How long can a TikTok be? 60 minutes uploaded, 10 recorded

You have a 12-minute answer to a question clients ask every week. Will TikTok take it? Will anyone watch to the end?

TikTok will take it. Uploads can run 60 minutes and recordings in the app 10. The catch is that TikTok has four ways in, and each has its own limit. The table below sources every one, and the 90-second script further down is ready to copy.

A TikTok can be 60 minutes uploaded or 10 minutes recorded

How long a TikTok can be depends on how it gets into the app. TikTok's Help Center gives two numbers: "Videos you record in TikTok can be up to 10 minutes long" and "Videos you upload in TikTok can be up to 60 minutes long."

Recording means the TikTok camera. You pick a length, tap Record, and the camera stops on its own when you get there. Uploading means a finished file from your camera roll. For a coach, the upload is the door that matters. A recorded webinar can go up whole, as long as it runs under an hour.

One setting changes the limit. The same article says that if you pick a sound before you record or upload, "the video length will be determined by the sound length." So if the camera keeps stopping at 30 seconds, check whether a song is selected.

A guide that gives you a different number is usually describing an older TikTok. The app launched with 15-second videos and tested 60-minute uploads in May 2024. In between, it moved to 3 minutes in July 2021 and to 10 minutes in February 2022. A page that says 3 or 10 minutes was right once. The 30 minutes in some guides matches TikTok's limit for uploads from a computer.

Every TikTok length limit, with a source for each row

"None published" means we looked on TikTok's own pages and found no number.

Checked against TikTok's Help Center, TikTok for Developers and TikTok's US Creator Rewards terms on October 26, 2026.

Stories are where Google's answer and TikTok's pages part ways. Google's AI Overview for the same question says Stories "can be up to 15 seconds long." TikTok's Stories page gives no length at all. In the Story camera, you pick a time limit before you record, the same as a regular video.

For a talking-head TikTok, export 9:16 at 1080 x 1920. That clears the 720 x 1280 minimum with room to spare. Posting the same take to YouTube too? CreateSocial's Dual mode frames 16:9 and 9:16 at once, so one recording gives you the TikTok and the wide video. The vertical cut also works as a Reel or a Short, inside Instagram's Reels limits and YouTube's 3-minute Shorts limit. For the Reel, check the Instagram Reel size, with every crop, before you add text.

On a computer, plan for 30 minutes

Plan desktop uploads around 30 minutes. That is the number on TikTok's TikTok Studio help page, which covers uploading from tiktok.com. Its upload rules list "Up to 30 minutes in length" and "Less than 10 GB", in MP4 or WebM at 720x1280 or higher.

Is the web really capped lower, or is one page out of date? We can't tell. The Camera tools article says uploads "in TikTok" run to 60 minutes, and neither page carries a date. The safe plan works either way. Under 30 minutes, upload from wherever you like. Over 30, use the phone app, where TikTok's own page says 60.

File size is murkier still. On October 26, Google's AI Overview for "tiktok upload limit" gave 72MB for Android, 287.6MB for iPhone and up to 30 GB on a computer, numbers that ranking guides repeat. We found none of them on a TikTok page. The only sizes TikTok publishes are the 10 GB web limit and the 4GB limit for apps that post for you.

Apps that post to TikTok for you stop at 10 minutes

Schedulers and other apps that post for you can send TikTok a video of up to 10 minutes. They hand the file over through TikTok's developer platform, and TikTok's developer guide caps a video sent that way at 10 minutes and 4GB. The 60 minutes applies only when you upload in the TikTok app yourself.

Your own cap can be lower. The same guide says every creator can post 3-minute videos this way, "while some have access to post 5-minute or 10-minute videos." TikTok's developer reference tells apps to check each account's limit before posting. So if a scheduler turns down an 8-minute video, your account's cap is the first thing to check.

None of the top-ranking guides we read spell out this limit, yet it decides how you plan a long video. Cut the version you schedule to fit your cap, and keep the full-length cut for YouTube. In CreateSocial, schedule the TikTok and pick a time, and once your account is connected, we post it for you at the time you picked.

How long should a TikTok be? 60 seconds to 3 minutes for most coaching videos

For most coaching videos, aim for 60 seconds to 3 minutes. Then set the exact length by the video's job. We found no ideal length on TikTok's pages for regular posts, so the middle column is our call.

Treat both studies as signals, not rules. Socialinsider looked at 8,000,795 organic videos from brand accounts active between January and June 2026. Buffer looked at 1.1 million TikToks. Both show what went along with longer videos, not what caused it. Neither looks at coaches.

Skip the 21-to-34-second rule for coaching videos

The 21-to-34-second advice started as advice for paid ads, in 2021. On October 26, Google's AI Overview for "how long can a tiktok be" called 21 to 34 seconds the "viral sweet spot." Ranking guides credit the number to WIRED or to a clip-editing app. The oldest source we found is TikTok itself. A TikTok For Business tip sheet for advertisers says "21-34 seconds is the recommended length for In-Feed advertising." Its footnote credits ad performance research from May to July 2021.

So the number describes ads, not regular posts. An ad and a coaching video have different jobs, and the organic data since then points longer:

Source: Socialinsider, July 10, 2026. Engagement rate is likes, comments and shares divided by views.

Median views climb at every step from 15 seconds to 3 minutes. Videos of 2 to 3 minutes got 11 times the median views of videos at 15 to 30 seconds. Engagement rate moves far less, and no length tops 6%. Buffer's 2025 data points the same way: videos over 60 seconds got 63.8% more watch time than videos of 30 to 60 seconds.

Our call: start a coaching TikTok at 60 to 90 seconds, and let a strong one run to 3 minutes. A coaching point needs the claim and the example that proves it. At 150 words a minute, 30 seconds is about 75 words. That fits a hook and a claim, rarely the example.

How many words fit in a TikTok

About 150 words fit in a 1-minute TikTok, and about 1,500 fill the 10-minute recording limit. The National Center for Voice and Speech puts the average US speaking rate at about 150 words a minute. If you pause a lot, plan on 120, the slow mark from our guide to how many words fit in a 2-minute speech.

Write to the number, then read it aloud with a timer. In CreateSocial, give an idea a length and the script is written for it. Pick a preset such as 30-60s or 1-2 min, or any custom length from 15 seconds to 60 minutes. The teleprompter then scrolls at a set pace, from 80 to 260 words a minute. A 225-word script at 150 takes 90 seconds.

A 90-second TikTok script for a coach, timed

Here is a 90-second TikTok for a hypothetical business coach whose clients are consultants who just went solo. It runs 220 words, about 90 seconds at 150 a minute with natural pauses.

HOOK (0:00 to 0:04, 11 words)
If your proposals keep getting ghosted, you're sending them too early.

PROBLEM (0:04 to 0:26, 54 words)
Here's how it usually goes. A great first call. They say, "Send me something."
You spend Sunday on a beautiful proposal, with three options and a cover page.
Then nothing. You follow up twice. Still nothing.
The proposal didn't fail. It arrived before the two of you
agreed on the problem and the budget.

METHOD (0:26 to 1:12, 116 words)
So add one short call before any proposal. Twenty minutes, three questions.
First: what happens if this isn't fixed in six months?
Second: who else has to say yes?
Third: what have you set aside for it?
Write their answers down, word for word.
Listen hardest to the first answer. If they say,
"We'd lose our biggest account," the price conversation
just got easier for both of you.
Then say your scope and your price out loud, on the call.
If they flinch, you find out now and adjust it together,
while they're still talking to you.
The proposal you send afterward only writes down
what they already agreed to. That's the one that gets signed.

ASK (1:12 to 1:28, 39 words)
Try it on the next prospect who says, "Send me something."
And comment CALL. I'll send you the three questions
as a one-page script you can read from.
Follow for next week: how to say your price without apologizing.

The hook names the problem in its first six words, about 2 seconds in. TikTok's own creative tips for ads show why early matters. Over 63% of the videos with the highest click-through rates "highlight their key message or product within the first 3 seconds." The problem is done by 0:26, so even a viewer who leaves early gets the idea. For more openers built the same way, see these hook examples for coaches.

The ask does two jobs. The comment keyword starts a conversation with the one viewer who might hire the coach. The follow line promises a second video, so record both on the same day. Here is how to batch record a week of TikTok videos in one sitting.

Turn a long video into TikToks in four steps

Post the whole video if it fits, and cut short clips from it as well. Your followers might sit through a 40-minute webinar. A stranger on the For You feed won't. Here is the order:

1. Check the length against the way in. Under 60 minutes from the phone app, under 30 from a computer, under 10 through an app that posts for you.
2. Find moments that stand alone. Would a stranger get the point with no setup? If the question comes minutes before the answer, join the two and drop the middle.
3. Reframe to 9:16 and keep words clear of TikTok's buttons. Subtitles under the caption and the side buttons are subtitles nobody reads.
4. Add subtitles, then post each clip as its own TikTok. Say in the last few seconds where the full video lives.

CreateSocial handles steps 2 to 4. On any video of 8 minutes or more, recorded or uploaded, Find Clips suggests up to five standalone clips of about 15 to 90 seconds, each with a strength score. A clip can join a setup from early in a talk to its payoff much later. Each one becomes its own vertical video with subtitles, and TikTok safe-zone guides in the editor show where the buttons sit. The same clips work on YouTube, too. Here is how to make YouTube Shorts from them.

How CreateSocial makes your TikToks, at the length you picked

CreateSocial helps coaches and consultants build a personal brand that brings in clients, speaking gigs and customers, without TikTok eating the week. It learns what you know and runs the whole content week, video and written: ideas, scripts, posts, recording, editing, thumbnails and scheduling. Here is the 90-second TikTok above, made inside it.

• A script written to 90 seconds. Add your website, past videos and posts, and client stories to your knowledge base. CreateSocial turns them into 80 personalized ideas a month, each with a hook and talking points or a full script, at the length you set. Trending Now adds what your niche is talking about every Monday. "Ask me first" asks you a few questions before it writes, so the video tells your real story.
• Four sections, so a stumble costs one retake. The hook, the problem, the method and the ask each become a section, read off a teleprompter near your camera at the pace you set. Flub the second question and you retake only the method section. Record on the iPhone app or at your desk, where Dual mode frames the TikTok and a YouTube version at once.
• Trimmed to the second. Delete a sentence from the transcript and it leaves the video. Remove Silences takes out the pauses in one click, and eye contact correction fixes the glances at your script. Subtitles go on in 11 styles, with TikTok safe-zone guides for placing them.
• Clips from talks you already gave. Find Clips pulls standalone clips of about 15 to 90 seconds from any webinar or talk of 8 minutes or more, and never pads the list with weak moments.
• Posted for you, at your time. Schedule to TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and X, each with a caption written for that platform, and we post it for you once your accounts are connected. You get an email when it's live. Tick "I'll finish this one in the app" to add a trending sound yourself, and at your time the video lands in your connected TikTok's drafts.
• The numbers in one place. The Analytics page gathers followers, views, likes, comments and shares from your connected TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook accounts.

Also in the one plan: competitor tracking, written posts with no video (LinkedIn posts, X threads, blog posts and emails to your list), LinkedIn carousels with PDF and PNG export, screen recording with your camera as a bubble, reaction videos in Layout or Stitch mode, virtual backgrounds with or without a real green screen, B-roll from free stock video, and YouTube thumbnails and vertical covers made from your video and photos of you.

One person is behind all of it. I'm Ben Moore, and I built CreateSocial on my own, bootstrapped, here in Cincinnati, Ohio, so you talk to me directly. Feature requests come to me, and a lot of what customers ask for gets built. Before CreateSocial, my agency generated millions of followers and millions of dollars in revenue for its clients, and I've generated hundreds of millions of views.

It costs $129 a month, or $99 a month billed annually, with no add-ons and no per-feature charges. Start your free trial and script your first 90-second TikTok today. Want a month of TikToks mapped to your offer first? Book a free strategy call with me.

Make one 90-second TikTok this week, then compare it

Pick one question a client asked you this month. Then:

1. Write the answer to about 225 words, with the point in the first sentence.
2. Read it aloud with a timer, and cut setup until it lands near 1:30.
3. Record it, add subtitles and post it when your followers are on. Our guide to the best time to post on TikTok covers when.
4. A week later, compare how long people watched it and how many finished it with your last five videos. In the app, tap More insights on the post. On a computer, TikTok Studio's analytics break it down per video. Our walkthrough of your TikTok analytics shows where both numbers live.

If the 90-second video holds people as well as your short ones, you have room to teach. A free CreateSocial trial gets that first one scripted, recorded and subtitled this week.