Amazon and marketplace listing videos: what is allowed, and where AI is risky

This page is for a small seller who puts video on Amazon (the large online marketplace), Etsy (a marketplace for handmade and vintage goods) or a similar store. It explains where the rules live, why the guides online disagree, what usually gets a video rejected, and where AI use creates real risk. I have no inside access to any marketplace. Some of what follows now comes from the marketplaces' own pages (Etsy's policy and help pages, and a public Amazon Seller Central notice), and the rest from independent guides, trade press and a law firm note. I label each one. Treat every number as something to confirm on the marketplace's own page.

Short answer: read the upload screen, not a blog post

Marketplace video specs are a moving target. Amazon's own seller blog gives one set of video specs, but it is undated and roughly 18 months old, so do not treat it as current (more below). In the independent guides I read, one says Amazon product page video needs at least 1280 by 720 pixels and can be up to 5 GB. Another says the minimum is 480p and main videos should stay under 2 minutes. A third says seller videos can run 1 to 12 minutes. They cannot all be right, and some are probably old. That disagreement is the most useful fact on this page: do not trust any single guide, including this one.

The reliable sources are, in order:

1. The upload screen in your own seller account. It rejects a bad file before you waste a review slot.
2. The help pages inside Seller Central (Amazon's seller dashboard) or Etsy's policy and help pages. Several Seller Central help pages need a login, so open them yourself.
3. Your rejection notice, which usually says what failed.

If you only remember one thing: film once, export a clean master, and check the specs on the day you upload.

Amazon: who can upload, and where

The guides I read split on eligibility. One says video on the product page depends on being a brand owner with Brand Registry (Amazon's program for trademark owners). Another says seller video becomes available after you have been selling for about three months. I could not confirm either from an Amazon page, so I will not tell you which is correct. Check the "Upload and manage videos" area in Seller Central. If the option is missing, that tells you more than any blog.

Video also lives in different places, and each place has different rules:

Where the video appears	What to check
Product detail page (the listing itself)	File type, length, resolution, size, eligibility
A+ Content (the extra image and text modules lower on the page)	Module type, video allowed or not, review time
Amazon Ads video (Sponsored Brands and similar)	Separate ad creative rules, usually stricter, and a separate review

Amazon's Sell on Amazon blog on product video says: .mov or .mp4 files, up to 1080p, up to 5 GB, and 1 to 12 minutes long. That blog post is undated and about 18 months old by my estimate, so check Seller Central for the current numbers before you export. One agency guide I read lists Sponsored Brands ad video at roughly 6 to 45 seconds and up to 500 MB. I did not open Amazon's ad spec page, so treat that as an example of what a guide says, not as a current rule.

Amazon: what gets a video rejected

The prohibited-content lists in the guides I read agree more than the specs do. These are the repeat offenders:

• Prices, discounts and deals on screen. Prices change, so platforms do not want them baked into a video file.
• Competitor names or comparisons. Even a blurred competitor logo can trigger a rejection.
• Customer reviews or star ratings shown on screen.
• Claims that do not match the product page. If the video says "waterproof" and the page does not, expect trouble.
• Web addresses, QR codes and calls to buy elsewhere.
• Anything that does not show the item you actually ship. Colours, sizes, included accessories and packaging all count.

That last point is where AI creates problems. A generated clip can quietly change the colour of a stitch, add a third strap that the real bag does not have, or smooth a texture. One independent blog says AI-enhanced images on Amazon must reflect the exact product shipped. I could not confirm that against an Amazon page, but it matches common sense and the general rule that a listing must describe what the buyer receives. If you are also working on photos, my page on AI product images for marketplaces covers the image side.

Review time is also quoted two ways: 24 to 72 hours in one guide, 1 to 7 business days in another. Plan for the slow end, and do not upload the week before a sale. A rejected video can cost you a full review cycle.

The AI people tag, in plain words

This is the newest rule I found. Amazon's official "News_Amazon" account posted a notice on the public Seller Central forum in late July 2026. It says sellers must tag product images containing photorealistic AI-generated people before adding them to listings and A+ Content in any worldwide store. The tag is the keyword contains-synthetic-performer, added to the "dc:subject" field of the file's XMP metadata before upload (XMP is a block of descriptive data stored inside an image or video file, and dc:subject is the keyword slot in it). The notice says to use an IPTC-compatible metadata editor, applies to image or video files, and says Amazon then adds a customer indicator where applicable. It cites recent legislation requiring disclosure.

The notice lists these exemptions: real people (even if AI-altered), characters from films, TV, games and other expressive works, images with no people, and people who are not photorealistic. The notice also links to Amazon help pages titled "How to tag media that contains an AI-generated person", "Product image guide" and "Shoppable video guide". I did not open those, and some may sit behind a login, so read them in Seller Central.

Wider scope is only hedged: a reply from an Amazon moderator, which I saw only in a search snippet of another thread, suggests the tag may also cover Brand Story, Stores, product videos and advertising videos. I did not read that thread, so check the current wording. Trade sites ChannelX and GeekSeller also reported the notice. I rely on the Amazon notice itself, not on their summaries.

The notice describes no penalty, but "no penalty described" is not the same as "no consequence". An untagged file could be flagged or removed. Practical steps:

1. Scan every second of every clip for a generated human, hand or face. Crowds and reflections count.
2. Tag the final exported file, not the editing project. Some editors strip metadata on export.
3. Use an editor that supports IPTC or XMP keywords. Circulating advice mentions a command line tool called exiftool, but I only saw that in a search summary, so ask whoever supports your editing software how to add a keyword to dc:subject.
4. Keep a note of which files carry the tag. Sellers in the forum thread reported that the tag was stripped after Amazon reprocessed their images, that Seller Central showed no confirmation, and asked whether old images must be retagged (unanswered when I read it). Other trade posts mention an "AI-generated people" checkbox in A+ Content Manager, which is secondhand, so look for that checkbox in your own account.

A related law is worth knowing about. A law firm note from Cooley (January 2026) says New York now requires advertisers to disclose a "synthetic performer" (an AI-generated person that looks real) in an advertisement when they know about it. It reports an effective date of 9 June 2026 and a civil penalty of $1,000 for a first violation and $5,000 for each later one, and notes that what counts as "conspicuous" is not defined. I also read the signed bill text (S8420-A on the New York Senate site): the duty applies only where the advertiser has actual knowledge that a synthetic performer is in the ad, and the act takes effect 180 days after it became law (signed 11 December 2025), which matches 9 June 2026. Reaching a seller outside New York is unsettled. This is information, not legal advice. Read the statute text and talk to a lawyer if you advertise to New York buyers. For the wider question of when to say AI was used, see Can I use AI video commercially?.

Etsy: a real photo, short silent clips and AI disclosure

Etsy's listing image requirements policy (last updated 22 Oct 2026) says that for most products a listing needs at least one unedited photo of the actual item against a real background. Its words for the rest: other listing images may use photo editing or AI tools if the final result stays accurate. Etsy's text on the required photo is plain: do not use photo editing software or AI tools to alter it.

• Allowed edits: matching lighting, exposure and colour, cropping, resizing, straightening, and replacing the background.
• Not allowed: changing colour, texture or condition, hiding defects, or using AI to change the core design.
• Exceptions: print-on-demand listings may use licensed stock mockups. Digital downloads may use representative AI imagery for audio-type items and otherwise need a real preview. Customised or made-to-order listings use photos of past real work. Patterns, recipes and seeds need a real unedited photo of the result, and AI-only images of the finished result are not allowed.

Etsy's Seller Handbook adds that AI-generated functional guides (patterns, recipes, instructions) and bot-generated listings are banned. It suggests noting AI-edited images in the description, says buyers can report misleading AI imagery, and says you may owe a refund if the item materially differs from the listing. The handbook also notes California's SB 1050 synthetic-performer disclosure for listing images and videos, effective 1 January 2027. This is information, not legal advice.

For video, Etsy's Help page says listing videos run up to 15 seconds, and the audio is not kept on upload (so plan for a silent clip). The maximum file size is 100 MB, and you can add up to 2 videos per listing. Other Etsy pages quote different minimum lengths, so check the listing editor for the exact range.

Etsy's identity as a marketplace for handmade work makes honesty about AI more sensitive than on Amazon. If the clip shows an item that does not exist yet, or a version your hands did not make, do not post it.

Other marketplaces: where to check

I did not read eBay, Walmart, Shopify or other marketplace rules, so I will not guess at them. The routine is the same each time. Search the seller help center for "video", then "AI-generated" or "synthetic". Save the page, with the date, in a folder. When a rule changes, you want proof of what it said when you uploaded.

What to film for real, and what AI can help with

For a listing, the buyer decides whether the item is what they hoped for. That is why I split the work this way.

Film it for real	AI can help
The product itself, in use, from several angles	Voiceover from a script you checked line by line
Scale: your hand next to it, a ruler, a person using it	Captions and translated subtitles
Anything where condition, fit or colour matters	A plain intro or title card
Unboxing and what is included	A clean background where the product stays untouched

A phone clip in daylight against a plain wall passes review more easily than most AI clips, and it costs nothing. If you want to compare approaches for a whole catalogue, auto-generating product videos and turning a product photo into video cover the AI side, and AI video versus stock footage versus filming yourself helps you choose. Platforms like Higgsfield (a web service that makes AI images and video from prompts and photos) can animate a still, but animating your product is exactly where shape and colour drift, so check each result against the real item before it goes near a listing.

Voiceover deserves one warning. If an AI writes your script, it may invent claims such as "dishwasher safe" or "fits all models". Paste the script next to your product page and confirm every claim matches word for word.

Pre-upload checklist

1. I opened the upload screen today and read the current length, size, shape and file type.
2. The video shows the exact item, colour and accessories that ship.
3. No prices, discounts, competitor names, review quotes, web addresses or QR codes appear.
4. Every spoken or written claim matches the product page.
5. I watched the clip at full size, frame by frame where there are hands or faces.
6. If any person in it is AI-generated and photorealistic, I read the marketplace's current rule and tagged the exported file if it asks.
7. I uploaded at least a week before any big sales date.
8. I saved the exported file, the policy page and today's date.

If a video is rejected

Keep a simple rejection log: the date, the exact reason text, what you changed, and when you resubmitted. Most rejections come from a handful of causes (price on screen, claim mismatch, wrong shape), so a log shows your pattern fast. Fix one thing at a time when you can, so you learn which fix worked. If the reason text is vague, reply through Seller Support with the file name and ask which rule applied. Do not resubmit the same file unchanged.

Who should skip AI video on listings

• Sellers of food, supplements, cosmetics, baby products or anything where safety claims matter. Show the real thing.
• Handmade sellers on Etsy whose buyers expect the maker's own work.
• Anyone who cannot tell whether a generated clip changed the product. If you cannot check it, do not post it.
• Sellers with only a few products. A phone and an hour is cheaper than a learning curve. Compare options in when not to use AI video.

How I'd approach this

I would film one clean master per product on a phone, export three versions (16:9 for Amazon with no prices, silent and no longer than 15 seconds for Etsy, 9:16 for social), and use AI only for the voiceover, captions and title card. I would write the reader-facing checklist above into a shared document and check the marketplace's pages each quarter, because the rules move. If you sell many products and want a repeatable process with an approvals step and a shared library of cleared files, Blur Studio builds that workflow for small businesses. You can see how on the business page.