How To Export Video At 3840x2160 (4K 2160p) In Adobe Premiere

Here are the steps needed to export 2160p (4K) videos using Adobe Premiere. These instructions are from CS5.5 but should be usable for other versions as well.

Common Error

You may have run into this error when trying to increase the resolution of your video during export:

Invalid framesize/framerate for this Level. Please lower the Frame Dimensions, Frame Rate or increase the Profile and Level and try again.

Export Settings

To avoid errors and export in 2160p, you need to change the following settings in sequence during export (this is for H.264, which is the ideal format for YouTube):

Change Profile to "High".
Change Level to "5.1".
Adjust Frame Rate to "30" or less.
Change Pixel Aspect Ratio to "Square Pixels" if necessary.
Change Frame Width to "3840" and Frame Height to "2160".
(If Aspect Ratio Lock is on, the Frame Height may adjust automatically. You can uncheck the Lock and adjust each one manually if you need to.)

With these changes, your export dialog should resemble this (export file name, bitrate, and other settings may be different):

Adobe Premiere 2160p H.264 MP4

One Last Note

If you haven't, you should make sure that you originally set up your Premiere project with the correct resolution and frame rate, so it matches what you plan to export it in. Here an example new project dialog using 30 frames per second and 2160p (notice the aspect ratio is 16:9):

Adobe Premiere 2160p H.264 MP4

Ashish Jul 29, 2019
Thanks budd (Y)

jun wei Feb 08, 2018
is there a way to rendering 4k 60fps?

Jerome Nov 01, 2017
Ok, thanks Nick :) For some reason the H.264 profiles in Premiere refuse to accept that 1:1 4K framesize. My raw camera footage is mp4 (Profile: Baseline, Level 5.2) but trying those same settings for exporting my edited footage I get the error ("Invalid framesize/framerate for this Level") that got me to your page after some Googling. For anyone hitting a similar issue, I did find a great article which outlines a workflow based on exporting uncompressed then using ffmpeg to convert back to H.264: https://purplepill.io/blog/best-encoding-settings-resolution-for-4k-360-3d-vr-videos/

Nick Oct 31, 2017
Unfortunately I don't have any experience with that.

Jerome Oct 31, 2017
Hi Nick, Any thoughts on getting 3840x3840 framesize for 4K stereoscopic video? I get the "Invalid framesize/framerate for this Level" error when trying to set the height to 3840 (Profile: High, Level 5.1)

Terry Odhiambo Sep 10, 2017
thanks alot

Oleg Moskvin Apr 22, 2017
Thanks! This is helpful.

Douglas Engel Mar 19, 2017
Thank you! Huge help!

Veer Sun Dec 05, 2016
For any help show my channel on youtube Mamtiz -Sun Animation

Deepak Limbu Oct 22, 2016
thanks

Nick Vogt Sep 13, 2016
I am not sure if there's a way to do 4K 60FPS. You would have to increase the level first somehow, so premier will accept the higher number. TBH the way Premiere handles these settings is really weird and nonintuitive.

Mike Tolson Sep 13, 2016
Thank you, this was very informative, but how can you set the fps to 59.94? You get an error when trying to do that. If your monitor you are viewing the footage on has a 60hz refresh rate, it would be best to render at 59.94 (or 60) fps. The 4K camera I use at work creates the raw files at 59.94 fps also. 30 fps is too low for 4K.

Lingpen D Gyeltshen Jul 11, 2016
Thank you so much :)

Nick Vogt Jul 02, 2016
They're towards the bottom of the first screenshot: http://www.h3xed.com/blogmedia/adobe-premiere-3840x2160-02.png

Bill Greene Jul 01, 2016
Where IS the profile and level settings...not on the screen you showed

Guerra Das Conchas Aug 05, 2015
Thanks! That detail of changing the profile to high had escaped me.

Joy Kishon Jul 02, 2015
tnx. it helped me

Ka Wai Tang Jun 28, 2015
It really helps!! thx a lot!! :)

Antonio Castillo Jun 02, 2015
Thank you very much!!