Export Settings by Platform
stop letting the platform ruin your grade

Platform re-encoding is lossy and it compounds. Uploading a 6 Mbps file to a service that re-encodes at a similar ceiling produces visible banding in gradients and mush in motion. Uploading 12 to 16 Mbps for 1080p vertical gives the encoder headroom, and the result after re-encode is noticeably cleaner.

There is a ceiling — going beyond about 20 Mbps for vertical delivers nothing except slower uploads — but almost every quality complaint we investigate is an under-bitrate export, not an over-bitrate one.

Match the source frame rate. Converting 24 fps to 30 introduces judder that is especially visible in whip pans and fast cuts. Where you have mixed sources, conform everything to the dominant rate in a conform pass rather than letting the export handle it.

For screen recordings, 30 fps is the practical minimum for readable cursor movement; 60 fps is worth it only for demos where motion smoothness carries meaning.

Export in Rec. 709 for standard delivery. HDR is inconsistently handled across social apps and frequently produces washed or oversaturated results on mobile. If you grade in a log workspace, bake the transform before export rather than relying on player interpretation.

Audio should be AAC 320 kbps at 48 kHz, integrated at -14 LUFS with true peak at -1 dBTP for social platforms. Platforms normalise loudness, so mastering louder gains nothing and costs you dynamic range.