TikTok Guide: Formats, Limits and Best Practices

Video length, photo posts, captions, publishing through a tool and how the For You feed works: a verified TikTok guide for brands.

Published on October 2, 2026 · Social platforms

TikTok has one feature that changes everything for a brand: follower count doesn't decide how far a video goes. A brand-new account can reach thousands of people if its video holds attention, and an established one can go unnoticed with a video that doesn't land. This guide covers formats and limits verified in TikTok's Help Center and developer documentation, what TikTok says about how it recommends videos, and a practical way to post consistently without burning out.

Formats and limits

Video

According to TikTok's official Help Center, videos recorded in the app can be up to 10 minutes long, and uploaded videos up to 60 minutes. (When we checked, some localized versions of that page still listed older limits, so go by the English one.)

Full-screen vertical is the standard. TikTok's ad specifications recommend 9:16 at a minimum of 540 × 960 pixels. In practice, export at 1,080 × 1,920 for a crisp image.

Photo posts

TikTok also supports swipeable photo carousels. The Help Center says you can add up to 35 photos to a post. It's a valuable format for a brand with great product photography but little video: a before-and-after, recipe steps, a product roundup.

Text

Through TikTok's Content Posting API, a video caption can run up to 2,200 characters. For photo posts, the API splits it into a title of up to 90 characters and a description of up to 4,000.

Publishing through a tool: what's different

Publishing through TikTok's API follows its own rules, and they're worth knowing before you schedule anything:

• Video length. Per the developer docs, all creators can post 3-minute videos through the API, and some have access to 5 or 10 minutes. The maximum depends on the account.
• Files. MP4 (recommended), WebM or MOV, H.264 recommended, up to 4 GB, 360 to 4,096 pixels per side, 23 to 60 fps. Photos must be JPEG or WebP, up to 20 MB each.
• Post volume. TikTok's content sharing guidelines describe a cap that varies by creator, typically around 15 posts per day per account.
• Drafts. TikTok also lets a tool send a video to the app's inbox as a draft. The user then has to open the notification in TikTok to finish posting. At most 5 pending shares are allowed in any 24-hour period.
• Privacy. TikTok requires users to pick the visibility for each post themselves, with no default preselected.
• Commercial content. A video that promotes your own business or a partner brand must be disclosed as such when posting, and the disclosure is off by default.

What TikTok's recommendations reward

TikTok explains how its For You feed works in an official newsroom post. Three kinds of signals come into play:

• User interactions: the videos someone likes or shares, the accounts they follow, the comments they post, the content they create.
• Video information: captions, sounds and hashtags.
• Device and account settings: language, country and device type.

TikTok notes that these signals aren't weighted equally. A strong one is watching a longer video all the way through. A weak one is whether the viewer and the creator are in the same country. And crucially, TikTok says neither follower count nor an account's past hits are direct factors in recommendations.

What that means for a brand:

• The first seconds decide everything. If viewers swipe away, the video won't be watched through. Show the result, the question or the problem right away.
• Captions, sounds and hashtags help categorize the video. They tell TikTok who to show it to. Pick hashtags that genuinely describe the topic.
• Length should serve the content. A longer video watched to the end is a strong signal; a long video abandoned halfway isn't. Cut anything that doesn't earn its place.
• Every video gets a shot. Since follower count isn't a direct factor, a brand account can test, learn and improve one video at a time.

What a brand should post on TikTok

• Demos: the product in action, without the sales pitch.
• Short tutorials: how to use it, care for it, choose it.
• Behind the scenes: production, packing orders, the team at work.
• Answers to common questions: every customer question can become a video.
• Photo carousels: roundups, before-and-afters, illustrated steps.

TikTok's tone is direct and natural. A simply shot video with a real person talking to camera often outperforms a polished production that looks like an ad.

Structuring a short video

A brand video that works on TikTok often follows a simple structure: hook, demonstration, payoff. The hook shows the result or asks the question in the very first second: "This is what 30 seconds of prep gets you," or the finished product before you show how it's made. The demonstration delivers the proof in short shots, cutting every pause and every step that doesn't move the story forward. The payoff gives people a reason to act, comment or rewatch: the final result, a tip they didn't expect, a question for the comments.

Add on-screen captions. Plenty of people watch without sound, and text on screen also helps viewers follow along. Keep it in the middle of the frame, away from the edges where the interface sits. Finally, film several short variations of the same idea with different hooks. Since every video gets its own chance, testing openings is the fastest way to learn what holds your audience's attention.

How often to post

TikTok doesn't publish a recommended frequency. Consistency matters more than volume: a few videos a week, kept up over several months, lets you test hooks, see what holds attention and get better. On the technical side, the API cap of roughly 15 posts per day won't get in the way of any sensible plan.

Common mistakes

1. A slow intro. Logo, title card, "hey everyone": the viewer's already gone.
2. Posting horizontal video. Full-screen vertical is the feed's native format.
3. Scheduling an 8-minute video through a tool. Depending on your account, the API may cap you at 3 minutes.
4. Skipping the commercial content disclosure. Promotional videos must be labeled.
5. Generic or unrelated hashtags. They muddy how the video is categorized instead of helping.
6. Recycling videos from other platforms with their watermark. Always export a clean version.
7. Giving up after a handful of videos. Reach swings a lot from one video to the next. Consistency is how you learn.

Measuring what works

Since follower count isn't a direct factor, compare your videos with each other rather than with other accounts. Look at how long people watch and how many finish, which videos get shared, and which openings keep people past the first seconds. When one hook or format clearly outperforms the rest, make more videos in that vein and keep testing new variations.

Pre-publish checklist

• Vertical 9:16 video, ideally 1,080 × 1,920, MP4.
• A hook visible in the very first second.
• Length that fits the content, and fits your account's API limit if you publish through a tool.
• A caption that clearly describes the topic, 2,200 characters max.
• A few relevant hashtags.
• Photo carousel of 35 images max.
• Commercial content disclosed if the video promotes a product or partner.
• No watermark from another app.

TikTok without a studio

Keeping a steady pace on TikTok mostly takes ideas and simple production. With Oposto, you describe your brand once: it learns your voice, products and audience from your website, prepares short videos and image carousels in TikTok's format, plans them in a calendar and publishes them at the scheduled time. Then it measures real performance and reuses what works.

To see next month's TikTok content ready for review, try Oposto: describe your brand once, it prepares a month of content in the right format for each network, and you approve.

Further reading

• Pinterest Guide: Formats, Search and Best Practices