Meta ad specs at a glance
The table below summarises Meta's Ads Guide, checked September 2026, for the placements most accounts use. "Recommended" is what Meta advises designing at; the minimums and limits are the technical requirements. Meta applies an aspect-ratio tolerance on top of each ratio: 3% for Facebook Feed and Facebook Reels images, and 1% for Instagram Feed, Stories and Reels.
| Placement | Recommended size | Ratio | Minimum | Image limit | Video length and limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Feed | 1440 x 1800 | 4:5 | Image 600 x 750; video 120 x 120 | JPG or PNG, 30 MB | 1 second to 241 minutes, 4 GB (MP4, MOV or GIF) |
| Instagram Feed | 1440 x 1800 | 4:5 (accepts 1.91:1 to 4:5) | Image 500 px wide; video 250 px wide | JPG or PNG, 30 MB | 1 second to 60 minutes, 4 GB |
| Facebook and Instagram Stories | 1440 x 2560 | 9:16 | Image 500 px wide; video 250 px wide | JPG or PNG, 30 MB | Instagram 1 second to 60 minutes; Facebook 1 second to 3 minutes; 4 GB |
| Instagram Reels | 1440 x 2560 | 9:16 | Image 500 px wide; video 250 px under 30 seconds, 500 px from 30 seconds | JPG or PNG, 30 MB | Up to 15 minutes, 4 GB (MP4 or MOV) |
| Facebook Reels | 1440 x 2560 | 9:16 | Image 600 x 600 | JPG or PNG, 30 MB | No stated maximum, 4 GB |
| Facebook right column (desktop) | 1080 x 1080 or larger | 1:1 | 254 x 133 | JPG or PNG | Image only; Traffic objective |
| Audience Network native, banner, interstitial | Reuses your other assets | Varies by slot | 398 x 208 | JPG or PNG, 30 MB | Rewarded video: 3 to 61 seconds, 4 GB |
Image specs
For Feed, design at 4:5 and 1440 x 1800. Meta's guide moved its recommended feed resolution up from the old 1080 x 1350; the ratio is the same, so an older 1080 x 1350 file still fits, but the larger master looks sharper on high-density phones and leaves you room to crop. Facebook Feed enforces a minimum of 600 x 750 for images. Instagram Feed has a 500 px minimum width and accepts any ratio from 1.91:1 (landscape) to 4:5 (portrait); 4:5 is recommended because it takes the most screen space in a vertical scroll.
For Stories and Reels, design at 9:16 and 1440 x 2560. The minimum width is 500 px for Instagram Stories and Reels and Facebook Stories images; Facebook Reels asks for at least 600 x 600. A 1080 x 1920 file is fine for all of them and is what most editing tools export by default.
The right column appears only on desktop Facebook, supports the Traffic objective, and shows a small square. Meta recommends 1:1 at 1080 x 1080 or larger, with a technical minimum of 254 x 133, and advises against putting text in the image because it is displayed too small to read. Audience Network native, banner and interstitial slots take a JPG or PNG of at least 398 x 208 and up to 30 MB; in practice Meta renders the assets you supplied for other placements into each slot, so check the preview rather than designing separately.
- File types: JPG or PNG for every image placement.
- Maximum image file size: 30 MB.
- Keep a 1:1 version of every concept: carousels, the right column and some Audience Network slots use it, and it is the safest fallback when you cannot supply per-placement assets.
Video specs
Meta's video requirements are the same across placements in their technical parts: MP4 or MOV (GIF is accepted in Feed, Stories and Facebook Reels), H.264 compression, square pixels, a constant frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio at 128 kbps or above. Meta also asks that files contain no edit lists or special boxes inside the container; if a file that looks correct is rejected, re-exporting it through a standard H.264 encoder is a sensible first step. The maximum file size is 4 GB everywhere.
Lengths vary by placement. Facebook Feed accepts 1 second to 241 minutes; Instagram Feed and Instagram Stories 1 second to 60 minutes; Facebook Stories 1 second to 3 minutes, where videos of 15 seconds or less play in full and longer ones are split across story cards; Instagram Reels up to 15 minutes; and Facebook Reels lists no maximum. Audience Network rewarded video runs 3 to 61 seconds. These are limits, not advice: most ads that work in Stories and Reels make their point in the first few seconds, and a long upload is only worth it when the content holds attention.
Minimum widths are low for video, so they rarely block an upload: 120 x 120 for Facebook Feed, 250 px wide for Instagram Feed and Stories, and for Instagram Reels 250 px under 30 seconds and 500 px from 30 seconds. Recommended resolutions match the images: 1440 x 1800 at 4:5 for Feed, 1440 x 2560 at 9:16 for Stories and Reels. Captions and sound are optional but recommended; Meta strongly recommends audio for Reels.
Reels ads have some content restrictions of their own. Meta's guide says a Reels ad cannot include licensed music, face filters, camera effects, GIFs or product tags. If an organic Reel used any of those, you may not be able to promote it as-is.
Reels and Stories safe zones
Stories and Reels are full-screen, and Meta draws its interface on top of your creative: the profile row and progress bars at the top, the caption, Page name and call-to-action at the bottom, and in Reels a column of like, comment and share buttons on the right. Anything important in those areas can be covered. Meta's Ads Guide, checked September 2026, gives the same figure for Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels, Facebook Stories images and Facebook Reels: leave roughly 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side free of text, logos and key creative elements.
The bottom margin is the one that catches people. Older guidance said 20% at the bottom, and Facebook's Stories video page still quotes a 14% top and 20% bottom margin; design to 35% and you are covered everywhere. On Reels, keep more than 6% clear on the right: the reaction buttons sit there, and our checker uses a wider inset of about 200 px at 1080 wide for Instagram and Facebook Reels for that reason.
| Margin | Percentage | At 1080 x 1920 | At 1440 x 2560 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top | 14% | 269 px | 358 px |
| Bottom | 35% | 672 px | 896 px |
| Each side | 6% | 65 px | 86 px |
| Reels right side (reaction buttons, our recommendation) | About 18.5% | 200 px | 267 px |
- The safe area on a 1080 x 1920 Story is roughly the middle 950 x 979 px. Put the headline, the offer and the logo there.
- Backgrounds, faces and product shots can run to the edges; only text and critical elements need the margin.
- Captions burned into a video belong above the bottom 35%, not at the very bottom where most editors place them by default.
- Test it: the Safe Zone Checker overlays the covered areas on your own file in the browser, with presets for Instagram Stories and Facebook Reels. Nothing is uploaded.
Carousel, collection and lead-form specs
A carousel holds 2 to 10 cards, each with its own image or video, headline and link. Meta recommends 1:1 at a minimum of 1080 x 1080, with a 3% ratio tolerance; images are JPG or PNG up to 30 MB, videos MP4, MOV or GIF up to 4 GB and 1 second to 240 minutes. Every card needs a landing page URL. Keep the cards the same ratio, because a mixed set is cropped to match, and remember the first two cards do most of the work: many people never swipe past them.
A collection ad shows a cover image or video with product images underneath (three in Facebook and Instagram Feed, two in Instagram Stories), and opens a full-screen Instant Experience when tapped. The Instant Experience is required; you can build it from Meta's Storefront, Lookbook or lead-generation templates or make a custom one. The cover takes a ratio between 1.91:1 and 1:1 at a minimum of 1080 x 1080, with the same 30 MB image and 4 GB video limits. The products come from your catalog, so the product images follow your catalog photography.
Lead ads with an instant form use the normal specs of the placement they run in for the ad itself. Meta's separate design-spec page for lead ads lists 1:1 at 1080 x 1080 and 4:5 at 1080 x 1350 for Facebook images, and videos up to 15 seconds at 4:5, which is older guidance than the Ads Guide; the 1440 x 1800 feed master works for both. The form has its own text fields: Meta's help pages allow up to 60 characters for the form headline and the call-to-action text. A privacy policy URL is required on every form, so have it ready before you build one. If you run lead ads through Claude, our Meta Ads MCP page shows how lead forms and their submissions are read and created from the assistant.
Text limits
Meta's character counts are recommendations for how much text shows before it is cut off, not hard caps. Longer text is accepted but truncated behind a "See more", which is fine for a story-driven Feed ad and wasteful in Reels, where little of the primary text is visible over the video. Put the point in the first line.
| Placement or format | Primary text | Headline | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Feed | 50 to 150 characters | 27 characters | Not listed |
| Instagram Feed | 125 characters (up to 30 hashtags) | 40 characters | Not listed |
| Facebook Stories | 125 characters | 40 characters | Not listed |
| Instagram Stories | 125 characters | Not listed | Not listed |
| Instagram Reels | 44 characters | Not listed | Not listed |
| Facebook Reels | 40 characters | 55 characters | Not listed |
| Facebook right column | Not listed | 40 characters | Not listed |
| Carousel (Facebook Feed) | 80 characters | 20 characters per card | 18 characters |
| Collection | 125 characters | 40 characters | Not listed |
| Audience Network | 125 characters | 40 characters | 30 characters |
Checking a creative before launch (tools)
Ads Manager shows a preview of each placement, and it is worth opening every one before publishing: automatic placements mean a 4:5 image you designed for Feed can also appear in Stories, Reels, the right column and Audience Network, cropped or padded to fit. Where a placement looks wrong, use asset customisation to give it its own crop or file rather than turning the placement off.
For a faster check outside Ads Manager, our two free tools run entirely in the browser. The Facebook Ad Size Checker reads an image or video and compares its dimensions, ratio, file size and length with Meta's current specs for Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, Stories, Reels and Marketplace, and says whether each is recommended, accepted or below the minimum. The Safe Zone Checker overlays the Reels and Stories interface areas on your file so you can see what will be covered. The files never leave your machine, which matters for unreleased creative.
- Ratio: 4:5 for Feed, 9:16 for Stories and Reels, 1:1 for carousels and the right column.
- Resolution at or above the minimum, ideally at the recommended 1440 px width.
- File under 30 MB for images and 4 GB for video, in a supported format, with no edit lists in the container.
- Length within the placement limit, and the message landing in the first seconds.
- Text and logos inside the 14% / 35% / 6% safe area on vertical placements, and clear of the Reels button column.
- Primary text front-loaded, headline within the recommended length, landing page URL and privacy policy (for lead forms) ready.
- Every placement preview opened in Ads Manager before you publish.
