Safe zones for Shorts, Reels & TikTok
One edit, three apps on top of it.
Post the same vertical video to YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels and TikTok and each app covers a different part of it with its own buttons, captions and top bar. Choose where you post, see every app’s zones on one frame and the box that’s clear on all of them, check your own frame against it, and download an overlay for your editor.
Safe zones
Red is covered on at least one of Shorts, Reels and TikTok; grey is cut off at the sides. Keep titles, captions and faces inside the green box: 756×1334 at 108,144 on a 1080×1920 frame. Shorts sets the left, top and right edges; Reels sets the bottom edge.
Burned-in captions, centred: keep them between x 216–864 and with the bottom line no lower than y 1478. The yellow band, 648×288 at 216,1190, fits two or three lines. Anywhere higher in the green box is clear too. For how long each caption needs on screen, see the caption reading-speed checker.
Overlay for your editor (transparent PNG)
| Platform | Safe on 1080×1920 |
|---|---|
| YouTube ShortsMeasured 2026-10-13 in the YouTube Android app and YouTube’s mobile web player on four phone sizes. | 756×1411 at 108,144 |
| Instagram ReelsMeasured 2026-10-13 in the Instagram Android app. | 907×1354 at 22,125 |
| TikTokMeasured 2026-10-13 in the TikTok Android app. | 902×1402 at 22,134 |
None of the three platforms publishes where its buttons and text sit. All of these were measured from the Android apps (and, for Shorts, the mobile web player too), not taken from templates. The iPhone apps weren’t measured, and the apps move things from time to time.
What sets the safe area
On all three, the bottom and right of the frame belong to the app: the account name, caption and buttons. What differs is how far they reach. Reels starts its buttons highest, about 40% down the frame, so it sets the bottom of the area safe everywhere. TikTok’s caption block grows with a long caption and a translation line, and its buttons move up with it. Shorts crops the most off the sides on tall phones, so it sets the left and right edges. The box is a rectangle, so a little of the picture outside it is still clear on every app, such as a strip down the right above the buttons. The red shows exactly where.
Where burned-in captions go
Captions are centred, but the safe box isn’t: the buttons on the right push its right edge in further than the side crop pushes its left. So centred captions have to fit the narrower side, mirrored. On all three apps that leaves the middle 60% of the width. The lowest they can sit is set by Reels, whose account name and caption start about 77% down the frame. The yellow band is that strip, tall enough for two or three lines, and it’s in the overlay too. Captions can go higher, anywhere in the green box, but bottom-centre is where viewers look for them.
How these zones were measured
None of the platforms publishes this, and most templates don’t say where theirs came from. These were measured from full-screen screenshots of each Android app, over at least four different videos. The interface is what stays the same while the video changes. Each element was then measured on its own, and checked by eye so that white text or objects in a video weren’t mistaken for buttons. Each zone covers the worst case seen (a long caption, counts under every button, friends’ reactions), rounded outwards. Ads, LIVE previews and photo posts use other layouts and weren’t included. The iPhone apps weren’t measured.
Related: Shorts thumbnails and reframing · more tools for creators · broadcast safe areas.