How to Change Video & Audio Bitrates in Premiere Pro for Best Export

The best part of creating videos in Adobe Premiere Pro is sharing them with your audience! Exporting videos prepares your production for sharing.

Video bitrates and audio bitrates are a critical part of the export process. What these do is control the quality and file size of the finished file.

Bitrates measure the number of bits - pieces of videos or audio - processed per second. Higher settings will lead to higher quality. That’s because they pack more detail into a completed export. But they also lead to larger file sizes. Choosing the best export settings in Premiere Pro is essential.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to change bitrate in Premiere Pro. It’s an easy process, and it’s one that you’ll want to follow each time you export a completed project.

How to Change Bitrate in Premiere Pro (Step by Step)

Let’s learn how to change bitrate in Premiere Pro. Remember, bitrate can mean video bitrates or audio bitrates. We’ll look at both. 

City Bar Video Bitrates

As we work, we’ll use the beautiful City Bar and Port stock footage from Envato Elements. It's a high quality piece of footage that's perfect for learning the best export settings for Premiere Pro.

1. Launch the Export Media Menu

To look at how to change bitrate in Premiere Pro, you’ll want to first prepare your media project for export. Premiere’s bitrate settings are found on the Export > Media menu. It’s the control center for exporting in Premiere.

To launch the menu, go to File > Export. Then, from the list of options, choose Media. Premiere Pro will launch the Export menu. From here, we can make bitrate adjustments. 

2. Adjust the Video Bitrate

Video bitrates in Premiere Pro are controlled in two key areas. The first is found near the top of the menu, in the Preset group. Here, you can select from a long list of pre-built export settings. Expand the dropdown list by clicking More Presets.

When you click there, you’ll see a long list of video options. Many list Target Rates, which tell you the bitrate target of the preset. In many cases, you can choose a perfect option from this list. It’s easy to choose the right file format, frame size, bitrate, and more.

With a preset selected, you still have amazing creative control. Open the Video dropdown on the menu, and find the Bitrate Settings. Here, you have control over two key options: Encoding and Target.

Encoding controls how bitrate settings are applied. VBR - the default - means that the bitrate will be variable. In other words, it will study your video and apply higher bitrates only where needed. This elevates the quality of your videos without dramatically increasing the needed file size.

CBR (Constant Bitrate) applies the same settings equally. It’s a good option for a steady look and feel. But it will likely increase your file size sharply. 

The Target Bitrate slider lets you really dial in how to apply video bitrate settings. Drag it to the right or left to adjust how your videos are processed.

These are common bitrates based on the dimensions and resolution of videos you may use:

3. Adjust the Audio Bitrate

It’s also easy to adjust the Audio bitrate in Premiere Pro. While this is a video editing app, audio is critically important. After all, when was the last time you saw a silent film?

Open the Audio dropdown, and find the Bitrate Settings. Typically, Premiere Pro will default to 320. But with the dropdown, you can easily choose a new bitrate. As with video, the same logic applies. Higher values deliver higher quality. But you’ll pay a price from added file size. 

Audio bitrates are essential. Here are common settings to help you choose:

4. Export the Finished File

Once you’ve chosen your Premiere Pro bitrate settings, you’re ready to export your finished video! 

To do this, click the blue Export button in the lower right corner of the menu. Your current settings will be locked in, and applied to the file that you’re exporting. In a few moments, you’ll have a shareable video copy of your finished work.

As you can see, choosing the best export settings in Premiere Pro is important. Match them with your desired file size and you’ll have a crisp, watchable video that’s easy to share with the world. 

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Change Bitrates in Premiere Pro Today

In this tutorial, you learned how to change bitrate in Premiere Pro. It’s an integral part of creating a useful, high-quality video export. The key is really balance. Higher bitrates tend to look and sound better. But they also create larger files. 

Maximizing quality and reducing file size by adjusting bitrate takes some finesse. But when you master it with the tips in this tutorial, you’ll always hit the sweet spot between quality and file size.