects. Most quick tools keep the crop in the same place for the whole clip. If your subject walks from one side to the other, use the blurred background, or split the clip and crop each part.
• Leave room for the app. TikTok, Reels and Shorts cover the bottom and right edge with buttons and text, so keep faces and key details around the middle.
• Add captions after, not before. Captions burned into a landscape video would be cropped along with the picture.

Shooting vertical next time

The best vertical video is shot vertically. If you film for both YouTube and short-form, try framing your subject in the center of a 16:9 shot with space on both sides. That “center-safe” framing crops to 9:16 cleanly later, so one recording works for every platform. And once your video is vertical, check its size: phone videos are large, and compressing makes them quicker to send for review.