How to Post Horizontal Videos on Instagram

Trying to post a horizontal video on Instagram can feel like you're trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. You've shot this beautiful, cinematic 16:9 video only to have Instagram awkwardly crop it, cutting off crucial parts of your masterpiece. This guide will show you exactly how to post your horizontal videos correctly on your Feed, Reels, and Stories without the frustrating, automatic cropping.

First, Why Post Horizontal Videos on a Vertical Platform?

In a world of vertical video, questioning the place of horizontal content on Instagram is fair. Reels and Stories are built for the 9:16 vertical experience, and that’s where a lot of attention is. But dismissing horizontal video entirely means you could be missing out on key storytelling opportunities.

Some things just look better in a widescreen format. Think about:

• Cinematic Shots: Sweeping landscape drone footage, detailed architectural pans, or group shots where multiple people are in frame. A horizontal view captures the scale and context that gets lost in a tight vertical crop.
• Interviews and Vlogs: Many interviews or talking-head vlogs are filmed in 16:9. Forcing them into a vertical crop can feel claustrophobic and unnatural, cutting off hand gestures and ambience.
• Product Demos and Tutorials: If you're demonstrating something on a table or work-surface, a horizontal frame provides the space needed to show all the moving parts without constantly panning or zooming.
• Trailers and Showreels: Film trailers, video game showcases, and creative portfolios are traditionally produced in widescreen. Displaying them as intended provides a better viewing experience and maintains the original artistic vision.

The goal isn't to fight the platform's vertical nature but to work with it. You can present your horizontal content in a way that feels intentional and professional, giving your audience the full picture you intended.

Understanding Instagram’s Aspect Ratios: The Lay of the Land

Before fixing the problem, it helps to understand the "rules" of Instagram's different content placements. Each has its own preferred video dimensions (or aspect ratio). An aspect ratio is simply the relationship between a video's width and its height.

• A standard horizontal YouTube video or film is typically 16:9.
• A perfect square is 1:1.
• A vertical smartphone video is 9:16.

Here’s how Instagram’s main placements break down:

Instagram Feed Posts

The traditional Instagram grid gives you the most flexibility. It supports three primary aspect ratios:

• Square (1:1): The classic Instagram look. Dimensions: 1080 x 1080 pixels.
• Portrait (4:5): This taller format takes up more screen real estate than a square post and tends to perform well. Dimensions: 1080 x 1350 pixels.
• Landscape (1.91:1): This is Instagram’s version of "horizontal," but it’s not the same as a true 16:9 widescreen video. It's a bit wider and shorter. Anything wider than this limit will get cropped. Dimensions: 1080 x 566 pixels.

Instagram Reels &, Stories

These two placements are built from the ground up for a vertical, full-screen mobile experience. They share the same required aspect ratio:

• Vertical (9:16): This is the standard smartphone vertical video, designed to fill the entire screen. Dimensions: 1080 x 1920 pixels.

The Frustrating Automatic Crop: What Instagram Does to Your Video

So what happens when you upload your beautiful 16:9 video directly to Reels or try to post it on the feed without adjustments? Instagram tries to "help" by automatically fitting the frame. For a Reel (9:16 frame), it zooms into the very center of your horizontal (16:9) video, instantly cutting off the left and right thirds of your shot. The subject of your video has to be perfectly centered to even stand a chance, and you lose all surrounding context. It’s a bad look, and it never does your content justice.

Now, let’s get into the solutions. There are two main methods to get your horizontal video posted correctly: a quick in-app fix for feed posts and a more powerful editor method that works for everything.

Method 1: The In-App "Fit to Frame" Tool (For Feed Posts Only)

If you're simply aiming to post your horizontal video to your main Instagram feed, the app has a built-in feature that can help. This is the quickest and easiest way to avoid the dreaded square crop, but be aware of its limitations - this will not work for Reels or Stories.

How to Use It, Step-by-Step:

1. Open Instagram and start a new post. Tap the "+" icon at the bottom of the screen and select "Post."
2. Choose your horizontal video from your camera roll. When you select it, you'll see it automatically appears cropped into a square preview.
3. Tap the "Expand" icon. Look in the bottom-left corner of the video preview. You'll see a small icon with two outward-facing arrows (<, >,). Tap this icon.
4. Watch the magic happen. The preview will immediately zoom out, fitting your entire horizontal video into the frame. Instagram will add subtle, automatic black bars at the top and bottom to accommodate the width.
5. Continue your post. Tap "Next," add your filter, write your caption, tag accounts, add a location, and publish.

The Catch: This method is fast and easy, but it posts your video in Instagram’s 1.91:1 landscape format, not your original 16:9. For most videos, the difference is negligible and won't be noticeable. More importantly, this button simply doesn't exist when you're uploading to Reels or Stories, which will still aggressively crop your content.

Method 2: The Pro Method: Adding Borders with a Video Editor (Works Everywhere)

For complete control and for posting to Reels and Stories, the best solution is to manually format your video before you upload it to Instagram. This involves placing your horizontal (16:9) video inside a vertical (9:16) frame and adding borders on the top and bottom. This technique is often called "letterboxing" or creating "video templates."

This sounds complicated, but it’s incredibly easy with today’s mobile video editing apps. You're essentially creating a new video file that is technically vertical, so Instagram will accept it without any cropping. Inside that vertical frame, your horizontal masterpiece plays perfectly.

Why is This The Best Method?

• Universal Compatibility: A video formatted this way can be posted anywhere - Feed, Reels, and Stories - without any cropping issues.
• Full Creative Control: You control what the borders look like. They don't have to be boring black bars. You can use blurred backgrounds, solid brand colors, or even add text.
• Preserves Original Aspect Ratio: Your 16:9 video is displayed exactly as you shot it, with nothing cut off.

How to Add Borders Using a Mobile App (Like CapCut or InShot)

Dozens of free and paid mobile apps can do this, but CapCut and InShot are two of the most popular and user-friendly. The process is nearly identical in both.

Step-by-Step Guide with CapCut:

1. Start a New Project: Open CapCut and tap "New project." Select the horizontal video you want to use and tap "Add."
2. Change the Aspect Ratio: In the bottom toolbar, scroll over and tap on "Ratio." Select the 9:16 (TikTok icon) ratio. You'll immediately see your video placed in a vertical frame with black bars.
3. Customize the Background: Don't settle for black bars! Tap on "Canvas" in the bottom menu. Here you have a few options:
   • Blur: This is a popular and very professional-looking option. Select "Blur" and choose one of the blur effects. This will take your video, stretch it to fill the entire 9:16 background, and apply a blur effect. Your original, sharp 16:9 video plays on top of it.
   • Color: Select "Color" to add a solid or gradient background. You can choose from presets, use a color picker, or enter hex codes to match your brand colors perfectly.
   • Background: CapCut also has stock images and patterns you can use for the border. To ensure a good user experience, select an abstract image that doesn't distract from the video.
4. Add Text (Optional but recommended for Reels/Stories): Tap "Text" from the main menu to add a headline in the top bar or subtitles in the bottom bar. That empty letterbox space is prime real estate!
5. Export Your Video: Once you're happy with the look, tap the export icon (usually a box with an upward arrow) in the top-right corner. Make sure to export in high resolution (1080p is perfect for Instagram).

Your video is now saved to your camera roll as a 9:16 file, ready to be uploaded directly into Reels or Stories without any fear of cropping.

Creative Ways to Use the Border Space

That letterbox space is now part of your creative canvas. Here are some ideas to make it engaging and add value:

• Add a Compelling Headline: A bold title in the top section can grab attention and give context to your video before someone even hits the sound button.
• Use Closed Captions/Subtitles: Place burned-in subtitles in the bottom bar. Since so many people watch videos without sound, this makes your content far more accessible and engaging.
• Include Your Brand/Logo: Add your logo or website URL subtly in a corner of one of the bars for consistent branding.
• Put a Call-to-Action (CTA): Encourage viewers to act by adding text like "Link in Bio for the Full Video!" or "Comment Your Thoughts Below."
• Match Story Stickers: For Instagram Stories, you can leave the background as a solid brand color and use that space to place interactive stickers like polls, quizzes, or question boxes after you upload.

Final Thoughts

Posting horizontal videos on Instagram doesn't have to be a source of frustration. For quick feed posts, the in-app expand tool is your friend. For maximum quality, control, and the ability to post anywhere (especially Reels and Stories), formatting your video with borders in an editor like CapCut is the definitive solution, giving you a professional result every time.

At the end of the day, creating content in different formats and scheduling it consistently is one of the biggest challenges in social media. We've spent years managing content and know the headaches of prepping a dozen slightly different video files for each platform. That’s why we built Postbase to be a video-first platform. After you've perfectly formatted your Reels and other social videos, you can upload them once and schedule them rock-solid reliable to all your channels without wrestling with the user-interface, which frees you up to work on your next great creation.