How to upload and embed vertical videos (9:16) on your website
Updated: November 6, 2026
More and more video is shot vertically: on a phone, for Reels, Shorts or TikTok. The trouble starts when you put them on a website, which almost always expects horizontal videos and leaves them tiny or with huge black bars. Here’s how to embed them properly.
Upload the video as it is
No need to rotate or crop it: upload the original vertical file to Dembed. The player keeps its proportions and the thumbnail is generated automatically.
If you export it from an editing app, use 1080 × 1920 MP4 (H.264 + AAC). If you download it from a social network, use the original file from your gallery instead, which is usually better quality.
The vertical iframe
The key is to reserve a space with the same proportions as the video (9:16) and cap its width, so it doesn’t take the whole screen height on a computer:
<iframe src="https://dembed.cc/embed/v_YOUR_ID" title="My vertical video" style="width:100%;max-width:360px;aspect-ratio:9/16;border:0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen loading="lazy"></iframe>With the generator, no code
- 1Copy your video’s link from the dashboard.
- 2Open the embed code generator and paste the link.
- 3Choose the 9:16 ratio (and, if you like, muted autoplay).
- 4Copy the code and paste it on your site.
Tips
- On phones it looks perfect full-width; on computers, center the video or place it next to some text.
- For a gallery of several vertical videos, lay them out in a 2- or 3-column grid.
- Put the video’s title in the iframe’s title attribute: it helps accessibility.
- If the video has an intro, set up “Skip intro” in the dashboard so your audience gets straight to the point.
Frequently asked questions
Not if the iframe space is 9:16. Bars appear when you put a vertical video in a horizontal space.