What are the correct video and audio bitrates in Adobe Premiere?

Upload only Broadcast / Film Festival Grade Masters.

To export, use only ProRes HQ or DNxHR HQ, and PCM audio. These are production codecs, and the bitrates are inherent to them.

• Preferably no H.264. No presets with YouTube or Vimeo.

• Never up-convert video or audio, which will result in a subpar file and may be rejected by Channels.

You can check our help page for Supported Video and Audio Codecs.

List of Video and Audio Codecs.

If you decide to export your video file in H.264 on Adobe Premiere, here's a quick guide to select the correct video and audio Bitrate.

Step 1: Open The Export Window

After selecting your timeline go to File > Export > Media or press Control+E (Windows) or Command (or Cmd) ⌘+E (macOS).

Step 2: Select the Format and the Codec

Select Format > H264.

After that Select Preset > Match Source - High Bitrate

These presets will guarantee the best video and audio quality, and are a good base if you don't know your video settings. As an alternative, you can also select High Quality 1080HD.

Step 3: Fine Tune Your Settings if Needed

Under the Video tab, all settings are selected by default to match the source video and timeline settings. If you need to change the resolution, frame rate, etc you can un-select and adjust.

Step 4: Select the correct Video Bitrate

If you have a 4k timeline and want to export it in H.264, the bitrate must be ≥ 50 Mbps.

Has a safety measure since the bitrate is slightly variable, add 30% more just to be safe. This way for a 4k resolution you should export with 65 Mbps.

If you want the best quality from H.264 you can select VBR, 2 pass.

Always make your Maximum Bit Rate double the Target Bit Rate. In this case for a 4k Timeline of 50 Mbps for Target Bitrate, select 100 Mbps for the Maximum Bitrate.

When you choose 2 pass, Premiere will run through your timeline twice to make sure that there are no corrupted frames and ensure that your export is clean.

Step 5: Select the correct Audio Bitrate

Under the Audio tab (for H.264) select AAC, the min. accepted is 128 kbps (stereo), but always select the best possible bitrate. In this case, select the 320 kbps bitrate.

Step 6: Choose Filename and Location

Click the blue filename to open the Save As dialog box. Use this to choose an export location and a name for your new file, and then click Save.

Step 7: Export Time!

Now you are all set to export your video, just click Export at the bottom.

After the export finishes play the file to see if everything is ok and start uploading to Filmhub.

Pro Tip

Save a preset with your settings for future exports. This way you don't have to manually insert all the settings. It's the first icon next to the preset.