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Instagram Reels safe zone, checked on your own creative

Reels is the harshest 9:16 placement there is: Instagram covers the top bar, a third of the bottom and a column on the right with its own buttons. Drop your image or video in below to see exactly what survives, or download the zones as a transparent PNG guide layer. Nothing is uploaded.

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top 200px

bottom 700px

Headline in the top bar, price and button at the very bottom: on Reels and TikTok the client never sees them.

Placement

Instagram

YouTube

TikTok

Safe zonesApp interface

Instagram Reels · on a 1080×1920 frame

Covered at the top: 200 px
Covered at the bottom: 700 px
Covered on the right: 170 px
Safe area: 910 × 1020 px

Measured on real screenshots in September 2026. Platforms move their buttons; the numbers here are re-checked when they do.

Your creative

JPG, PNG, GIF or MP4. The file stays in your browser — nothing is uploaded, no account needed.

Instagram Reels safe zones as a transparent 1080×1920 PNG, to drop into Photoshop, After Effects or Canva as a guide layer.

Or try a sample ad

What is covered, in pixels

Measured on real screenshots in September 2026, in pixels of a 1080×1920 frame. The safe area is what is left once the app has drawn its own interface over your creative.

Placement	Top	Bottom	Right	Safe area
Instagram Reels	200 px	700 px	170 px	910 × 1020 px
Instagram Reels (ad)	220 px	520 px → 700 px with a CTA	170 px	910 × 1000 px

The same zones as a transparent 1080×1920 PNG: use “Download the overlay” in the tool above, then drop the file over your artboard or comp as a guide layer.

What is specific to this placement

The bottom 700 px are not yours

This is where almost every Reel fails. Designers put the price, the offer and the button at the bottom of the canvas, the way they would on a banner or a landing page. On Reels that whole band sits under the caption, the audio line and the profile row. Anything you need read has to finish above it.

The right column costs you 170 px

Like, comment, share and the menu run down the right edge. A vertical lock-up, a corner price tag or a logo tucked into the right margin disappears behind them. On a Story the same design would be fine, which is why creatives that were approved for Stories break when they are reused on Reels.

An ad moves the line, but only sometimes

A Reels ad swaps part of the caption stack for a Sponsored label and a call-to-action button. That frees the frame down to about 520 px — until the ad actually carries a button, and the covered band grows back to 700 px. The honest answer is “between 520 and 700”, which is the hatched band in the tool. Design for 700 and the ad works with or without a button.

Reels is the strictest, so it is the one to design for

If a creative works inside the Reels safe area it works as a Story, on TikTok and on YouTube Shorts as well. The reverse is not true. When you have one master and several placements, build it for Reels and reuse it everywhere.

Checking a whole campaign, with the client watching

The tool above checks one file at a time, on your machine. When the campaign has six creatives and a client who has to sign them off, upload them to BannerPeek: one link for the whole campaign, and every 9:16 file on that page carries the same placement switch and safe-zone toggle.

HTML5 zips, images, GIFs and video on one page, at their real size
The client switches placements and safe zones themselves — no account needed
Comments pinned to the spot, and on video to the exact second of the animation
Approval recorded with name and timestamp; new versions on the same link

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Questions

What is the safe zone for Instagram Reels?

On an organic Reel, Instagram covers about the top 200 px and the bottom 700 px of a 1080×1920 frame, plus about 170 px on the right for the like, comment, share and more column. That leaves a safe area of roughly 910×1020 px in the middle.

Why is the bottom so big on Reels?

Because three things stack there: the caption and audio line, the profile row with the Follow button, and the progress bar. Together they run about 700 px up from the bottom edge, which is more than a third of the frame.

Is a Reels ad different from an organic Reel?

Yes. A Reels ad replaces part of that bottom stack with a Sponsored label and a call-to-action button. The bottom is covered from about 520 px, and up to 700 px when the ad carries a CTA button, which is why the tool draws that band hatched rather than solid.

What size should a Reels creative be?

1080×1920 (9:16). Instagram also accepts taller phone exports, around 9:19.5, and crops them; the safe zones here are measured on the 9:16 frame, so keep the important content inside the safe box whatever your export height is.

Can I check a video, not just a still?

Yes. Pick an MP4 in the tool and it plays inside the Reels interface with the overlay on top, so you can watch whether the end card or the logo reveal lands under the caption. The file never leaves your browser.