9:16 Aspect Ratio Calculator

9:16 means nine units of width for every sixteen units of height, a decimal value of 0.5625. It is exactly the 16:9 landscape frame rotated ninety degrees, which is why the two numbers are simply swapped rather than re-derived.

The shape is not new — vertical video has existed for as long as there have been phone cameras. What changed is that the player became the screen. When an app occupies the whole display, a vertical clip leaves no black bars, and the platform gives it more visible area. That single layout decision is what pushed 9:16 from an accident of hardware into a dominant short-form format.

1. Checking a file you already have. Open Dimensions → Ratio and enter the width and height. The calculator reduces them and names the closest common ratio, so a 1080 × 1350 file is correctly reported as 4:5 rather than being mistaken for vertical video.
2. Finding the missing dimension. Switch to Resize by Ratio, keep 9:16 and type whichever side you know. Entering 1080 as the width returns 1920 as the height — the standard export size for Reels, Shorts and TikTok.
3. Converting a landscape master. Enter the original size first, then compare it with the 9:16 result to see how much width actually survives. That number tells you whether a crop is usable or whether the shot is worth re-recording vertically.

The preview updates as you type and everything is calculated locally in your browser — no file is uploaded.

Because 9:16 is just 16:9 flipped, the arithmetic mirrors the landscape method with the operations reversed.

1. Divide the height you are working from by 16.
2. Multiply that result by 9 to get the matching width.
3. Round the width to a whole pixel, then check it against the requirements of the platform or service you plan to use.

Worked example

Starting from a 1920-pixel height, a common phone screen: 1920 ÷ 16 = 120, and 120 × 9 = 1080, giving 1080 × 1920. If you are shooting at 2560 pixels tall, then 2560 ÷ 16 = 160 and 160 × 9 = 1440, which lands on 1440 × 2560. Working from the width instead, multiply by 16 and divide by 9: 1080 × 16 ÷ 9 = 1920.

Treating 9:16 as "16:9 just rotated" ignores that the safe zones are different — TikTok, Reels and Shorts all place UI elements (captions, like and share buttons, usernames) over specific parts of a vertical frame, so content and text need to sit in the middle of the frame, not just any orientation-correct rectangle. Another frequent error is exporting horizontal footage into a 9:16 timeline and leaving thin black bars on either side rather than reframing the shot — viewers scroll past pillarboxed video far more often than full-bleed vertical video. It's also worth not confusing 9:16 with a phone's default photo ratio, which is usually 3:4 (0.75), a noticeably less extreme crop than 9:16 (0.5625).

For a 4K vertical upload at 2160 pixels wide: 2160 ÷ 9 = 240, then 240 × 16 = 3840. That gives 2160 × 3840 — the vertical 4K frame, four times the pixel count of the 1080 × 1920 export and the size to shoot for if the clip will be reframed later.

Type your own numbers into the 9:16 calculator above and it will show the same division, plus the reduced ratio and the CSS to copy.

• TikTok uploads, where 1080 × 1920 is a common export size.
• Instagram Reels, Stories and full-screen vertical feed posts.
• YouTube Shorts, which accept 9:16 uploads at 1080 × 1920.
• Snapchat and WhatsApp Status, both designed around a portrait screen.
• Vertical digital signage and kiosk screens mounted upright.
• Mobile app splash screens and onboarding artwork that must fill the display.

Portrait shapes come in several flavours. 4:5 is taller than square but shorter than 9:16 and is used for Instagram feed posts; 2:3 matches the sensor of most cameras in portrait orientation. If you are editing landscape footage, the 16:9 calculator is the starting point.

• 16:9
• 4:3
• 1:1
• 16:10
• 21:9
• 3:2
• 4:5
• 2:3
• 2.39:1

This 9:16 guide is one of ten ratio calculators on the site — the common aspect ratios table lists the decimal value and the typical uses for every one of them.

These crops keep the full height, so the results are smaller than the 1080 × 1920 that platforms expect and have to be scaled up afterwards. That is the real cost of converting landscape footage: you are enlarging roughly a third of the original pixels. Shooting vertically at 2160 × 3840 avoids the upscale entirely.

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<div class="aspectcalc-embed" style="max-width:100%">
  <iframe id="aspectcalc-frame" src="https://aspectcalc.com/embed?h=640"
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          loading="lazy" title="AspectCalc aspect ratio calculator"></iframe>
  <p style="margin:8px 0 0;font:13px/1.4 system-ui,sans-serif;color:#64748b;text-align:center">Powered by <a href="https://aspectcalc.com/" style="color:#2563eb;text-decoration:none">AspectCalc</a> - free aspect ratio calculator</p>
</div>
<script>
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The frame starts at a fixed height, so your layout never jumps. Resize it with ?h= - for example https://aspectcalc.com/embed?h=520 - or keep the small script in the snippet and the frame will follow the widget's real height instead.