How to Make a Spotify Canvas
The 2026 specs, the loop types, and the manual upload path — plus why no tool can auto-upload a Canvas for you.
The 2026 Canvas spec
A Spotify Canvas is the short looping visual that plays behind your track in the mobile app. The platform rules, as verified against Spotify's own documentation in 2026:
| Property | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Length | 3–8 seconds |
| Aspect ratio | 9:16 (vertical) |
| Size | 720–1080 px tall |
| Audio | Silent — the Canvas plays under your track |
| Format | MP4 (or a still JPG) |
| File size | ≤8 MB |
Canvas is available to all artists — no follower gate. Note that desktop and web Spotify don't display Canvas; it's a mobile-app surface only.
Clips is dead — Canvas is the surface
Spotify stopped accepting new Clips uploads on 2026-06-17. That leaves Canvas as the main native short-form visual surface on the platform — the one moving visual a listener sees without leaving the Now Playing screen.
If your release strategy included Clips, the play now is a strong Canvas per track: same vertical mindset, different mechanism.
Loop types and what reads well
Spotify offers three loop behaviors when you upload:
- Continuous — the clip loops end to start. Best when the first and last frames match, so the seam is invisible.
- Hard Cut — an explicit jump back to the start. Works for strobe-like, percussive visuals.
- Rebound — plays forward, then backward. Forgiving of mismatched seams, but doubles the apparent motion.
Whatever the type: avoid rapid cuts (a Canvas loops forever — fast editing gets exhausting by the tenth loop), and center-weight the subject, because the edges may crop on some screens.
The upload path (manual, forever)
There is no Canvas upload API — re-verified in 2026. Upload happens manually in Spotify for Artists: pick the track, choose the 3–8s file, select a loop type, done.
Any tool promising to auto-upload your Canvas is automating your login credentials — that's not a feature, it's a risk. Avoid it. The honest division of labor: a tool makes a spec-correct file, you upload it yourself in two minutes.
Cutting the loop from a longer visual
The practical workflow: cut your full visual first, then take the strongest 3–8 seconds as the Canvas.
An honest note on where BeatVids fits today: the editor exports the 16:9 beat-synced master — every cut on the BPM grid, so any bar-boundary slice of it loops cleanly. A Canvas-shaped (9:16) preset is part of the format-pack work. Follow the same rule we use elsewhere: come back for format packs only when they are publicly live — no date promises here.
Common Questions
9:16 vertical, 720–1080 pixels tall, 3–8 seconds, silent MP4 (or a still JPG), ≤8 MB.