How to Upload a 120fps Video on TikTok

Unlocking that buttery-smooth, slow-motion effect on TikTok starts with a high-frame-rate video file, specifically 120 frames per second. While simply uploading a 120fps file won't work as you'd expect, there is a specific workflow to get that professional, cinematic quality. This article will guide you step-by-step through capturing, editing, and uploading your 120fps footage to make your TikToks stand out from the endlessly scrolling crowd.

What’s the Big Deal with 120fps Anyway?

You’ve probably heard creators and videographers geek out about frame rates, but what does it actually mean for your content? Frame rate is just the number of individual images, or frames, that are displayed every second to create a moving video. For years, 24fps or 30fps was the standard for most video content. It gets the job done and looks perfectly normal to our eyes.

Shooting at 120fps, however, captures four times as much information every second compared to a 30fps video. While your naked eye won’t notice much of a difference when the video is played at normal speed, this abundance of frames holds a special power: ultra-smooth slow motion.

When you slow down a standard 30fps video, the software has to guess and create artificial frames to fill in the gaps, which often results in choppy, blurry, or stuttering footage. But when you slow down a 120fps video, there are already more than enough real frames to create a clean, crisp, and almost dream-like slow-motion sequence. This has become an essential technique for creators in niches like sports, fashion, food, tutorials, and lifestyle, where capturing detail in motion makes a huge difference.

Clarifying a Common Myth: Does TikTok Natively Support 120fps?

Here’s the short and simple answer: No, not directly. TikTok (like most social platforms) automatically compresses and converts all uploaded videos to a standard frame rate, typically around 30fps or occasionally up to 60fps to save on server space and ensure smooth playback for all users.

If you upload a 120fps file directly to TikTok, the app will simply throw out three out of every four frames to bring it down to 30fps. All your hard work capturing those extra frames? Gone. So, the magic isn't in uploading a 120fps file - it's in using those 120 frames during the editing process to create beautiful slow-motion before you upload. By giving TikTok a highly optimized, pre-edited file, you ensure the final compressed video looks as good as possible.

The Step-by-Step Workflow for Perfect 120fps Uploads

Getting your high-frame-rate footage to look great on TikTok involves a three-stage process: shooting correctly, editing smartly, and uploading optimally. Let's break down each stage.

Stage 1: Capturing Your Video in High Frame Rate

Before you can edit in 120fps, you need to shoot in it. Most modern smartphones have this capability built-in, though it might be labeled as "Slo-mo."

• On an iPhone: Go to Settings >, Camera >, Record Slo-mo. Here, you’ll likely see options like "1080p HD at 120 fps" and "1080p HD at 240 fps." For our purposes, 120 fps is perfect and a great balance of quality and file size.
• On Android Phones (Samsung, Google Pixel, etc.): Open your Camera app, swipe over to the More tab, and look for a "Slow Motion" or "Super Slow-Mo" mode. Dive into the settings within that mode to select your desired resolution and frame rate. Aim for 1080p at 120fps.
• On Mirrorless or DSLR Cameras: If you're using a dedicated camera, find the "Frame Rate" or "Rec. Frame Rate" settings in your movie menu. You may need to switch to a resolution of 1080p to unlock 120fps, as some cameras don't support 4K at such a high frame rate.

Pro Tip: Filming in high frame rates requires more light. If you're shooting indoors, make sure your scene is well-lit to avoid grainy or dark footage.

Stage 2: The Editing Room - Where the Real Work Happens

This is the most important step in the entire process. Just uploading your slo-mo phone footage directly often results in quality loss. To take full control, you need to use a video editing app to conform your footage. We’ll use CapCut as our example since it’s free, insanely popular, and works beautifully with TikTok's format.

A Guided Workflow Using CapCut:

1. Start a New Project: Open CapCut and create a new project. Select and import the 120fps video clip you just filmed.
2. Set the right timeline: By default, CapCut might create a 120fps project to match your footage. This is not what we want. Go into your timeline's settings and ensure the "Timeline frame rate" is set to 30fps, not 120fps. We need to place our 120fps clip into a 30fps timeline to properly create slow motion for the final video we will upload on TikTok.
3. Slow It Down Correctly: Tap on your video clip in the timeline to select it. In the bottom toolbar, find and tap the "Speed" icon, and then select "Normal."
4. Do the Math (It's Easy!): Now, you need to set the speed. Because you shot in 120fps and your timeline is 30fps, you can slow the footage down by 4x without any loss in smoothness (120 ÷ 30 = 4). Drag the speed slider down to 0.25x. You will immediately see that the clip gets longer in your timeline and the motion becomes incredibly fluid. Don’t just rely on the in-app 'Slo-mo' button. While you might create great videos from doing so on special occasions, changing your speed manually to '0.25x' will always make your video as silky smooth as possible.
5. This is the core technique! You have told the software to play back your footage at a quarter of its original speed, but because you had four times the frames to begin with, the result is flawless slow motion, not a stuttery mess.
7. Fine-Tune with Speed Ramping (Optional): For a more dynamic effect, instead of "Normal" speed, you could choose "Curve." This allows you to create speed ramps where your video transitions smoothly from normal speed to slow motion and back again, which is a hallmark of professional-looking social content.

A similar principle applies to desktop software like Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve. Professional editors often "interpret" their 120fps footage as 24fps or 30fps, which automatically plays it back in slow motion on their timeline.

Stage 3: Export Settings for Maximum Quality on TikTok

Once your edits are complete, tapping "Export" isn't quite the end of the line. The settings you choose here will determine how much quality is preserved before TikTok applies its own compression.

In the top right corner of CapCut before you export, tap the resolution setting (e.g., "1080p"). This will open up your export options. Here’s what to choose:

• Resolution: Choose 1080p. TikTok's feed is optimized for 1080x1920, so exporting in 4K is usually overkill and can sometimes lead to worse compression results.
• Frame Rate: Set this to 30fps (or match whatever your timeline speed was). DO NOT export at 120fps. Your goal is to give TikTok a finished 30fps video that already has the perfect slow motion baked in.
• Bitrate (Code Rate): Set this to the "Higher" option. A higher bitrate creates a larger file, but it preserves more detail and color in your video. This gives TikTok's compression algorithm a better starting point.

Once you’ve set these, export the video to your camera roll. It's now perfectly prepped for TikTok.

Best Practices for Uploading to TikTok

You have the perfect video file. Now, let’s make sure you don't stumble at the final step. When uploading to TikTok:

1. Turn on High-Quality Uploads: This is a non-negotiable step. On the final screen before you post your video (where you write your caption and add hashtags), scroll down and tap on "More options." Make sure the toggle for "Allow high-quality uploads" is enabled. This tells TikTok to use a less aggressive compression algorithm, which makes a visible difference. You might need to turn this on for every video, so always double-check.
2. Upload Using A Strong Wi-Fi Connection: Uploading large video files over a choppy cellular connection can sometimes cause the upload to fail or trigger extra compression to get the file through faster. Whenever possible, upload your finished masterpiece using a stable Wi-Fi network.
3. Avoid In-App Filters and Effects: You already did all your creative edits in CapCut. Adding TikTok’s native filters, stickers, or effects can force the app to re-compress your video, potentially undoing all your hard work to preserve quality. Get everything looking exactly as you want it before you upload.

Final Thoughts

Mastering the 120fps "slow-motion" workflow isn't just a technical skill, it's a creative tool that elevates your content's production value. By shooting in a high frame rate, editing on a standard 30fps timeline to precisely control the slow-motion, and exporting with the right settings, you give the TikTok algorithm the best possible file to work with, resulting in a cleaner, smoother, and more engaging video.

Creating awesome, high-quality Shorts, Reels, and TikToks is an art, but getting them posted consistently is often the biggest challenge. At Postbase, we designed our platform with video creators in mind. Since our tool was built for today's video-first social landscape, you can easily schedule your perfectly edited slow-motion masterpiece across all your platforms from one visual calendar. This removes the administrative headache so you can focus more on creating and less on the logistical chaos of posting.