Amazon Product Video Requirements: Specs, Aspect Ratio and Review Times

The Specs, in One Table

Amazon's Shoppable video guide in Seller Central lists the file requirements (Amazon Shoppable video guide):

Amazon's seller blog publishes a shorter version of this list, and it disagrees in one place: it gives thumbnails as "under 5 GB", almost certainly a typo for the help page's 5 MB. The blog's list also leaves out aspect ratio, which is why an earlier version of this guide said Amazon publishes none for video. It does, on the help page (Amazon product video advice).

The rest of this guide covers the requirements outside that table: who can upload, how long review takes, what a video can't contain, and a contradiction in Amazon's own advice on length.

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Aspect Ratio: 16:9 or 9:16

Amazon lists two aspect ratios: horizontal 16:9 and vertical 9:16 (Amazon Shoppable video guide).

At 1080p, those are 1920 x 1080 and 1080 x 1920. The help page recommends the same horizontal shape for a custom thumbnail uploaded through Image Manager: "1920 x 1080 pixels at 16:9 is recommended".

Product images are different. Amazon's general image requirements name no aspect ratio at all, and square is still the shape to use for them (Amazon Product image guide).

→ For images: Amazon aspect ratio rules.

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Length: Amazon's Advice Sits Outside Its Own Limits

Amazon's stated duration is 1 to 12 minutes. Its help page also lists duration among the things to check when a video won't upload (Amazon Shoppable video guide).

Amazon's seller blog then recommends something shorter. On the same page that lists the 1-to-12-minute specification: "Most successful videos are just 30 to 90 seconds long and highlight the most important feature in the first 5 to 10 seconds." A separate Amazon guide says a product video "should be 30 to 90 seconds long, with some more detailed videos running up to two minutes" (Amazon product video advice; Amazon video creation guide).

A 30-second video is under the stated one-minute minimum. Both statements are Amazon's, and they don't reconcile.

The practical resolution: target 60 to 90 seconds. That clears the stated minimum and sits inside the recommended range.

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Who Can Upload, and How Long It Takes

Before you upload, Amazon's help page says (Amazon Shoppable video guide):

• "Your account has been active for more than three months (brand-registered or non-brand registered)."
• "Product ASINs are created and listed."

A video is reviewed before it goes live. Amazon's stated timings:

It adds: "Review and publication timelines may be longer before and during holiday shopping seasons."

You can upload through Upload and Manage Videos or through Image Manager, and the help page says "Bulk upload of up to 15 videos at once is supported." Amazon's seller blog says you "can add up to 4 shoppable videos to any ASIN" (Amazon product video advice).

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Why a Published Video Might Not Show

Amazon's help page gives one cause that catches sellers out. For softlines products (Amazon's image suppression page gives "Kids, Baby, Shoes, Luggage, Watch and Jewelry" as examples): "If your listing has six or more images, the video will be suppressed on the desktop view." (Amazon Shoppable video guide; Amazon Image suppression).

Its fix is to remove images. Amazon's seller blog states the same limit more broadly, without the softlines qualifier: "the product must have fewer than six images" (Amazon product video advice).

If a video is still missing, the help page's checks are: confirm it has been in Published status for at least three days, and "Ensure the ASINs tagged in the video match the ASINs featured in your video."

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What a Video Can't Contain

Amazon's content standards list what's not allowed (Amazon Shoppable video guide):

• External website links
• Promotional calls to action, and promotional content
• Unauthorized music or artwork
• Visible third-party branding, and external branding
• Misleading claims or incorrect information
• Blurry or low-quality content, and poor-quality thumbnails

The music rule is broader than it sounds. The help page: "Unless you have obtained permission from all relevant third parties, do not play music or include images, artwork, or other audiovisual works in your videos."

If a video includes photorealistic people generated entirely by AI, the same disclosure rule as for images applies: add the keyword contains-synthetic-performer to the file's dc:subject (XMP) field before uploading.

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Resolution: Export at 1080p

Amazon's stated resolution is up to 1080p, and resolution is one of the checks the help page lists for a video that won't upload. Export at 1080p (Amazon Shoppable video guide).

Shooting above that is still useful, for reasons that have nothing to do with Amazon:

• Cropping room. A 4K source reframed to 1080p loses no detail.
• Stabilisation. Software stabilisation crops as it works. Starting above your delivery resolution means the crop costs you nothing.

Shoot high, export at 1080p, upload that.

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File Size: 5 GB Is Rarely the Limit You Hit

The 5 GB maximum is generous. As rough arithmetic, a 90-second 1080p video encoded at 10 megabits per second is about 113 MB (Amazon Shoppable video guide).

If a file is anywhere near 5 GB, the export settings are the problem. Amazon's guide on making product videos warns that "overly large video files can cause viewing issues like buffering or blurring" (Amazon video creation guide).

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What This Guide Does Not Cover

ComplianceKit checks product images: background, fill, dimensions, aspect ratio and format. It does not check video. For anything you can check on an image before upload, start with the Amazon image requirements guide.

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Summary

• Format: MOV or MP4. Resolution: up to 1080p. Size: 5 GB at most. Length: 1 to 12 minutes (Amazon Shoppable video guide).
• Aspect ratio: 16:9 horizontal or 9:16 vertical.
• Thumbnail: JPEG, PNG, GIF or BMP, under 5 MB.
• To upload, your account must have been active for more than three months.
• Review takes 1 to 7 business days, then up to three days to publish.
• Softlines listings with six or more images have the video suppressed on desktop.
• Length: Amazon's advice (30 to 90 seconds) and its limit (1 to 12 minutes) disagree. Target 60 to 90 seconds (Amazon product video advice).