480p or 720p: when the extra credits are worth it

What each setting costs

At 1.2¢ a credit, the price of top-ups and the monthly Creator plan, a 480p Hold & Show is about $1.86 and a 720p one about $4.06. The video model behind these three formats, Seedance 2.0 from ByteDance, costs about twice as much per second at 720p, and the price follows it. Mirror Fit Check runs on Kling 3.0, which starts at 720p.

If you make your own videos in Create or the Workflow, the same split applies per second. Seedance 2.0 Standard, the tier the formats use, costs 15 credits a second at 480p and 30 at 720p (Fast 12 and 24, Mini 8 and 15); Seedance 2.5 costs 23 and 47. Kling models start at 720p.

Hold & Show155 credits at 480p

What the extra pixels buy

A 9:16 video at 720p is 720 × 1280 pixels, about 920,000. At 480p it's about 480 × 854, about 410,000. So a 720p video carries a little over twice the detail. You see the difference most in small things: printed text on a label, fine texture, thin edges.

A higher resolution doesn't change what the model decides to show. It renders the same kind of shot with more detail. And a 720p run is a new video: running the same product again at 720p makes a fresh take, not a sharper copy of your 480p one.

What TikTok asks for

TikTok's guidance on resolution is written for ads. Its creative best practices for performance ads list shooting at least 720p among the basics, next to 9:16 and sound. Its in-feed ad specifications set a minimum of 540 × 960 for vertical video. A 480p video falls below both.

We couldn't find an official minimum resolution for ordinary organic posts.

When 480p is the right choice

• Testing a product. You don't know yet whether a product or a format works. Make several cheap takes and see what you'd post.
• Comparing formats. Hold & Show and Box Open cost the same; make one of each at 480p and pick.
• The free trial. The trial gives you 310 credits for 3 days: two Hold & Show videos at 480p. A single 720p Hold & Show costs 338, more than the trial holds.
• Volume on a budget. On the Creator plan, 5,000 credits a month makes about 32 Hold & Show videos at 480p, or about 14 at 720p.

When 720p earns its price

• You might run it as an ad. If you or a seller may put spend behind the video, TikTok's ad guidance asks for at least 720p.
• The label is small. A product whose name or key detail is in fine print gives the extra detail more to do.
• It's a keeper. A product that's selling, a video you'll post more than once, or a seller who asked for a clean file.
• You'll crop or zoom. Editing into a tighter frame afterwards leaves you fewer pixels to work with.

What about 1080p?

The formats stop at 720p. If you make your own clips in Create, some models go higher: Kling 3.0 costs 21 credits a second at 1080p, or 32 with sound, so a 5-second clip is 105 credits; Seedance 2.0 costs 75 credits a second at 1080p. For a 9:16 product video on a phone, start with the formats and save 1080p for footage you plan to edit or crop heavily.

A simple way to decide

Make your first takes at 480p. Post the one you like and watch how it does. When a product earns a second round, make that round at 720p. That way you pay for detail on the products that have shown they sell.

Whatever you choose, the price shows on the Run button before anything starts, and a clip that fails gives its credits back automatically; the 8 credits for planning stay charged.