Guide
What LUFS should Reels, TikTok and Shorts ads be?
LUFS measures how loud a video sounds overall, the way people hear it, rather than how high the peaks go. Social ads that are much quieter than the videos around them sound weak, and ones pushed far louder get turned down or squashed.
The short answer
- Integrated loudness: about -14 LUFS. This is the widely used target for social video, and YouTube turns louder videos down to about this level.
- True peak: no higher than -1.0 dBTP. Platforms re-encode your audio, and peaks right at 0 dB can distort after that.
- This checker passes -14 LUFS ±1 LU, warns within ±2 LU, and fails beyond that.
How to hit it in Premiere Pro
- Mix the dialogue first, then bring music and effects in under it.
- In Export settings, open Effects and turn on Loudness Normalization. Set the target loudness to -14 LUFS and the true peak limit to -1 dBTP.
- Or put a limiter on the mix bus with a ceiling of -1 dBTP, and meter the whole cut with the Loudness Meter.
- Measure the exported file, not just the timeline. Export settings can change the result.
Clipping is a different problem
Loudness is about the overall level. Clipping is when the waveform hits the top and gets cut flat, which sounds like crackle or distortion. A video can be the right loudness and still clip, so check both.
Check your export in seconds
Drop in the file and get a pass/fail list for size, loudness, safe zones, and black and flash frames. It runs in your browser, so the video is never uploaded.
Check a video free