What Frame Rate Should Screen Recordings Use?

Frame rate decisions are permanently baked into your recording — you can't add frames later. Here's when to use 30fps, 60fps, or even 24fps for product demos.

30fps: the safe default

For most product demo videos, 30fps is correct. Here's why:

Matches standard video delivery across all platforms
File sizes are 50% smaller than 60fps
Most UI interactions don't benefit from extra frames
Viewers don't perceive a difference for static or slowly-moving content

If you're showing clicks, typing, navigation between pages, or explaining features — 30fps captures all the detail a viewer needs.

60fps: when motion matters

Record at 60fps when your video includes:

Scrolling: The most common reason. 30fps scrolling shows visible judder; 60fps is noticeably smoother.
Drag and drop: Moving elements across the screen needs the extra temporal resolution to look fluid.
Animations: If your product has UI transitions, hover effects, or real-time visualizations (charts, graphs updating), 60fps captures them properly.
Cursor movement: Rapid cursor travel looks choppy at 30fps with visible gaps between positions.

Important: You can record at 60fps and deliver at 30fps. The recording captures all motion data; you choose what to keep during export. The reverse (recording 30fps, converting to 60fps) just duplicates frames — no information is added.

24fps: the cinematic exception

24fps is the standard for film because it produces a natural motion blur that feels "cinematic." For product videos, this rarely applies, but it can work for:

Highly produced brand videos where the product appears briefly among live-action footage
Slow, deliberate animations designed to feel premium (luxury/enterprise products)
Video content mixed with 24fps footage (interviews, B-roll)

Never use 24fps for screen recordings of real software. The judder on any movement (scroll, cursor, transitions) looks broken, not cinematic.

File size comparison

Approximate file sizes for 1 minute of 1080p screen content at medium quality:

24fps: ~40 MB (H.264, CRF 20)
30fps: ~50 MB
60fps: ~80 MB (not 2x because temporal compression is more efficient with smaller frame deltas)

Platform delivery limits

YouTube: Supports up to 60fps. Will maintain 60fps in delivery if uploaded at 60fps.

Twitter/X: Caps at 40fps in practice (re-encodes higher to 30fps for most viewers).

LinkedIn: Delivers at 30fps regardless of upload.

Product Hunt: 30fps maximum.

Your own website: No limit — deliver whatever you choose.

If your primary distribution is social media (LinkedIn, Twitter), recording at 60fps gives you a better master file but the delivery will be 30fps anyway. Still worth it for the quality of your website embed.

Variable frame rate: the hidden problem

Some recording tools (especially Loom, older QuickTime) output variable frame rate (VFR) — where some seconds have 30 frames and others have 22. This causes audio sync issues and jerky playback in editors.

Always check: open your recording in a video editor and look for audio drift or inconsistent frame timing. If you find VFR, convert to constant frame rate (CFR) using HandBrake or ffmpeg before editing.

The practical recommendation

Record everything at 60fps (storage is cheap) and export at 30fps for social delivery, 60fps for your website. This gives you maximum flexibility with no quality loss, at the cost of larger source files.