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Social media safe zones, measured rather than guessed

The safe-zone numbers on the web disagree with each other by up to 2.8×. These come from each platform’s own template and documentation — every figure below carries the source it came from and the date we last checked it.

Last checked . Overlays are free to download and use.

The numbers

Safe zones by placement

Dashed outline is the safe area. Everything red is at risk of being covered by interface or cropped by the device.

Meta 9:16 ads

Instagram Reels · Facebook Reels · Instagram Stories · Facebook Stories · Facebook in-stream reels · Instagram Feed video (9:16)

Meta 9:16 ads safe-zone margins at 1080×1920
EdgeShare of frameAt 1080×1920
top14%269 px
bottom35%672 px
left6%65 px
right6%65 px

Plus an action rail that reaches above the caption band — the reason this safe zone is an L-shape rather than a rectangle. The overlay and the diagram both carry it.

  • One safe zone governs all six placements. Meta publishes the same sentence on each.
  • The bottom-right notch is measured from Meta’s official diagram; no Meta prose states it. Treat it as a recommendation rather than a published spec.
  • Meta’s Facebook Stories video page still shows an older 14% / 20%. Those pixel values contradict the resolution that same page recommends, and the image variant of the placement already carries 14 / 35 / 6.

Published by the platform · Meta Ads Guide — Instagram Reels · checked

“Consider leaving at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side of your asset free from text, logos or other important creative elements.”
Download overlay PNG · 1080×1920

Meta Reels ads with a disclaimer

Instagram Reels · Facebook Reels

Meta Reels ads with a disclaimer safe-zone margins at 1080×1920
EdgeShare of frameAt 1080×1920
top14%269 px
bottom40%768 px
left6%65 px
right6%65 px
  • Full-width band, not a corner — it replaces the 35% bottom margin rather than adding to the action-rail notch.
  • Meta tightened the wording from “can” to “should” between December 2025 and March 2026.

Published by the platform · Meta Business Help Center — text overlays and the safe zone · checked

“If you’re including disclaimers on your Reels ads, you should leave the bottom 40% of your ad free from text, logos and other key creative elements.”
Download overlay PNG · 1080×1920

TikTok In-Feed ads

Auction In-Feed · Reservation In-Feed · Spark Ads

TikTok In-Feed ads safe-zone margins at 1080×1920
EdgeShare of frameAt 1080×1920
top12.5%240 px
bottom34.375%660 px
left11.111%120 px
right11.111%120 px

Plus an action rail that reaches above the caption band — the reason this safe zone is an L-shape rather than a rectangle. The overlay and the diagram both carry it.

  • Measured from TikTok’s own “In-Feed Standard” template (2880×5120 RGBA, annotated against a 720×1280 reference) by reading its alpha channel. The measurements match the numeric labels printed inside the image.
  • TikTok replaced this template in April 2025. The widely-republished 254 / 707 / 122 / 242 figures are the retired version.
  • TikTok’s help page still says the safe zone shrinks with caption length, but the template it now ships has no caption variants.

Measured from the platform’s own template · TikTok Ads Manager Help — Auction In-Feed Ads · checked

“Please ensure that the key elements such as text and logos are within the safe zone. Elements that appear out of the safe zone might be covered or cropped.”
Download overlay PNG · 1080×1920

TikTok TopView, first 3 seconds

TopView

TikTok TopView, first 3 seconds safe-zone margins at 1080×1920
EdgeShare of frameAt 1080×1920
top12.5%240 px
bottom12.5%240 px
left11.111%120 px
right11.111%120 px
  • No UI during the takeover, so these margins guard against device cropping rather than chrome.
  • After three seconds the ad becomes an in-feed video and the In-Feed safe zone applies.

Published by the platform · TikTok Ads Manager Help — TopView · checked

“TopView has two stages: the initial 3-second zoom-in takeover, and a transition to an in-feed video experience.”
Download overlay PNG · 1080×1920

YouTube Shorts

Shorts ads · Shorts organic

YouTube Shorts safe-zone margins at 1080×1920
EdgeShare of frameAt 1080×1920
top10%192 px
bottom25%480 px
left0%0 px
right10%108 px
  • Google specifies no left margin for Shorts.
  • Safe only if the ad runs Shorts-only. Anything serving across YouTube needs the stricter all-placements zone.

Published by the platform · Google — YouTube Shorts ads · checked

“Avoid placing critical elements in the top 10%, the bottom 25%, and the right-hand 10% of the frame, where the channel name, caption, and engagement buttons reside.”
Download overlay PNG · 1080×1920

YouTube, all placements

Shorts · In-stream · In-feed · Performance Max · Demand Gen

YouTube, all placements safe-zone margins at 1080×1920
EdgeShare of frameAt 1080×1920
top15%288 px
bottom35%672 px
left4.444%48 px
right17.778%192 px
  • Measured from Google’s official transparent overlay PNG at 1080×1920 by reading its alpha channel; the transparent region matches Google’s printed labels exactly.
  • Stricter than the Shorts-only zone on every edge, so it nests cleanly inside it.
  • The bottom margins differ by 192px. A CTA placed against the Shorts-only zone is covered the moment the same asset serves in-stream.

Measured from the platform’s own template · Google Ads Help — About video ad specs · checked

“Overlays, call-to-actions, and buttons may appear in different places depending on the format, campaign type, and screen.”
Download overlay PNG · 1080×1920

Snapchat

Single Image or Video ads

Snapchat safe-zone margins at 1080×1920
EdgeShare of frameAt 1080×1920
top7.813%150 px
bottom7.813%150 px
left0%0 px
right0%0 px
  • This PDF carries a 2017 creation date and still lists 3–10 second ads, so treat it as indicative only.
  • Snapchat’s current specs page publishes no safe-zone pixels, and its Help Center cannot be read by any automated means.

⚠ Unconfirmed · Snapchat — Snap Ads specifications (PDF) · checked

“To prevent overlap with the following elements, Snapchat suggests avoiding placement of logos or other graphic elements within 150px of the top and bottom of creative.”
Download overlay PNG · 1080×1920

Why nobody agrees

Three sets of TikTok numbers, one platform

Top / bottom / left / rightStatusWhat it actually is
240 / 660 / 120 / 300CurrentTikTok’s live template, measured from its alpha channel. The file’s own printed labels agree.
254 / 707 / 122 / 242RetiredGenuinely TikTok’s, and obsolete since April 2025. Still quoted as current across much of the web.
130 / 483 / 44 / 140No sourceMatches no TikTok file we could find, current or archived. Internally consistent, which is probably why it spreads.

Retired specs, still in circulation

TikTok swapped its safe-zone template in April 2025 without announcing it. We confirmed this by pulling the 2024 version of the same URL out of the Internet Archive and measuring both: the file went from 3,995,107 bytes to 87,335, and the bottom margin relaxed from 704px to 660px while the right rail tightened from 240px to 300px.

Numbers with no origin at all

At least one widely-republished TikTok set matches nothing the platform has ever shipped. It is arithmetically self-consistent, so it survives a spot check and gets copied onward.

Platform documentation that contradicts itself

Meta’s Facebook Stories video page still states margins in pixels that its own recommended resolution disproves, while the image version of the same placement carries current numbers. Meta’s prose also describes its yellow overlay as marking the safe region; the diagram tints the unsafe one.

The distinction most pages drop

There is no official organic safe zone

Every safe-zone figure any platform publishes is scoped to advertising. The title of Meta’s document is “About text overlays and the safe zone for ads on Facebook and Instagram” — the word ads is doing real work there. TikTok ships its templates from Ads Manager help. Google’s live in Google Ads help.

Instagram’s own Reels specification does not contain the word “safe”, and Instagram publishes no specification page for Stories at all. So the pixel margins you will find quoted for organic posting — 250px, 155px, 108/320/60/120 — do not come from Meta. They are measurements somebody took off a screenshot, or inventions.

That matters because the interface a creator sees is not the interface an advertiser sees: organic posts carry no call-to-action button and no “Sponsored” label, so their real bottom margin is smaller. Using the ads numbers for organic is the safe direction to be wrong in, and it is what we would recommend. Presenting them as Instagram’s official organic safe zone is simply false.

Placements with no published geometry

We are not filling these in. If a tool shows you a number here, ask where it came from.

Instagram Feed 4:5 and 1:1
Meta says to keep the bottom and side edges clear — and notably not the top — but publishes no percentage or pixel margin. The old 20% text rule appears on none of its current pages. Meta Ads Guide — Instagram Feed, checked .
LinkedIn vertical video
LinkedIn publishes resolution, file size and duration limits but no safe zone at all. The LinkedIn margins on other tools are Instagram Reels’ numbers reused. LinkedIn — Video ad specs, checked .

How these were checked

Method, and its limits

We measured the files, not the blog posts

Where a platform ships a template — TikTok’s In-Feed zip, Google’s transparent overlay PNG — we downloaded it and read its alpha channel. The fully transparent region is the safe area, which gives exact pixel margins with nothing left to interpretation. In both cases the measurement matched the numbers printed inside the image.

Where there is no file, we quote the platform

Meta states its margins in prose and in a diagram. We quote the prose verbatim beside the number, and measured the diagram to recover the action-rail notch that the prose never mentions.

Where there is nothing, we say so

No number here is inferred from another platform, averaged, or rounded to look tidy. Placements without published geometry are listed as such.

A pixel margin is an approximation, including ours

Platform interfaces are laid out in device-independent points against each device’s own safe-area insets — the notch, the home indicator, 19.5:9 versus 20:9. So no single pixel figure at 1080×1920 is exactly right on every handset, and any tool claiming otherwise is selling you false precision. Every published set, including the platforms’ own, is a conservative envelope. TikTok says as much on its template, which marks a separate band that “may be cropped based on device type”; Meta warns that on taller screens it may zoom your creative and crop outside the safe zone entirely.

FAQs

Safe zones, answered

What is a safe zone?

The part of your frame that no interface sits on top of. On a vertical video the platform draws a caption, a username, an action rail and often a call-to-action button over your footage. Anything you place under those is still in the file, but nobody can read it. The safe zone is what is left.

What is the TikTok safe zone?

On TikTok’s current In-Feed template, 240px at the top, 660px at the bottom and 120px on each side of a 1080×1920 frame — but the right margin widens to 300px below the halfway point, where the action rail sits. That is 12.5% top, 34.375% bottom, 11.111% sides. These come from measuring the alpha channel of TikTok’s own downloadable template.

What is the Instagram Reels safe zone?

Meta asks you to leave 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side clear — 269px, 672px and 65px on a 1080×1920 frame. The same zone governs Facebook Reels, Instagram and Facebook Stories, Facebook in-stream reels, and 9:16 video in the Instagram feed. If your Reels ad carries a disclaimer, the bottom margin becomes 40%.

What is the YouTube Shorts safe zone?

Google publishes two. For Shorts specifically: 10% top, 25% bottom, 10% right, no left margin. For an ad that may serve anywhere on YouTube: 15% top, 35% bottom, 17.8% right, 4.4% left. The second is stricter on every edge, and most campaigns need it — a call-to-action placed against the Shorts-only zone gets covered the moment the same asset runs in-stream.

Why do other safe-zone pages give different numbers?

Three reasons, and they are separable. Some are quoting TikTok’s template from before April 2025, which was real but is now retired. Some are quoting figures that match no file any platform has ever published. And some platform pages contradict each other — Meta’s Facebook Stories video page still carries pixel values that its own recommended resolution disproves.

Is the safe zone the same for organic posts and ads?

No, and no platform publishes an organic one. Every figure Meta, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn have released is scoped to advertising. Organic posts have no call-to-action button and no “Sponsored” label, so their real bottom margin is smaller than the ads number — which makes the ads number a safe thing to design against, and a false thing to call official organic guidance.

Why is the safe zone not a rectangle?

Because the action rail is taller than the caption block. On Meta’s 9:16 placements the rightmost 21% of the frame is unsafe to 40% of its height, while the rest of the bottom edge is unsafe to 35%. On TikTok the right margin steps from 120px to 300px halfway down. Overlays that show a plain rectangle overstate the unsafe area across most of the frame and understate it in the corner.

Can I use these overlays commercially?

Yes, freely and without attribution. They are flat geometry generated from published specifications, they contain no platform logos or interface artwork, and there is nothing to sign up for. Drop the PNG on a layer above your footage in any editor.

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