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TikTok & Reels Safe Zone Checker (2026)

Upload a clip and see exactly where TikTok, Instagram and YouTube bury your text behind their interface - then export a pixel-perfect overlay template for each. Free, runs entirely in your browser, nothing uploaded.

Upload a video or image to overlay it - or just preview the zones and download a template below.

9:16 preview · scrub the video to check the overlay on every frame.

Drop a video or image, or click

100% local - your file never leaves your browser. No upload, no signup, nothing stored.

Placements

TikTok splits into Organic and Ads - paid adds a Sponsored label and a taller CTA card at the bottom, so the safe area is smaller. Most checkers miss this.

Top

130

px

Bottom

320

px

Left

44

px

Right

140

px

Safe area 896 × 1470 px on a 1080 × 1920 frame · TikTok Creative Center + community-tested 2026 margins

What covers this frame

  • Top bar (App chrome) - Status bar, For You / Following tabs, search
  • Actions (Action rail) - Like, comment, share, save + rotating disc
  • Caption / sound (Caption / text) - @username, caption, hashtags, music ticker

Download

Upload a file to enable

Transparent overlay templates (1080 × 1920) - drop into CapCut, Premiere, Canva or Figma:

Zones verified October 2026. Platforms adjust their UI a few times a year - treat these as conservative safe bounds, not hard pixel lines.

Basics

What a safe zone is

The central band of a 9:16 video that stays visible after the app layers its interface on top - the profile row, caption, the action rail of like and share buttons, and the call-to-action. Anything outside it risks being covered, cropped or tapped away. Every platform reserves a different amount, and paid placements reserve more than organic ones.

Safe zones by platform (2026)

All margins are pixels on a 1080 × 1920 frame - the size every platform recommends you export at.

Meta and YouTube ask for the most room at the bottom - Meta's Ads Guide gives Reels and Stories one zone (14% top, 35% bottom, 6% each side) and Google reserves a similar bottom band for Shorts plus a wide right rail. TikTok publishes no pixel map; its community-tested margins are smaller at the bottom but add a right-hand action rail, and grow in ads.

Safe-zone margins in px on a 1080 × 1920 (9:16) canvas. Zones verified October 2026.
PlacementTopBottomLeftRightSafe area
TikTok (organic)13032044140896 × 1470 px
TikTok (ads)13048044140896 × 1310 px
Instagram Reels2696726565950 × 979 px
Instagram / Facebook Stories2696726565950 × 979 px
YouTube Shorts28867248192840 × 960 px

TikTok organic vs ads: the difference nobody shows

This is the distinction most tools skip - and the one that quietly ruins hooks.

⚡Design to the organic zone and the ad CTA lands on your hook

Organic TikTok reserves about 320px at the bottom for caption and sound. A paid in-feed or Spark ad stacks a Sponsored label and a Shop Now / Learn More button on top, pushing the safe bottom to roughly 480px. Toggle Ads mode in the checker to design for the real paid layout.

Cross-check the exact ratios and file sizes in the ad specs explorer - the TikTok in-feed spec and Stories spec sit alongside this checker.

Overlay templates and how to use them

Export a transparent template, drop it over your edit, and keep everything important inside the green box.

  1. 1

    Download the template

    Grab the transparent 1080 × 1920 PNG for your placement from the checker above.

  2. 2

    Drop it on the top track

    Layer it over your edit in CapCut, Premiere, Canva or Figma - it lines up 1:1 with a standard vertical export.

  3. 3

    Keep text in the green box

    Anything inside the safe rectangle clears the UI on every frame; scrub the video to confirm.

  4. 4

    Check the shape, then preview

    Confirm the frame with the aspect ratio checker, then preview the finished ad in the ad mockup generator.

Frequently asked questions

What is a safe zone for TikTok, Reels or Shorts?
A safe zone is the central area of a 9:16 video that stays visible after the app overlays its interface - captions, the profile row, the action rail and the call-to-action. On a 1080 x 1920 frame you keep important text and logos clear of the top status bar, the right-hand action buttons and the bottom caption band. This tool draws that rectangle for TikTok, Instagram Reels, Instagram/Facebook Stories and YouTube Shorts and lets you preview your own clip against it.
What are the TikTok safe zone dimensions in 2026?
For a 1080 x 1920 TikTok video, keep key content clear of roughly the top 130px, the bottom 320px and the right 140px, leaving a safe area of about 896 x 1470px. Those margins are community-tested - TikTok publishes resolution guidance but not an exact per-pixel map - and they shift when TikTok updates its app, so the zones here are re-verified periodically (TikTok last checked July 2026).
Is the TikTok ads safe zone different from organic?
Yes, and it is the difference most checkers ignore. Organic TikTok reserves about 320px at the bottom. A TikTok in-feed or Spark ad adds a Sponsored label at the top and a Shop Now / Learn More CTA card at the bottom, pushing the safe bottom margin to about 480px and shrinking the safe area to roughly 896 x 1310px. Design to the organic zone and your hook can end up behind the CTA card when the same video runs as a paid ad - so toggle Ads mode to design for the real paid layout.
What is the Instagram Reels and Stories safe zone?
Meta's Ads Guide uses one safe zone for Reels and Stories: leave about 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side free of text and logos. On a 1080 x 1920 frame that is roughly 269px at the top, 672px at the bottom and 65px on each side, leaving a safe area of about 950 x 979px. The bottom band is large because it holds the account row, caption, CTA button and, in Reels, the like, comment and share buttons. An older Meta rule of 14% top and 20% bottom still circulates for Stories; the current guide asks for more.
What is the YouTube Shorts safe zone?
Google's safe-zone diagram for 1080 x 1920 vertical video ads keeps content clear of about the top 288px, bottom 672px, left 48px and right 192px, leaving a safe area near 840 x 960px. The right margin is the widest of any placement because of the like, comment and share column, and the bottom band covers the channel row, title and the description, which expands over the video when a viewer taps it. Design for the expanded state.
Is this safe zone checker free, and does it upload my video?
It is free, needs no signup or email, and runs entirely in your browser. Your video or image is never uploaded - it is read locally with the browser's canvas, the overlay is drawn on top, and the PNG export is generated on your device. You can also download standalone transparent overlay templates for each platform at 1080 x 1920 without uploading anything at all.

Placement-correct creative, launched in bulk

Once your text clears the safe zone in every placement, the slow part is launching the same creative across dozens of ad sets by hand. uplads uploads your creatives once and launches them across Meta, TikTok, Google Ads, Snapchat and LinkedIn in a single click - so the hours a week that manual launching eats go back to the work that moves CPA.

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