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How to Convert a Video for YouTube

Written by Thomas, Social Media Manager ·

Before you convert a video for YouTube, check whether you need to. YouTube accepts .MOV, .MPEG-1, .MPEG-2, .MPEG4, .MP4, .MPG, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm and HEVC (H.265). A much longer list than the conversion tools competing for this search would suggest.

Convert a video for YouTube only when the format isn't accepted

If your file's extension appears on that list, converting it gains you nothing and costs you a generation of quality. The instinct to convert everything to MP4 before uploading is a habit from a narrower era.

Where conversion earns its place is YouTube's recommended settings, which are stricter than its accepted ones: MP4 container, the moov atom at the front of the file , the setting usually labelled Fast Start , and no Edit Lists. Meeting the recommendation means the first transcode has the least work to do.

Container versus codec: what actually breaks an upload

An extension names the box, not the contents. .avi and .mov are containers; H.264, HEVC, ProRes and VP9 are codecs living inside them. YouTube's accepted list mixes both kinds of name, which is exactly why the distinction gets lost.

A failed upload of a supported extension is almost always a codec YouTube can't read, or a stream written in some unusual way. Diagnosing which is possible but slow. Re-exporting to MP4 with H.264 is faster and ends the question.

One hard boundary: audio-only files , MP3, WAV, PCM , can't be uploaded as videos at all. They have to become a video file first. Audio can be added to an existing video as an extra language track, but it can't be the video.

One predictable file out

Montaj exports a single .mp4 file, every time. There's no format dropdown, no container choice and no configuration to get wrong — which means there's nothing to convert afterwards, because the output is already what you'd have converted it to.

It lands in HEVC inside that .mp4, which is on YouTube's accepted list, so it uploads as-is. The whole point of a fixed output is that the question never comes up: there's no scenario where you export from it and then have to convert a video for YouTube afterwards.

How to get a file into a format YouTube accepts in 4 steps

  1. 1

    Check the format against YouTube's accepted list

    YouTube accepts .MOV, .MPEG-1, .MPEG-2, .MPEG4, .MP4, .MPG, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm and HEVC. The list is broader than most people assume.

  2. 2

    Separate the container from the codec

    The extension names the container. The codec is what's inside it. An .avi that YouTube rejects is usually carrying a codec problem, not a container problem.

  3. 3

    Convert to the recommended container if in doubt

    YouTube's recommended upload settings ask for MP4, with the moov atom at the front of the file for Fast Start and no Edit Lists.

  4. 4

    Remember that audio alone isn't a video

    MP3, WAV and PCM files can't be uploaded as videos. Audio has to be turned into a video file first, though it can be added to an existing video as an extra language track.

The verdict

Nine times out of ten there's nothing to convert, YouTube's accepted list is long, and the file you have is already on it. When an upload genuinely fails, stop looking at the extension and look at what's inside it, because that's where the incompatibility lives. Re-exporting to MP4 with H.264 is the answer that ends the investigation, and it's faster than diagnosing the original.

— Thomas, Social Media Manager

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Frequently asked questions

How do I convert a video for YouTube into a supported format?
Export or convert to MP4, which is YouTube's recommended container. YouTube also accepts .MOV, .MPEG-1, .MPEG-2, .MPEG4, .MPG, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm and HEVC.
What video formats does YouTube accept?
.MOV, .MPEG-1, .MPEG-2, .MPEG4, .MP4, .MPG, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP, WebM, DNxHR, ProRes, CineForm and HEVC (H.265).
Can I upload an MP3 to YouTube?
Not on its own. Audio-only files like MP3, WAV and PCM can't be uploaded as videos. The audio has to be turned into a video file first. It can, however, be added to an existing video as an extra language track.
Why did my upload fail even though the format is on the list?
Because the container and the codec are different things. A supported extension can still hold a stream YouTube can't read, which is why converting to MP4 with H.264 resolves most stubborn cases.

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