Safe Zone Checker
Drop in your creative and see exactly which parts of it the Instagram Reels interface will cover. Nothing is uploaded — the file stays in your browser.
Instagram Reels
Top: account bar and audio label. Bottom: caption, handle, and the CTA sticker. Right: like, comment, share, and the audio disc.
What the safe zone is, and why it moves
A vertical ad is 1080×1920, but a large part of that is covered by the app itself — the caption, the account name, the action rail down the right, the CTA button. Anything important placed there is hidden behind the interface for every single viewer. Keeping text and logos inside the safe area is the difference between a creative that reads and one that does not.
- The bottom is the expensive mistake. Meta's own guidance for Stories and Reels is to keep the bottom 35% (672px of 1920) clear, because the caption, account name and call-to-action button sit there. TikTok covers about 500px. Almost every wasted logo lands in that band.
- The right rail only exists on some placements. Stories has no action rail; Reels, TikTok, and Shorts all do. A single creative reused across both usually loses something on one of them.
- Captions push the overlay up. A long caption takes more of the frame than a short one, so leave more room than the minimum if the copy is long.
- Where the numbers come from. Instagram Reels, Instagram Stories and Facebook Reels use Meta's published guidance: 14% top, 35% bottom, 6% sides (Meta Ads Guide, September 2026). TikTok, Shorts and Snapchat publish no single figure, so those insets are measured from the apps and err toward larger margins.
- Design once, check every placement. Put the message inside the tightest safe area across the placements you actually run, rather than exporting a separate cut for each.
Safe zones by placement
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