Set Up Vertical 9:16 Resolution in OBS Studio

Creating content for mobile-first platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels requires a vertical 9:16 aspect ratio instead of the traditional widescreen format. This guide provides a straightforward, step-by-step walkthrough on how to configure your OBS Studio canvas and output settings to a vertical resolution, allowing you to easily record or stream gameplay and camera feeds formatted perfectly for mobile viewers.

Step 1: Open the Video Settings in OBS Studio

  1. Launch OBS Studio on your computer.
  2. In the bottom right corner of the screen, click on the Settings button (or go to File > Settings in the top menu).
  3. In the Settings window, click on the Video tab in the left-hand sidebar.

Step 2: Change the Canvas and Output Resolution

By default, OBS uses a widescreen resolution of 1920x1080. To make it vertical, you need to swap these numbers.

  1. Click inside the Base (Canvas) Resolution dropdown box.
  2. Delete the existing text and manually type 1080x1920.
  3. Click inside the Output (Scaled) Resolution dropdown box, delete the text, and manually type 1080x1920.
  4. Set your Common FPS Values (60 FPS is recommended for smooth gaming content, while 30 FPS is standard for talking-head videos).
  5. Click Apply in the bottom right corner.

Step 3: Configure Output Settings (for Recording)

To ensure your recordings are saved in high quality:

  1. Click on the Output tab in the left-hand sidebar of the Settings window.
  2. Change the Output Mode at the top to Advanced.
  3. Go to the Recording tab.
  4. Ensure your Type is set to Standard and choose your preferred Recording Path (where your videos will save).
  5. Set the Recording Format to mp4 or mkv.
  6. Select your video encoder (use NVIDIA NVENC H.264/AV1 or AMD HW H.264 if available, otherwise use x264).
  7. Click OK to save all settings and close the window.

Step 4: Adjust Your Sources to Fit the Vertical Canvas

Now that your preview window is vertical, your existing sources (like game capture or webcam) will likely look cut off or centered in a black box.

  1. Select your game capture or webcam source in the Sources dock.
  2. Press Ctrl + F to fit the source to the screen, or manually drag the red boundary corners to resize and reposition the source.
  3. For gaming content, a popular layout is placing your webcam at the top or middle-top of the screen, and cropping your game capture to fill the middle and bottom sections of the vertical canvas.