Video Upload Limits for Every Course Platform in 2026

Every course platform accepts different video. The limits are not published in one place, several are not published at all, and the figure most often quoted for Teachable is off by a factor of ten. This page collects what each platform officially documents, as of August 2026, with a link to the source for every number.

Where a spec is not documented publicly, it says so rather than guessing.

What are the video upload limits by platform?

Kajabi

• Maximum file size: 4 GB per video. No duration limit stated. Source: Kajabi help centre.
• Formats: MP4 recommended. Also MOV, MPG, FLV, F4V, M4V, ASF, WMV, VOB, MOD, 3GP, MKV, DIVX, XVID.
• Resolution 640 to 3840 pixels wide, capped at 1080p on playback. Bitrate 5,000 to 10,000 kbps. Aspect ratio 16:9.
• Streaming bandwidth is explicitly not limited. No total storage cap is documented.
• Captions: auto transcription and translation on the Pro plan only, capped at 3,000 transcription minutes and 250 translation minutes a month. SRT download and edit.

Teachable

• Maximum file size: 20 GB is the account wide upload ceiling. The recommended maximum for video is 2 GB. These are two different numbers on the same page, and the 20 GB figure is the one that gets quoted.
• Formats: MP4, MOV, AVI. Resolution 1080p. Frame rate 24 to 30 fps. No bitrate or codec requirement published.
• Captions: auto generation from 7 source languages, translation into 70. Manual upload accepts SRT or VTT. Course products only.
• AI captions are included on Growth and Advanced, and billed as usage on Starter and Builder.

Thinkific

• Maximum file size: 2 GB per video. Audio 100 MB, PDF 25 MB, multimedia lesson 200 MB.
• H.264 is required. 640 to 3840 pixels wide, 5,000 to 8,000 kbps, constant 15 to 60 fps, AAC audio at 44.1 kHz stereo, 16:9 for courses. Playback caps at 1080p.
• Per quality bitrate ceilings: 4K 11,250, 1080p 5,625, 720p 3,750, 540p 1,800, 360p 1,200, 224p 300 kbps. Keep screencasts above 1,200 kbps.
• Monthly bandwidth by plan: Basic 100 GB, Start 200 GB, Grow 400 GB, Expand 1,000 GB, Plus Lite 7,500 GB, rising to Enterprise at 25,000 GB. There is a 60 day grace period before restriction.
• Captions: SRT only, no VTT. Auto captioning requires Plus Silver or higher. Manual SRT upload works on every plan.

Podia

• Maximum file size: 5 GB hard limit, 1 GB recommended. Duration must be under 4 hours. A 4 hour file fails regardless of size.
• H.264 high profile progressive, AAC audio, 30 fps or lower, 1280x720 or 1920x1080. All 4K is downscaled to 1080p.
• Bitrate: 1080p 8 Mbps, 720p 4.8 Mbps, 480p 2.4 Mbps, 360p 1 Mbps. Audio only files are unsupported.
• Video count by plan: Mover 500, Shaker 1,000, Earthquaker unlimited. No add on capacity.
• Captions: manual upload only, VTT required. SRT must be converted. No auto generation.

Skool

• English closed captions are auto generated on every plan, which no other platform here offers. 200 pages per course, unlimited courses.
• File size, duration, format list, resolution, bitrate and storage: not documented anywhere in the official help centre. The 30 GB figure circulating in community posts is not official.
• Embeds from YouTube, Vimeo, Loom and Wistia are supported.

Circle

• Maximum file size: 4 GB per file of any type. Larger files must be embedded. Lesson body accepts MP4 and MOV, audio MP3, WAV, OGG. Maximum 15 files per lesson.
• Uploads are re encoded to H.264 and AAC with HLS variants at 480p, 720p and 1080p. Those encodings count against your storage and cannot be disabled, so a 1 GB upload consumes meaningfully more than 1 GB.
• Captions: auto transcription requires the Business plan or above. Custom transcripts must be WebVTT.

LearnWorlds

• Recommended maximum file size 1 GB. H.264 or Apple ProRes 422. 720p recommended, 16:9. Bulk upload is capped at 15 videos per batch.
• Storage can be routed to LearnWorlds, Vimeo Pro or Wistia. Hard file size cap, duration limit and per plan storage are not documented.

What export settings work everywhere?

One export that satisfies every platform above: MP4 container, H.264 video, AAC audio at 44.1 kHz stereo, 1920x1080, constant frame rate between 24 and 30 fps, bitrate around 6,000 kbps, file under 1 GB, duration under 4 hours.

That is the intersection of the strictest published limits: Podia's 4 hour cap and 1080p downscale, LearnWorlds' 1 GB recommendation, Thinkific's H.264 requirement and 8,000 kbps ceiling. Export once to that spec and you can move platforms without re rendering.

Kajabi and Thinkific both run on Wistia, which is why their specs are nearly identical. Wistia itself accepts up to 26 GB and recommends 5,000 to 8,000 kbps, and notes that a file under two hours exceeding 8 GB means a compression step was skipped.

None of this requires an expensive camera. Shooting at 1080p from the start saves you the upload time and the transcoding wait, and the research on filming a course at home suggests the production value was never the constraint anyway.

What is not documented anywhere

• Skool publishes no file size, duration, format, resolution or storage figure at all.
• Teachable publishes no bandwidth or storage limit, no bitrate recommendation, no codec requirement and no maximum duration.
• Thinkific publishes no maximum video duration and no total storage cap. Bandwidth is metered, storage is described as unlimited.
• Circle publishes no per plan storage figure on a reachable page, no maximum duration and no bitrate guidance.
• Podia caps video count rather than bytes, so there is no published total storage figure.
• No platform here documents HEVC or H.265 support. Circle transcodes away from it, and Thinkific and Wistia require H.264. Export H.264.

What most write ups get wrong

• Teachable's 20 GB is quoted as the video limit. It is the account wide upload ceiling. Teachable's own recommended video maximum is 2 GB, on the same page.
• Podia's 4 hour duration cap is almost never mentioned, and it is a hard failure rather than a warning. Podia also silently downscales 4K to 1080p.
• Caption formats get conflated constantly. Thinkific is SRT only, Podia is VTT only, Teachable takes both.
• Auto captions are gated much harder than blogs suggest. Thinkific needs Plus Silver, Circle needs Business, Kajabi needs Pro with a monthly minute cap. Only Skool includes them on every plan.
• Thinkific's real constraint is bandwidth, not file size. Basic is 100 GB a month, roughly 200 hours of 1080p viewing. Kajabi by contrast does not meter streaming at all.
• Kajabi's own documentation quotes 5,000 to 10,000 kbps while Wistia, which hosts its video, quotes 5,000 to 8,000. Use the lower figure.

Key takeaways

• Export MP4, H.264, AAC, 1080p, under 1 GB and under 4 hours, and every platform on this page will accept it.
• Teachable's widely quoted 20 GB limit is account wide. Its recommended video maximum is 2 GB.
• Podia rejects any video of 4 hours or longer and downscales all 4K to 1080p.
• Thinkific accepts SRT only, Podia accepts VTT only, Teachable accepts both.
• Auto captions require a Pro tier on Kajabi, Plus Silver on Thinkific and Business on Circle. Skool includes them on every plan.
• Skool documents almost no video specs publicly. Treat any number you see for it as unverified.
• Thinkific meters monthly bandwidth from 100 GB on Basic. Kajabi does not meter streaming bandwidth.

Common questions

What video format works on every course platform?

MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio. Thinkific requires H.264, Podia requires H.264 high profile, and Wistia re encodes anything else. No platform here documents HEVC support, so exporting HEVC risks a failed or degraded upload even where the file is accepted.

What resolution should I export course videos at?

1080p. Kajabi and Podia both cap playback at 1080p regardless of what you upload, and Podia downscales 4K on ingest. Uploading 4K costs storage and processing time for no delivered benefit unless your platform explicitly serves it.

Is there a maximum length for a course video?

Only Podia publishes one, and it is strict: anything 4 hours or longer fails to upload no matter the file size. Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific and Circle document no duration limit, though file size ceilings impose a practical one at high bitrates.

Which course platform has the best captions?

Skool for coverage, since English auto captions are included on every plan. Teachable is the most flexible for uploads, accepting both SRT and VTT with translation into 70 languages. Thinkific and Circle gate auto captions behind high tiers.

Before you export a whole course

Upload one lesson first and watch it back on the platform, not in your editor. Every spec on this page describes what will be accepted, not what will look good after transcoding. Then settle how long the course is actually going to run, because that number is what your production budget turns on.

EchoPulse edits and exports course video to platform spec for coaches and course creators, so re rendering after a rejected upload stops being your problem. The $299 Pilot runs 14 days and you keep everything produced.