How to Upload Videos to Vimeo?

Ollie Mattison

Sep 30, 2024• Proven solutions

Uploading the work you produce on a video hosting platform can help you reach your ideal audience. Aspiring filmmakers have used Vimeo for promotional purposes since 2004 when the platform first became available to users around the world because it offered optimization features no other video hosting platform did. Currently, Vimeo has over 90 million registered users, as well as more than 170 million viewers each month.

The content uploaded to Vimeo is often regarded as more artistic than the videos you can find on YouTube. What’s more, Vimeo is considered a video hosting service for professional filmmakers, while YouTube aims to attract a much wider audience of content creators that aren’t necessarily associated with artistic movies. Despite the 500MB weekly limit and the fact that users can’t upload more than 5GB of video content to their free accounts, a growing number of filmmakers are choosing to store their work on Vimeo. For that reason, in this article, we are going to show you a few different ways of uploading videos to this platform.

Video Specifications for the Vimeo Platform

The size, file format or the resolution of the video files you can upload to your account on Vimeo depend on the subscription plan you have. Anyone can create an account for free, but the free plan has certain limitations because the platform doesn’t allow users who don’t subscribe to one of the available monthly or annual plans to upload more than 500 MB of content each week.

Furthermore, you can decide if you want to make your content public or private. Opting for the private setting is recommended if you would like to submit your movies to film festivals as it guarantees that they weren’t screened anywhere else. Even though Vimeo doesn’t limit the duration of the videos, you must upgrade to one of the subscription plans if you want to upload files that have up to 50 GB.

The platform supports nearly all types of video files, but most users upload videos saved in MP4, MOV, FLV, AVI or WMW formats. Uploading MP3, WAV, JPEG or any other type of audio or image file to Vimeo is not possible. The owners of free Vimeo accounts should upload horizontally oriented videos saved in the MP4 file format.

In addition, the resolution of a video shouldn’t exceed 1280x720p, while the recommended dimensions are 1920x1080 as the video need to cover the entire canvas. The frame rate of the video files you upload to Vimeo should either be 23.97 fps or 24 fps. Following these specifications will ensure that all videos you export from the video editing software you are using to process your footage can be uploaded to Vimeo regardless of the subscription plan you have.

How to Upload a Video to Vimeo from Filmora?

Filmmakers and all other video content creators can upload their videos to Vimeo directly from Filmora. Once your work on a project in Filmora is done, you should click on the Export button, and then choose the output video file format from the Local tab in the Export window. Click on the Vimeo tab, make sure you’re signed in to your Vimeo account and proceed to fill in the Title, Description and Tags boxes.

The Quality box displays the resolution of the video you’re exporting, but you can easily change it by clicking on the Settings button next to the Quality box. After the Settings window pops up on your screen you should decide if you want your video to be exported in Good, Better or Best quality.

Adjusting the Encoder, Resolution or the Bit Rate options can help you reduce the size of the output file, but altering the Frame Rate will not affect the size of the file you are uploading to Vimeo. Moreover, you can also change the Bit Rate of the video’s audio if you are trying to shrink the size of the output file.

Hit OK to confirm the changes you’ve made, and then check the size and the duration of the video you’re exporting to Vimeo. When ready, click on the Export button, and wait for the rendering process to be completed. How long rendering is going to take depends on the size of the file you are exporting and the processing power your computer has.

How to Upload Videos to Vimeo?

Uploading a video to Vimeo is a straightforward process that doesn’t require much effort. Simply make sure that you are signed in to your Vimeo account, then click on the New Video button and select the Upload option. Navigate to the folder on your hard drive and select the file you want to upload to your Vimeo account. Alternatively, you can just go to the Upload page, and drag the video file from a folder on your computer and drop it at the designated area of the screen.

Vimeo also lets you upload files that are stored on Dropbox, Google Drive, and other cloud storage platforms. Furthermore, before you start the upload you can choose from a variety of privacy settings, and decide if your video can be viewed by anyone, protected by a password or pick some other privacy option.

Once the upload starts you can add the title, tags and the description of the video as well as select the language or rate the content you’re uploading as suitable for all audiences or suitable for just mature audiences. After the upload is completed, you should click on the Go to Video icon that is displayed below the video and then click on the Play button to preview the video.

Conclusion

Sharing the videos you create with millions of people around the world can take you a step closer towards gaining recognition for your work. Video editing software products like Filmora enable you to export your videos to your Vimeo account directly, which shortens the amount of time you have to spend on waiting for a video file to upload to this video hosting platform. Which method of uploading videos to Vimeo do you like to use the most? Leave a comment and share your opinions with us.

Ollie Mattison

Ollie Mattison is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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