The worst length for a TikTok is 30 to 60 seconds, and it is the second most common length on the platform. Two large datasets, a year apart, land on the same shape: a video under 30 seconds gets the best engagement rate, a video over a minute gets the most reach and watch time, and the bracket in between gets neither. Most advice about TikTok length is about picking a number. The data says the job is avoiding one.
We sell TikTok views, likes and followers, so read the section on buying views with that in mind. The rest is a length argument built on other people’s data, and it costs nothing to act on.
The limits, so nobody has to look them up
TikTok launched with 15-second videos, moved to 60 seconds, then to three minutes in 2021, and in 2022 confirmed 10-minute uploads for everyone. Since May 2024 it has been testing 60-minute uploads with a limited group of accounts in select markets. Recording inside the app still tops out at 10 minutes.
So the ceiling is not the question. Almost nobody is near it. Buffer’s analysis of 1.1 million TikToks found about 86% of videos are under a minute, and only 12.3% sit anywhere between 60 seconds and 10 minutes.
What the two datasets say
The first is Buffer’s, published in March 2025 from 1.1 million videos in its data, mostly creators and small businesses. Median reach per video, by length:
- 5 to 10 seconds: 194
- 10 to 30 seconds: 302
- 30 to 60 seconds: 302
- 60 seconds to 10 minutes: 432.5
Median watch time went the same way: 3.1 seconds for a 5-to-10-second clip, 6.9 seconds for 30 to 60, 11.3 seconds for anything over a minute. Buffer’s headline was that videos over 60 seconds get 43.2% more reach and 63.8% more watch time than the 30-to-60 bracket. The quieter finding is on the third line: 30 to 60 seconds reached exactly as many people as 10 to 30, for double the running time.
The second is Socialinsider’s, published in July 2026 from more than six million videos by brand accounts, January to June 2026. Two numbers per bracket, engagement rate and median views:
- 0 to 15 seconds: 5.90%, 1,274 views
- 15 to 30 seconds: 6.00%, 1,000 views
- 30 to 60 seconds: 4.20%, 2,200 views
- 60 to 90 seconds: 4.80%, 7,200 views
- 90 to 120 seconds: 5.15%, 9,620 views
- 2 to 3 minutes: 5.50%, 11,136 views
- Over 3 minutes: 5.90%, 10,150 views
Read the two columns together. Engagement rate is highest for the shortest clips, drops to its floor at 30 to 60 seconds, then climbs back with every extra minute. Views do the opposite at the short end and then jump: crossing the one-minute line more than triples the median, from 2,200 to 7,200, and two to three minutes is the peak. The full breakdown is worth ten minutes of anyone’s time.
Different years, different kinds of account, different metrics, same hole in the middle.
Why longer gets more: watch time, not completion
The mechanism is not a mystery, because TikTok has described it. In its explanation of how the For You feed ranks videos, it says a strong signal, such as whether a user finishes watching a longer video from beginning to end, is weighted more heavily than a weak one. Note the word longer. Finishing a seven-second clip tells the feed very little. Holding someone for ninety seconds tells it a great deal.
That is the distinction that gets lost in the folklore about completion rate. Shorter videos are finished more often, which Buffer’s data also shows, but they bank less time per viewer. A 40% completion on a two-minute video is 48 seconds of attention. A 100% completion on a ten-second video is ten. The feed, on TikTok’s own account, is counting the seconds. We go through the difference properly in TikTok watch time.
The platform has been nudging in this direction for years. In late 2023 TikTok told creators that users spend half their time on the app on content longer than a minute, and that creators posting minute-plus videos had grown their followers five times faster over the previous six months. Those are the platform’s numbers, reported second-hand, from an event designed to encourage longer videos. Treat them as a direction of travel rather than a measurement. The direction matches the independent data above.
The one-minute line is also a pay line
If you are working towards getting paid, the decision is partly made for you. The Creator Rewards Program counts only videos with a duration of at least one minute, on top of 10,000 followers, 100,000 views in the last 30 days, an eligible region and an account in good standing. A 45-second video that goes viral earns nothing from the programme. The same video at 65 seconds qualifies. We set the rest of the thresholds out in how many likes you need to get paid on TikTok.
That rule is the reason so much of the platform’s advice points at 60 seconds, and it is a good reason if you are in or near the programme. It is not a reason to stretch a 20-second idea to 61 seconds, which is how videos end up in the hole.
The rule: pick a side of the hole
Decide what the video is before you decide how long it is.
- A hit. One joke, one reveal, one before-and-after, one answer. Cut it to under 30 seconds and do not add a second. This is the bracket with the best engagement rate in both datasets, and stretching it is what kills it.
- A story. A tutorial, a list, a demo, an argument, a day. Build it past the minute, ideally to somewhere between 90 seconds and three minutes, and structure it so people finish. This is where reach and watch time live.
- Never 30 to 60 by accident. If a video lands there, it is usually a hit with an intro, or a story with the middle missing. Cut it down or build it out.
Nothing here says longer is better. It says longer is better for ideas that need the time, and that the platform, in 2026, pays for time held. Metricool’s study of 2.3 million posts found video views down 31% year on year, which is the other reason to avoid the middle: there is less reach to go round, and it is going to the videos that hold attention.
How to make a longer video that gets finished
The length advice only works if the video survives its own running time. The parts that decide that are not evenly spread.
- Cut the intro. Most of the loss on a long video is in the first two seconds, to a greeting or a title card nobody asked for. Start in the middle of the thing. Our guide to TikTok hooks is about exactly this line.
- Show the shape. Numbered steps, an on-screen counter, “the last one is the important one”. People finish things they can see the end of.
- End on the payoff, not on a sign-off. The result, the reveal, the answer, then stop. “Follow for more” after the payoff is where rewatches go to die.
- Read your own average watch time. TikTok’s analytics show it per video. If a three-minute video averages 20 seconds, it is a 20-second video with a long tail, and the fix is at the 20-second mark, not in the length.
Where buying views fits
We sell TikTok views, so read this with the appropriate suspicion.
Bought views add a number. They do not add watch time, and on a longer video that is the number the feed is reading. A three-minute video with a large view count and a tiny average watch time looks, to the ranking system, like a video people leave, and the platform removes engagement it judges inauthentic, which we set out in the risks of fake engagement. If you are going to use them, use them on a video whose watch time already holds, and treat them as decoration on a house that stands up on its own.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best length for a TikTok in 2026?
Under 30 seconds for a single idea, 90 seconds to three minutes for anything with steps or a story. The bracket to avoid is 30 to 60 seconds, which has the lowest engagement rate in Socialinsider’s 2026 data and no reach advantage over shorter clips in Buffer’s.
Do longer TikToks get more views?
On the medians, yes. Buffer found videos over a minute reach 43% more people than 30-to-60-second ones; Socialinsider found median views triple across the one-minute line and peak at two to three minutes. The reason is watch time: a longer video that holds people sends a stronger signal than a short one that is merely finished.
Is 15 seconds too short?
Not for a hit. Clips under 30 seconds have the best engagement rate in both datasets. They just do not carry much watch time, so they spread on shares and likes rather than on the feed holding people, and they earn nothing from Creator Rewards.
Why are my 45-second videos not doing anything?
Because 45 seconds is usually a 20-second idea with an intro, or a two-minute idea with the middle cut out. The bracket has the worst numbers on every measure. Decide which of the two it is and move it.
Does TikTok pay more for longer videos?
It pays only for longer videos. Creator Rewards requires at least one minute, plus 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in 30 days, in an eligible region. Under a minute earns nothing from the programme, whatever the view count.
How long can a TikTok be?
Ten minutes recorded in the app, and up to 60 minutes uploaded, for accounts in TikTok’s test, which began in May 2024 and has not been rolled out to everyone.
The short version
Two datasets, seven million videos between them, agree: the 30-to-60-second TikTok is the worst of both worlds, with the lowest engagement rate and no reach advantage over shorter clips.
Under 30 seconds wins on engagement rate. Over a minute wins on reach and watch time, with two to three minutes the peak. Crossing the one-minute line more than triples median views in 2026 brand data.
The feed weighs finishing a longer video more heavily than finishing a short one, by TikTok’s own description, and Creator Rewards pays only from 60 seconds.
So decide what the video is first. A hit stays under 30. A story goes past 60 and is built to be finished. Nothing goes in the middle by accident.
