DaVinci Resolve does not ship an Instagram preset. The Deliver page presets documented in the DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual are YouTube 720p/1080p/1440p/2160p, Vimeo 720p/1080p/2160p, a TikTok Deliver Page Preset, a Presentations preset, and Dropbox or Dropbox Replay 720p/1080p/2160p. Instagram is not among them.
The useful part is that the manual publishes the TikTok preset's parameters word for word, including one checkbox whose documented default the same paragraph tells you to change for portrait delivery. That paragraph is the whole reason this page exists.
Before you start
You need DaVinci Resolve (the parameters below are from the Resolve 21 manual) and a finished timeline. One thing is worth knowing before you touch the Deliver page.
Presets take controls away from you. The manual is explicit about what choosing a preset does: "Each preset automatically sets up what you need and locks you out of settings that are not necessary for rendering that type of media." If you want every control back, the manual says: "When custom is selected, nothing is automatically set, and all conventional media rendering options are available, except for those that are specifically associated with particular presets."
For Instagram's own accepted resolution, aspect ratio and length, check the official Instagram documentation — Blackmagic's official documentation doesn't state any of it. Our separate write-up on Instagram Reels specs covers that side.
The documented social presets, side by side
Every social preset in the manual renders the same container and codec. Only two fields differ.
| Preset | Format | Video Codec | Encoding Profile | Audio bus | Audio Codec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube 720p/1080p/1440p/2160p | MP4 | H.264 | High | Main 1 | AAC |
| Vimeo 720p/1080p/2160p | MP4 | H.264 | Auto | Bus 1 | AAC |
| TikTok Deliver Page Preset | MP4 | H.264 | Auto | Bus 1 | AAC |
| Dropbox or Dropbox Replay 720p/1080p/2160p | MP4 | H.264 | Auto | Bus 1 | AAC |
All four also list "Data burn-in: Same as Project", so whatever burn-in your project is configured for is what you get.
The TikTok preset is the only one of the four whose documented parameters include a portrait checkbox, which makes it the closest published starting point for a Reel. The manual gives three more of its fields verbatim: "Resolution: 1920x1080 HD", "Frame rate: The chosen frame rate of your timeline. You can also override this and set another frame rate manually.", and the checkbox below.
The default the manual tells you to change
Here is the line, in full, exactly as the manual prints it:
"Use Vertical Resolution: Unchecked. Check this box if you want to deliver your video in portrait mode for proper display on phones. This should be on for TikTok."
Read it twice. Blackmagic documents the shipped state of the checkbox (unchecked) and, in the same paragraph, tells you it should be on for TikTok.
Note what the sentence does not say: it does not publish the pixel dimensions you end up with once the box is checked, only that the video is delivered "in portrait mode for proper display on phones." So tick it, then read the Resolution field back before you queue the render rather than assuming the numbers flipped.
Step by step
- Open the Deliver page and choose the TikTok Deliver Page Preset. You now have MP4 / H.264 / Encoding Profile Auto / AAC audio from Bus 1. As with any preset — the manual's description covers presets in general, not this one specifically — it "locks you out of settings that are not necessary for rendering that type of media."
- Check Use Vertical Resolution. This is the manual's own instruction for portrait delivery.
- Confirm the Resolution field. The manual says the Resolution setting "defaults to Timeline Resolution", and the preset's own documented value is 1920x1080 HD — so verify which one you are looking at instead of trusting either.
- Leave the frame rate on the timeline's frame rate unless you have a reason not to. The manual notes you can "override this and set another frame rate manually."
- Render to disk, then upload from the phone or browser. Resolve's documented upload integrations do not include Instagram (see below), so this last hop is manual.
If the resulting file is bigger than you want to push over mobile data, you can shrink it without reopening Resolve:
Try it right here
Runs in your browser. Your file is not uploaded anywhere.
This runs entirely in your browser tab — the file is read from disk, re-encoded locally, and handed back. Nothing is uploaded, which matters for client work you have not published yet. The rest of the browser-side toolkit lives at all Clapr tools.
Common mistakes
Expecting a one-click upload to Instagram. Blackmagic publishes five lists of the services Resolve uploads to, and no two of them match:
- Reference Manual, Chapter 186 (Using Quick Export): "...to one of the supported video sharing services, including YouTube, Vimeo, and Frame.io."
- Reference Manual, Chapter 39 (Quick Export): the same sentence, but "including YouTube, Vimeo, and Dropbox."
- Reference Manual, Setting Up Video Sharing Uploads: "DaVinci Resolve has account integration with YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Dropbox, and Frame.io that allows you to render and upload directly to each service."
- Product overview page: "You can output and upload files to YouTube, Vimeo and X from anywhere page using the quick export tool." (the wording is Blackmagic's own.)
- What's New page: "Link your social media accounts to DaVinci Resolve in order to upload videos directly to YouTube, TikTok, Vimeo and X as you export."
Instagram is on none of the five. Worth noting too that X appears only on the two marketing pages: the product overview page and What's New name it, while the Reference Manual's Deliver chapter lists no X preset among the social presets it documents.
Leaving Use Vertical Resolution alone because "it's the TikTok preset, it must already be vertical." The manual says the opposite: it ships unchecked.
Assuming the preset carries Instagram-tuned compression. Blackmagic's only published claim about preset compression is this: "Compression settings have been developed based on each site's best recommendations, meaning your videos will be optimized for visual quality and playback speed." No numbers are attached, and Instagram is not one of the sites with a preset. If you need to cap the data rate yourself, the manual's control is "Restrict to X Kb/s: You can choose Automatic, or select a maximum data rate with which to export." For a target bitrate, check the official Instagram documentation.
Forgetting Use Proxy Media. It appears in the social preset panel, and the manual describes it plainly: "Lets your final render use the proxy media instead of the original source camera files. Useful if speed is more important than quality." A soft Reel that looked sharp in the viewer is worth checking against this box.
Expecting multi-pass encoding. The manual tags Multi-pass encode, Key Frames and Frame Reordering as "(Available for QuickTime H.264 and H.265)" — and every social preset uses the MP4 format. More on that split in MP4 vs QuickTime export.
FAQ
Does DaVinci Resolve have an Instagram or Reels export preset? No. The presets documented in the Resolve 21 manual are YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Presentations, and Dropbox or Dropbox Replay. Instagram is not among them, and Blackmagic's official documentation doesn't state anything further about Instagram delivery.
What settings should I use, then? The TikTok Deliver Page Preset is the only documented preset with published portrait guidance: MP4, H.264, Encoding Profile Auto, AAC audio from Bus 1, timeline frame rate, and Use Vertical Resolution checked. Confirm the resolution against Instagram's official documentation.
Can I upload to Instagram directly from the Deliver page? Not according to Blackmagic's own lists. Across the five of them — two Quick Export passages and the Internet Accounts section in the manual, plus the product overview and What's New pages — the services named are YouTube, Vimeo, TikTok, Dropbox, Frame.io and X, and each list names a different subset. Instagram is on none of them, so render to disk and upload from Instagram itself.
Can the free version export a vertical 4K Reel? Blackmagic's documents disagree here. The Supported Formats and Codecs notes say "Encoding video resolutions >= 4K is only supported with DaVinci Resolve Studio," while the product page says the free version can "edit and finish up to 60 fps in resolutions as high as Ultra HD 3840 x 2160." We pulled both quotes apart in 4K export and the Studio requirement.
Is there anything to watch on the audio side? The preset's audio codec is AAC, and the codec list shows AAC encoding available on macOS and Windows but marked with a dash on Rocky Linux 8.6. On Linux, pick a different audio codec. The manual also exposes "Bit Rate Strategy: (Available for AAC encoding) You can choose among Constant Bit Rate, Average Bit Rate, Variable Bit Rate Constrained, and Variable Bit Rate."
More Resolve and social-delivery walkthroughs live in the how-to guides, and if the export is fine but the file is simply too heavy, compress it for social in the browser.
Parameters quoted from the DaVinci Resolve 21 Reference Manual, the Resolve 21 What's New page, and Blackmagic's Supported Formats and Codecs document (cover date July 2025), checked 16 September 2026. Blackmagic changes these without notice — verify against the current documents before relying on them.
