YouTube Shorts safe zone checker, plus TikTok and Reels

How to use it

Export a still from your editor, take a screenshot, or use the video file itself.
Drop it on the frame or choose it with the button. It opens on your device and never leaves it.
Keep Organic posts for regular uploads, or pick Ads if the video will run as an ad or be boosted. Turn platforms on and off: each one shades what its interface covers, and the dashed white line is the area that's safe on all the platforms you've turned on.
Move any text, logo or face that crosses a line, then check the new frame again.
Download the frame with the overlay to share it, or the transparent overlay PNG to use as a guide layer in your editor.

Safe zone sizes for Shorts, TikTok and Reels

The safe area isn't a rectangle. Up top it runs nearly the full width; lower down, the like, comment and share column cuts a strip out of the right side, and the caption and username block takes the bottom. For a regular post on a 1080 x 1920 vertical video, keep text, logos and faces out of these regions:

Platform	Top	Bottom	Left	Right, upper	Right, button column	Safe area
YouTube Shorts	170 px	300 px	60 px	60 px	160 px from 1080 px down	65% of the frame
TikTok	160 px	350 px	80 px	80 px	160 px from 760 px down	59% of the frame
Instagram Reels	210 px	330 px	90 px	90 px	110 px from 490 px down	59% of the frame

YouTube Shorts: the top covers search and menu, the bottom channel name, title and subscribe button, and the column on the right like, dislike, comment, share, remix and the audio disc.
TikTok: the top covers the Following and For You tabs, the bottom username, caption, sound and the app's tab bar, and the column on the right profile, like, comment, save and share.
Instagram Reels: the top covers the Reels header, the bottom profile, account name, caption and audio, and the column on the right like, comment, share, save and the audio thumbnail.

The corners of each safe area, clockwise from the top left, in pixels on 1080 x 1920:

YouTube Shorts: (60, 170) (1020, 170) (1020, 1080) (920, 1080) (920, 1620) (60, 1620)
TikTok: (80, 160) (1000, 160) (1000, 760) (920, 760) (920, 1570) (80, 1570)
Instagram Reels: (90, 210) (990, 210) (990, 490) (970, 490) (970, 1590) (90, 1590)

None of the three platforms publishes safe zones for regular posts. Each value above is the median of the published in-app measurements listed further down: margins rounded up to the next 10 px, and the start of the button column moved up to the next 10 px line. Captions are the part that moves: a two-line TikTok caption reaches 422 px from the bottom, so give long captions extra room.

Safe zones for ads and boosted posts

Ads carry a Sponsored label and a call-to-action button, so the platforms' official ad guides reserve about a third of the frame at the bottom. Use these if the video will run as an ad or be boosted:

Platform	Top	Bottom	Left	Right, upper	Right, button column	Safe area
YouTube Shorts	288 px	672 px	48 px	192 px	None, the right margin covers it	39% of the frame
TikTok	240 px	660 px	120 px	120 px	300 px from 840 px down	38% of the frame
Instagram Reels	269 px	672 px	65 px	65 px	227 px from 1152 px down	44% of the frame

YouTube Shorts: (48, 288) (888, 288) (888, 1248) (48, 1248)
TikTok: (120, 240) (960, 240) (960, 840) (780, 840) (780, 1260) (120, 1260)
Instagram Reels: (65, 269) (1015, 269) (1015, 1152) (853, 1152) (853, 1248) (65, 1248)

YouTube Shorts: Google's 1080 x 1920 template for vertical video ads, which serve in Shorts, in-stream and in-feed. It is a plain rectangle: the wide right margin already clears the buttons. Ads that run only in Shorts can use Google's lighter Shorts zones: top 10%, bottom 25%, right 10%.
TikTok: Measured from the alpha channel of TikTok's In-Feed Standard template (2880 x 5120, April 2025) and scaled to 1080 x 1920: the right margin steps from 120 px to 300 px at 840 px down.
Instagram Reels: Meta's figures for Reels ads: 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side. Meta's safe zone diagram also blocks the right 21% of the frame from 40% up, where the buttons are: 227 px from 1152 px down.

How the organic numbers were measured

These are the independent measurements behind the organic table, each taken from the regular app or player on a 1080 x 1920 frame. Canva, Kapwing, CapCut and Adobe Express show safe zone guides inside their editors but publish no pixel values, so they aren't in the table. They disagree because the interface shifts between phones, app versions and caption lengths.

Platform	Measured by	Top	Bottom	Sides	Button column width	Column starts at
YouTube Shorts	KlipTools	138 px	299 px	46 px	138 px	1218 px
YouTube Shorts	Softphoria	180 px	190 px	Not measured	170 px	Not measured
YouTube Shorts	AdCheckLab	380 px	390 px	60 px	201 px	Not measured
YouTube Shorts	SocialKit	150 px	Not measured	Not measured	140 px	960 px
TikTok	KlipTools	Not measured	422 px	Not measured	179 px	809 px
TikTok	AdCheckLab	200 px	334 px	86 px	140 px	Not measured
TikTok	CapQA	Not measured	350 px	Not measured	162 px	730 px
TikTok	PostPlanify	108 px	320 px	60 px	120 px	Not measured
Instagram Reels	AdCheckLab	250 px	319 px	86 px	119 px	Not measured
Instagram Reels	Savozi	210 px	310 px	Not measured	84 px	Not measured
Instagram Reels	CapQA	Not measured	330 px	Not measured	84 px	614 px
Instagram Reels	StealthGram	134 px	384 px	Not measured	151 px	384 px

Make shorts that fit from the start

Your agent can build vertical video with these margins in mind. The Show & Tell Short playbook turns raw talking-head clips into a short with scenes above you and captions on the seam, and Dynamic Layout Short switches between you alone, split screen and the thing full-screen as you talk, with captions where each layout leaves room. Styles made for them include Midnight Glow, Paper Marker and Pop Zine.

Build the prompt in the AI video prompt generator with 9:16 picked, and see the cutting side in how to edit videos with Claude.

Sources

Read on October 16, 2026. Platforms change their apps; the linked pages are current.

Official ad guides and templates, for the Ads mode:

Measurements of the regular apps, for the Organic mode:

Playbooks to use it with

A playbook is FrameJam's method for one kind of video. Your agent follows it in whichever tool your project uses.

make YouTube Shorts with AI from talking-head clipsShow & Tell Short: Raw talking-head clips go in, a tight vertical short that shows what you talk about while you say it comes out.
edit shorts with AI, with layouts that switch as you talkDynamic Layout Short: A raw talking-head recording goes in, a vertical short that switches layout with what you say comes out.
make a founder launch video for X with AIFounder Launch: A founder talking to camera and screen recordings go in, a tight launch video for X comes out.
edit a YouTube intro hook with AIYouTube Hook: Your intro script or recording goes in, the 20–60 second opening that keeps people watching your long video comes out.

Questions

What is the YouTube Shorts safe zone?

The part of a vertical Short that the YouTube app doesn't cover. It isn't a rectangle. On a 1080 x 1920 frame, a regular Short needs about 170 px clear at the top, 300 px at the bottom for the title and channel row, and 60 px at each side. From 1080 px down, the like, comment and share column takes 160 px on the right. YouTube doesn't publish these numbers, so they come from measurements of the app.

Why do other guides say 672 px at the bottom?

That's the ad figure. Google's template for vertical video ads keeps 672 px clear at the bottom, and Meta says the same 35% for Reels ads, because ads add a Sponsored label and a call-to-action button. A regular post has neither, so the measured bottom reserve is about half that: 300 px on Shorts, 350 px on TikTok and 330 px on Reels. Switch the checker to Ads if you'll boost the post or run it as an ad.

Are my files uploaded?

No. The checker runs in your browser. Your image or video is opened from your device and drawn on the page; nothing is sent to a server, and closing the tab forgets it. The downloads are made in the browser too.

Is the TikTok safe zone the same as Shorts?

Close, but not the same. On regular posts TikTok's caption block reaches higher, about 350 px from the bottom against 300 px on Shorts, and a longer caption pushes it higher still. TikTok's buttons also start higher, at about 760 px down against 1080 px on Shorts, so text on the right side has less room. Turn on all three platforms and follow the dashed outline to be safe everywhere.

How exact are these numbers?

The ad numbers are the platforms' own. The organic numbers are measurements from people who checked the apps, and they disagree by up to 200 px on some edges because the interface moves between phones, app versions and caption lengths. We use the median of the measurements for each value, rounded to the cautious side by 10 px, and list every one below. Leave a small margin inside the line.

Can I check a video, not just an image?

Yes. Drop an MP4, MOV or WebM and drag the slider to any frame. Your browser decodes it locally, so very large files or codecs your browser can't play won't show; export a still frame instead.

How do I keep captions inside the safe zone automatically?

Plan where text goes before anything is animated. FrameJam's Show & Tell Short playbook puts the title and captions on the line between you and the scene above, and Dynamic Layout Short places short captions where each layout leaves room. You review every render on exact frames, so anything under the buttons gets moved in the next version.

More free tools

Guides

How to edit videos with ClaudeEdit and make videos in Claude with FrameJam: cut a raw recording, add animations, then point at the exact frames to change. With a full video walkthrough.
How to make videos with ClaudeClaude motion graphics step by step: the tools (HyperFrames, Remotion, Manim), prompting with references, storyboards and a feedback loop. With the full video.

FrameJam is free, local and open source. Install it in Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, and read how the review page works.