The full spec table
The 181 second trap
The single most common Shorts mistake is exporting at a fraction over 3 minutes. At 181 seconds the video stops being a Short and becomes a regular vertical upload, which changes how it is distributed entirely. If a video is meant for the Shorts shelf, cut it to 175 seconds or less and leave margin for the encoder.
Shorts and the rest of your vertical content
The same 1080 by 1920 master that serves TikTok and Reels serves Shorts, with one adjustment: length. A 2 minute cut can run everywhere, but the strongest Shorts performance still sits well under 60 seconds, where completion rates hold up. When one video is being adapted for five platforms, the Shorts version is usually the tightest cut of the set. Our guide to adapting one video for five platforms covers the structure.
Publishing Shorts through a scheduler
Shorts published through the YouTube API follow the same automatic classification, so the file itself decides whether it lands on the Shorts shelf. That makes the export the thing to check, not the upload route. SocialPro's pre flight checks confirm length, ratio and format against the current rules before the publish time, so a 181 second file gets flagged while there is still time to trim it.