How to Export Video for Facebook in Premiere Pro

Getting your video out of Premiere Pro and onto Facebook without it looking like a pixelated mess can feel like a guessing game. You spent hours editing the perfect cut, but the moment you upload it, Facebook’s compression algorithm seems to ruin all your hard work. This guide will show you the exact settings to use in Premiere Pro to export high-quality videos for Facebook, whether they're for the main feed, Stories, or Reels, so they look sharp and professional every single time.

Why Your Export Settings Matter for Facebook

You can’t just hit "Export" with the default settings and hope for the best. Facebook, like all social platforms, has its own set of rules and a very aggressive compression system. It takes whatever file you upload and re-encodes it to save server space and load faster for viewers. If you upload a massive, high-bitrate file, the platform will crush it down, often resulting in lost detail and ugly artifacts.

The goal is to give Facebook a file that is as close to its ideal specifications as possible. This minimizes the damage its compression does and gives you more control over the final look of your video. By tailoring your settings, you’re essentially preparing your video to survive the upload process and look great on any device.

Step 1: Get Your Sequence Settings Right (Before You Even Export)

The best export starts with the right sequence. Trying to change the shape or size of your video at the export stage can lead to weird stretching or black bars. Set up your sequence properly from the very beginning.

To check or create your sequence, go to File >, New >, Sequence or right-click your existing sequence in the project panel and select "Sequence Settings."

Common Facebook Aspect Ratios:

• For Facebook Reels & Stories (Full Vertical): This is the standard smartphone screen size. Use 1080x1920 (a 9:16 aspect ratio). This is the most engaging format for full-screen, immersive content.
• For the Facebook Feed (Tall Vertical): This format takes up more vertical space in the feed than a square video, helping to grab attention. Use 1080x1350 (a 4:5 aspect ratio).
• For the Facebook Feed (Square): The classic square format is still highly effective and works well across both Facebook and Instagram. Use 1080x1080 (a 1:1 aspect ratio).

Make sure your Frame Rate is set to what you shot in (usually 23.976, 25, or 29.97) and that your Pixel Aspect Ratio is set to "Square Pixels." Getting this right at the start will save you a world of headaches later.

Step 2: The Ultimate Export Settings for Facebook in Premiere Pro

Once your edit is complete and your sequence is set up correctly, it’s time to export. You can open the export window by selecting your sequence and pressing Cmd+M (Mac) or Ctrl+M (Windows), or by going to File >, Export >, Media.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of each setting in the Export panel.

Format Settings

This is the most important setting to choose first, as it affects all the others.

• Format: H.264. This is the universal standard for web video. It provides an excellent balance of quality and file size and is universally compatible.
• Preset: Start with Match Source - High Bitrate. We are going to customize this, but it gives us a great starting point. Don't use the built-in "Facebook" presets - they are often outdated and can result in lower quality than custom settings.

Video Tab: The Details for Perfect Quality

Click on the "Video" tab to open up the core settings. If it’s your first time here, this screen can look overwhelming, but we’ll just focus on a few key areas.

Basic Video Settings

• Frame Size: This should be grayed out and match your sequence settings if you checked "Match Source" at the top. If not, uncheck the box and manually set the resolution to match your sequence (e.g., 1080 x 1920).
• Frame Rate: Keep this matching your source footage. Do not try to change it here.
• Field Order: Always select Progressive. Interlaced is an old broadcast standard and will look terrible on the web.
• Aspect Ratio: Should be set to Square Pixels (1.0).
• If you see a "Render at Maximum Depth" box, check it. It can slightly improve color accuracy and gradients, especially if you have done color work.

Encoding Settings

You may see a choice between Hardware Encoding and Software Encoding.

• Hardware Encoding (e.g., Apple M1/M2, NVIDIA, Intel Quick Sync): This uses your computer's dedicated graphics hardware to speed up the export significantly. In most cases, this is the best option for speed with minimal quality loss.
• Software Encoding: This uses your computer's main processor (CPU). It's slower but can sometimes produce a slightly higher quality file at very low bitrates. For social media, the speed benefit of Hardware Encoding is almost always worth it.

Choose Hardware Encoding if it’s available.

Bitrate Settings - The Secret to Quality

Bitrate determines how much data Premiere Pro is allowed to use per second of video. It's the biggest factor in determining both file size and video quality. Too low, and your video looks blocky. Too high, and Facebook will heavily re-compress it and potentially ruin it anyway.

• Bitrate Encoding: Choose VBR, 2 pass.
  • VBR stands for Variable Bitrate. It allows the encoder to use more data for complex, high-motion scenes and less data for simple, static scenes. This is much more efficient than CBR (Constant Bitrate).
  • 2 Pass means Premiere will analyze your video twice. On the first pass, it identifies the complex and simple parts, and on the second pass, it intelligently applies the bitrate. This takes longer to export but results in significantly better quality for the file size.

Next, you’ll set the Target and Maximum Bitrate.

Recommended Bitrate for Facebook (HD 1080p):

• Target Bitrate [Mbps]: Set this to 10.
• Maximum Bitrate [Mbps]: Set this to 15.

These settings are the sweet spot. A target of 10 Mbps is plenty of data for a crisp 1080p video, and the 15 Mbps maximum gives the encoder headroom for fast-moving scenes. This prevents Facebook's compressor from making drastic changes, so you maintain more of the original quality.

For 4K footage downscaled to 1080p, you could bump these numbers up slightly (e.g., Target 15, Max 20), but for most social content, 10/15 is perfect.

Audio Tab

Don't forget about audio! Viewers are quick to skip a video if the sound is bad.

• Format: AAC
• Codec: AAC
• Sample Rate: 48000 Hz
• Channels: Stereo
• Bitrate [kbps]: 320

These settings will produce high-quality stereo sound that is compatible everywhere on the web.

Step 3: Save Your Preset for Future Use

You don't want to dial in all these settings every single time you export. Once you have them set, save them as a custom preset. Next to the "Preset" dropdown menu at the top of the export window, click the "Save Preset" icon (it looks like a down arrow pointing at a floppy disk).

Give it a recognizable name, like "Facebook Feed 1080x1350" or "Facebook Reels 1080x1920." The next time you need to export for Facebook, you can just select your custom preset from the list and hit "Export."

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Uploading ProRes or other master files: Some people think uploading a huge master file will trick Facebook into giving them better quality. It won't. The platform's algorithm will see the massive file size and compress it even more aggressively. Always send a tailored H.264 file.
• Forgetting "Safe Zones": For Reels and Stories, the top and bottom of the frame are often covered by platform UI (like your username, the caption, and comment buttons). Keep any important text, logos, or graphics centered vertically to avoid them being cut off.
• Choosing CBR over VBR: Constant bitrate is inefficient. It wastes data on quiet scenes and starves complex scenes of the data they need. VBR, 2-pass is always the better choice for exporting edited content.

Final Thoughts

Getting a clean, sharp video on Facebook isn't about guesswork, it’s about controlling your export settings in Premiere Pro to work with Facebook's compression, not against it. By matching your sequence to the right aspect ratio and using a custom H.264 export with VBR 2-pass encoding, you can airdrop a file that survives the upload process and looks fantastic in the feed.

Once you’ve perfected an amazing video, the logistical headache of scheduling it across different platforms shouldn't slow you down. We built Postbase because we were tired of legacy social media tools that just didn't get modern content, especially short-form video. It was designed so your beautifully exported Reels and videos publish flawlessly, without the random failures, constant account disconnections, and clunky interfaces you find everywhere else. It provides a simple, modern way to manage your content so you can focus on creating more of it.