Every safe area names its source
The insets here come from the platform’s own specification page, linked below. Where a platform publishes nothing, the cell says that instead of borrowing a figure from somewhere else.
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Social media image sizes and safe areas
Every frame size, and only the safe areas someone actually published. Pick a placement to get the frame to render, its aspect ratio, and the safe area — quoted from the platform that publishes it, or marked as not published, with the reason. 17 placements across 6 platforms, and a preview of what a crop or a pad costs before you export.
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The picker
Choose a placement, get the frame
Pick a platform and a placement. The preview draws the safe area when the platform publishes one, and says so plainly when it does not. Type the size of the footage you already have and the panel underneath shows what it costs to deliver here.
Platform
Placement
Preview · 9:16
Reels
- Render at
- 1080×1920
- Aspect ratio
- 9:16
Safe area
269 px top · 672 px bottom · 65 px each side
Leaves 950×979 usable, about 45% of the frame.
What your footage costs to deliver here
Type the frame you already have. Cropping fills the placement and throws pixels away; padding keeps everything and adds bars.
Crop to fill
608×1080
Discards about 68% of the picture.
Pad to fit
1920×3413
Keeps every pixel; about 68% of the delivered frame is bar.
Why this table is shorter than the others
A sourced number beats a confident one
Most size cheat sheets copy each other, which is how one unsourced inset table ends up on dozens of pages. This one is built the other way round.
Sizes are derived, not quoted
A 9:16 delivery at 1080 wide is 1920 tall because that is what the ratio makes it. These are the frames we recommend rendering, not a platform maximum that moves the month after it is published.
One master, many placements
Shooting or generating once and refitting is cheaper than making a version per platform. The picker shows you the crop and the padding cost up front, so you pick a master shape that survives the trip.
The reference
Frame sizes and safe areas, in full
The whole table, server-rendered so it is readable without running anything. 3 of the 17 placements carry published insets; the rest say what the platform does and does not publish.
| Placement | Ratio | Render at | Safe area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reels | 9:16 | 1,080×1,920 | 269 px top · 672 px bottom · 65 px each side |
| Story | 9:16 | 1,080×1,920 | 269 px top · 672 px bottom · 65 px each side |
| Feed (portrait) | 4:5 | 1,080×1,350 | No player chrome over the frame |
| Feed (square) | 1:1 | 1,080×1,080 | No player chrome over the frame |
TikTok
| Placement | Ratio | Render at | Safe area |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-feed video | 9:16 | 1,080×1,920 | Not published by the platform — the zone varies by caption and format |
| Square video | 1:1 | 1,080×1,080 | Not published by the platform — the zone varies by caption and format |
| Landscape video | 16:9 | 1,920×1,080 | Not published by the platform — the zone varies by caption and format |
YouTube
| Placement | Ratio | Render at | Safe area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shorts | 9:16 | 1,080×1,920 | No player chrome over the frame |
| Standard video | 16:9 | 1,920×1,080 | No player chrome over the frame |
| Thumbnail | 16:9 | 1,280×720 | No player chrome over the frame |
| Channel banner | 16:9 | 2,560×1,440 | Keep the key element inside a central 1235×338 region |
| Placement | Ratio | Render at | Safe area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reels | 9:16 | 1,080×1,920 | 269 px top · 672 px bottom · 65 px each side |
| Feed image | 4:5 | 1,080×1,350 | No player chrome over the frame |
| Placement | Ratio | Render at | Safe area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed video (square) | 1:1 | 1,080×1,080 | No player chrome over the frame |
| Feed image (landscape) | 16:9 | 1,920×1,080 | No player chrome over the frame |
X
| Placement | Ratio | Render at | Safe area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed video (landscape) | 16:9 | 1,920×1,080 | No player chrome over the frame |
| Feed video (portrait) | 4:5 | 1,080×1,350 | No player chrome over the frame |
Insets are the published percentages resolved against the frame in the same row, so they move with it. If you deliver at a different size, use the percentages rather than these pixel values.
Sources
Where each figure comes from
Three first-party pages carry every safe-area claim on this page. Nothing here is sourced from an agency blog or another cheat sheet.
Meta publishes percentages: 14% top, 35% bottom, 6% each side
Meta’s ads guide gives Instagram Reels and Stories as percentages rather than pixels, which is why this page resolves them per frame. On 1080×1920 that lands at 269 px top, 672 px bottom and 65 px each side. The bottom third is not a mistake — the caption, the handle and the action row all sit in it.
Read the platform’s pageTikTok publishes no fixed safe area at all
TikTok’s own in-feed ad specification says the zone is determined by the dimension, the caption length and any additional formats in use, and supplies an overlay template instead of numbers. A fixed inset table therefore cannot be correct for TikTok even in principle, so this page does not print one. The only pixel figure TikTok publishes is for the profile photo: keep the key element inside the central 66×66 of the 98×98 avatar.
Read the platform’s pageYouTube publishes one for the channel banner
YouTube Help gives the channel art safe area as a central 1235×338 region inside a 2560×1440 upload — the part that survives on a phone. It does not publish a safe area for the video player, and it does not state a Shorts frame size on the Help pages, so neither is quoted here.
Read the platform’s pageChecked on 10 August 2026. Platforms revise these pages without notice, so treat the linked source as the authority and this page as a convenience.
When the lookup is done
Getting the size right is the easy half
Knowing that Reels wants 1080×1920 with a 672 px bottom inset does not put anything in the frame. PrismPoster is where the frame gets filled: generate the footage, cut it, and export at the shape you just looked up.
- Generate video, images and music in one place, then cut them together in the editor.
- Export at the delivery frame you need, so you are not re-cropping a finished edit by hand.
- Start free with 50 credits, no card, and see whether the output is worth an account.
The picker above stays free and anonymous either way — it computes in your browser and asks for nothing.
See how the Video Studio worksQuestions
The ones worth answering
What size should an Instagram Reel be?
Render 1080×1920, which is 9:16. Meta publishes the safe area as percentages — 14% from the top, 35% from the bottom and 6% from each side — so on that frame keep anything that must stay readable inside 269 px from the top, 672 px from the bottom and 65 px from each edge.
What is the TikTok safe zone in pixels?
TikTok does not publish one. Its ad specification says the zone depends on the video dimension, the caption length and the formats in use, and it gives an overlay template rather than numbers. The pixel tables you will find elsewhere have no first-party origin. Render 1080×1920 and keep important elements well clear of the lower right, where the action rail sits.
What does “safe area” actually mean?
It is the part of the frame the platform’s own interface does not cover. Captions, handles, buttons and progress bars are drawn on top of your video, so anything inside those bands can be hidden. The frame is still delivered in full — the safe area is about what stays legible, not what gets cropped.
Can I use one size everywhere?
Not without losing something, but you can choose where you lose it. A 9:16 master crops cleanly to 1:1 and 4:5 and pads to 16:9; a 16:9 master has to lose most of its width to become vertical. Type your frame into the picker above and it will show you the exact crop and padding cost for the placement you picked.
What size is a YouTube thumbnail?
Render 1280×720, which is the same 16:9 shape as the video. Nothing is drawn over a thumbnail by the player, so the whole frame is usable — but the duration badge sits in the lower right corner in most surfaces, so keep text out of it.
Is this free?
Yes, and anonymously. The picker computes in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and there is no account, no email and no limit on how many times you use it. PrismPoster is the paid studio this page sits in front of; the reference is not a trial of it.
Explore more
Aspect ratio calculator
Solve a missing dimension, reduce a pixel pair, and see per-edge what a crop removes.
Video calculator
Timecode, bitrate to file size, and how long a script actually runs when spoken.
How the Video Studio works
What happens after you know the frame: generating the footage that goes in it.
Free storyboard template
Plan the shots before you worry about which platform gets which crop.
Everything in PrismPoster
Image, video, music, editing and export in one place, rather than five tools.
Pricing
What the free plan includes and what the paid plans cost.
Free to start
You have the frame.Now fill it.
PrismPoster generates the video, the images and the music, cuts them together, and exports at the size you just looked up. Start free with 50 credits and no card.