The Complete Guide to Aspect Ratios for Streamers
Aspect Ratio is one of those technical terms that sounds complicated but is actually very simple: it's just the relationship between the width and height of an image. However, getting it wrong can lead to black bars, stretched video, or blurry streams.
Common Aspect Ratios Explained
16:9 (The Gold Standard)
If you watch Twitch, YouTube, or Netflix, you are looking at 16:9. It is the standard "widescreen" format. Common resolutions include:
- 1920x1080 (1080p)
- 1280x720 (720p)
- 2560x1440 (1440p)
9:16 (Vertical Video)
This is simply 16:9 flipped on its side. It is the native format for TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and Snapchat. If you are a streamer looking to grow, you must be repurposing your clips into 9:16.
21:9 (Ultrawide)
Popular among PC gamers with ultrawide monitors. Streaming this directly to Twitch (which is 16:9) results in huge black bars on the top and bottom. Most ultrawide streamers choose to stream at 16:9 by either cropping the edges or adding an overlay to fill the empty space.
Why Use a Calculator?
Sometimes you need to resize a source in OBS to fit a specific area, or you want to downscale your resolution (e.g., from 1080p to 936p) without losing the aspect ratio. Our tool does the math instantly so you never have to guess.
How to Change Aspect Ratio in OBS
To change your entire canvas (stream) aspect ratio:
- Go to Settings > Video.
- Change the Base (Canvas) Resolution.
- For 16:9, use 1920x1080.
- For 9:16 (Vertical Plugin), use 1080x1920.
The "936p" Trick
You might see pros streaming at 1664x936. This is a true 16:9 resolution that is divisible by 8, which is efficient for video encoders. It offers quality close to 1080p but is much easier to stream at 6000 Kbps.