Safe zone checker for Shorts, Reels and TikTok.
Drop your video and watch it under each app's buttons and captions. Mark your text or face and see which platforms hide it. Thumbnails, channel banners and Instagram posts too, plus free 1080x1920 overlay templates.
Your file stays in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded.
Approximate UI drawn by us for checking layouts, not a screenshot of the app. Apps change their layout from time to time.
Check your captions or face
Press Mark my text or face and drag a box on the frame, or try a quick check.
YouTube Shorts: 1080x1920
- Safe area 819x960px, from 60px left and 288px top
- Covered: Top bar (search, camera, menu) (top 288px)
- Covered: Channel name, Subscribe, title and audio (bottom 672px)
- Covered: Left edge (cut on some phones) (left 60px)
- Covered: Like, dislike, comment, share and remix buttons (right 201px, from 288px down)
Google's vertical-video guide keeps 288px top, 672px bottom and 192px right clear; a 2026 measurement found the button column 201px wide and 60px on the left, so we use those larger numbers.
Free overlay templates
Transparent PNGs at full size, made in your browser. No sign-up.
Other platforms
How to use the checker
- Drop your video or image. Drop an MP4, MOV or WebM video, or a PNG or JPG, onto the checker. It plays in your browser and is never uploaded.
- Pick the platform. Choose YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, TikTok, Facebook Reels, Snapchat Spotlight, a YouTube thumbnail, a channel banner or an Instagram feed post.
- Compare the app look and the boxes. Switch between Real app look, which draws an approximate app UI over your video, and Safe-zone boxes, where red is covered and green is safe.
- Mark your captions or face. Drag a box over your captions, face or call to action, or tap Check my captions zone. The checker tells you which platforms cover it.
- Download the guide overlay. Download the transparent PNG for your platform, or the all-platforms guide, and put it on the top track of your edit as a guide layer.
Use the overlay as a guide layer
Premiere Pro
Import the PNG, drag it to the top video track and stretch it over the whole sequence. Lower its opacity to about 50%, then turn the track's eye icon off (or delete the clip) before you export.
DaVinci Resolve
Drag the PNG from the Media Pool to the top track on the Edit page and set Composite > Opacity to about 50%. Disable the track (right-click > Disable Track) before you render.
CapCut
Use Overlay > Add overlay, pick the PNG and stretch it to fill the frame. Delete or hide the overlay before you export.
After Effects
Import the PNG, put it at the top of the comp and choose Layer > Guide Layer. Guide layers show while you work but never render.
One layout for every app
Posting the same edit to Shorts, Reels and TikTok? Keep captions and faces inside the 716x925px box that starts 122px from the left and 288px from the top. TikTok has the biggest bottom area (its caption can run to several lines) and Shorts has the widest button column, so a layout that clears both clears the rest. Shooting a face? Frame the eyes about a third of the way down. Need the whole edit done? Our Shorts and Reels editors check every cut against these zones before it goes out, and our thumbnail designers test every design at 168px.
Specs and sources · Last checked: Oct 2026
Where official pages and measured guides disagree, we use the largest margin. Pixel values are for the native canvas size.
YouTube Shorts · 1080x1920 · safe 819x960px
Google's vertical-video guide keeps 288px top, 672px bottom and 192px right clear; a 2026 measurement found the button column 201px wide and 60px on the left, so we use those larger numbers.
Instagram Reels · 1080x1920 · safe 855x979px
Meta asks for 14% (269px) top, 35% (672px) bottom and 6% (65px) on each side to stay clear. We add the button column on the right (160px from 1000px down) and the 3:4 crop your cover gets in the profile grid.
TikTok · 1080x1920 · safe 716x959px
TikTok's in-feed template and two 2026 measurements disagree (240-254px top, 660-707px bottom, 120-242px right). We use the largest of each: 254px top, 707px bottom, 122px sides and a 242px button column from 840px down.
Facebook Reels · 1080x1920 · safe 855x979px
Meta uses one Reels safe zone for Facebook and Instagram: 14% top, 35% bottom, 6% sides. We add the button column on the right.
Snapchat Spotlight · 1080x1920 · safe 870x1430px
Snap's ad spec keeps the top and bottom 150px clear (some guides say 300px at the bottom). Spotlight also shows a caption, username and a button column, so we keep 340px at the bottom and 150px on the right.
YouTube thumbnail · 1280x720 · safe 1050x540px
YouTube asks for 1280x720 (16:9). The duration badge and hover buttons are drawn at a fixed size, so they cover the most at the smallest size (168px wide in search and the sidebar); the boxes here are sized for that, rounded up.
YouTube channel banner · 2560x1440 · safe 1546x423px
Upload 2560x1440. YouTube's help gives the text-and-logo safe area as 1235x338 at the 2048x1152 minimum, which is 1546x423 at 2560x1440, centred. Desktop shows a 2560x423 strip, tablets 1855x423, TVs the whole image.
Instagram feed post (4:5) · 1080x1350 · safe 952x1130px
Feed posts are 1080x1350 (4:5). Since 2025 the profile grid shows 3:4 tiles, so 34px is cut off each side of a 4:5 post in the grid.
Frequently asked questions
What is the YouTube Shorts safe zone?
A Short is 1080x1920 pixels. Keep captions, faces and buttons out of the top 288px (search and menu), the bottom 672px (channel name, Subscribe, title and audio), the right 201px (like, comment, share and remix buttons) and the left 60px. That leaves a safe area of about 819x960 pixels that starts 288px from the top. Numbers last checked Oct 2026.
What is the Instagram Reels safe zone?
Meta asks you to keep 14% of the top (269px on a 1080x1920 Reel), 35% of the bottom (672px) and 6% of each side (65px) free of text and logos. The like, comment and share buttons also sit on the right from about halfway down, so keep text at least 160px from the right edge there. In the profile grid a Reel's cover is cut to 3:4, which removes 240px from the top and from the bottom.
What is the TikTok safe zone?
On a 1080x1920 TikTok, keep the top 254px (Following, For You and search), the bottom 707px (username, caption and sound) and 122px on each side clear. The profile, like, comment, save and share buttons take a column about 242px wide on the right, from 840px down. Sources disagree a little, so this checker uses the largest margin from each.
Where should I put captions so they work on Shorts, Reels and TikTok?
Inside the box that is safe on all five vertical apps: from 122px to 838px across and 288px to 1213px down on a 1080x1920 frame (716x925px). In practice: just above or at the middle of the frame, no wider than about two-thirds of the width, nudged slightly left of centre so the right-side buttons never touch them.
What is the safe zone for a YouTube thumbnail?
Thumbnails are 1280x720 (16:9). The duration badge covers the bottom-right corner (keep about 230x120px clear there), watched videos show a red progress bar along the bottom 24px, and on desktop the Watch later and Add to queue buttons appear top right on hover. Check that your text still reads at 168px wide, the size used in search and the sidebar.
What is the YouTube channel banner safe area?
Upload 2560x1440. Only the centre 1546x423 pixels shows on every device (YouTube's help gives it as 1235x338 at the 2048x1152 minimum size). Desktop shows a 2560x423 strip, tablets 1855x423, and only TVs show the whole image, so keep your name, logo and text inside the centre safe area.
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