Turn a horizontal video into a vertical one, free

How to make a horizontal video vertical

1. 1. Add the video

   Upload the video file in the app (up to 5 GB), or paste a YouTube, X or Google Drive link. A horizontal video is wider than it is tall, for example 16:9.

2. 2. Choose the part

   FastClip makes a clip of up to 5 minutes. Select the words in the transcript, or set the start and end on the timeline.

3. 3. Turn on the 9:16 crop

   Turn on Vertical 9:16, then Follow faces automatically. FastClip finds the faces in the clip and places the frame on them with keyframes.

4. 4. Fix the frame and download

   Pause where the speaker moves and drag the frame onto them. Each drag sets a keyframe. Choose Cut here to jump to another speaker instead of panning. Then finish the clip: captions are burned in, and you download a 1080 × 1920 MP4.

What a vertical crop does to a horizontal frame

A 9:16 window cut from a 16:9 frame at full height keeps about 32% of the width: 607 of 1,920 pixels in a 1080p source. Whatever is outside the window is gone. This is how it works out:

• One speaker, near the center: the crop works with almost no work. Follow faces automatically keeps the speaker in the window.
• Two speakers side by side: one window cannot hold both. Use keyframes to pan to the speaker, or cut from one to the other.
• Slides, charts and screen recordings: a crop cuts them. Keep the original frame for that video.
• Text in the picture, such as lower thirds and logos: anything outside the window disappears.

FastClip crops. It does not fit the whole frame inside a vertical canvas with blurred or black bars. If you need the whole frame, keep the original frame. Our landscape to vertical guide covers every layout and the steps in other editors.

Size and safe zones for vertical video

From YouTube Help on Shorts (read October 15, 2026) and the Meta ad guide for Instagram Reels, as our landscape to vertical guide read it on September 29, 2026:

• 1080 × 1920. FastClip’s full-screen crop exports this size, as an MP4 up to 1080p.
• YouTube Shorts: a square or vertical video of up to three minutes.
• Instagram Reels safe zone: Meta’s ad guide says to keep at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side free of text, logos and other key elements.

In practice: keep faces and captions between about 270 px and 1,250 px from the top of the frame, and away from the side edges. In FastClip you can move the captions, so they stay clear of the app’s buttons.

Which videos convert well

A horizontal video converts well when the subject stays in one place: a talking head, a presenter, an interview with one speaker in frame, or a tutorial with a face. It converts badly when the action fills the frame: group shots, sport, a wide landscape, or slides. For two speakers, read interview to clips. For slides, read webinar to Shorts.

Questions

More ways to prepare a video

Need captions only? See add captions to video. Making a Short? See video to Shorts and YouTube to Shorts. Making a Reel or a TikTok? See YouTube to Reels and YouTube to TikTok.