Instagram Story safe zone checker

For Instagram Stories image and video ads alike, Meta asks you to leave roughly 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side free of text, logos and other key creative elements, so the profile icon and the call to action do not cover or crop them. Meta's safe zone diagram also blocks a lower-right corner, 21% in from the right edge and 40% up from the bottom. In pixels:

Meta recommends 1440 x 2560 px for Stories ads, with a 1% aspect ratio tolerance; 1080 x 1920 is the same 9:16 shape. The pixel values are our conversion of Meta's percentages, rounded to the nearest pixel.

Many story guides, and Google's AI overview for the search, tell readers to leave somewhere between 155 and 250 px at the top and the bottom. A figure like that does exist for Facebook Stories video ads, which should keep "roughly 14% (250 pixels) of the top and 20% (340 pixels) of the bottom" free of text and logos. Instagram Stories image and video ads use 14%, 35% and 6%.

The Instagram numbers are the stricter set: 672 px at the bottom clears Facebook's 20% as well. If one creative runs in Instagram and Facebook Stories, design to 14%, 35% and 6%.

1. Pick the placement. Instagram Stories is selected. Switch to Reels, TikTok or Facebook Reels to compare the same file.
2. Add your story. Drop a 9:16 image or video on the frame, or choose a file. It stays in your browser.
3. Read the overlay. Shaded areas are what the app covers; the dashed line is the safe zone. Simple shapes stand in for the progress bar, the profile row and the call to action.
4. Scrub through videos. Instagram may split video ads of 16 seconds or longer into separate Stories cards, so every part of the video needs readable text, not only the opening.
5. Download. Save the checked frame as a PNG, or download the guide template or the transparent overlay to design against in your editor.

A file that is not 9:16 gets a warning, and you can preview it cropped to fill the screen or fitted with bars.

• Headline and offer. Start text below 269 px. The top band holds the progress bar and the profile row with the account name.
• Logo. Keep it inside the dashed line. The top-left corner, a common spot for logos, sits right under the profile row.
• Product. Keep it between 269 px and 1248 px from the top and inside the side lines, the part of the frame the app leaves clear.
• Call to action. The app draws its own button in the bottom band, so a painted "Swipe up" or "Shop now" arrow at the bottom competes with, or sits under, the real one. Point to it from inside the safe zone instead.
• Small print. Terms and prices at the very bottom are the first thing to be covered. Put them inside the zone or in the ad text.

Common mistakes: designing to the 250 px guides, which leaves the lower part of your text under the call to action; running text to the right edge in the lower half; and reusing a 4:5 feed image, which is cropped or shown with bars in Stories.

Image Ads has a 9:16 Story canvas for Stories and Reels. For that canvas the image brief includes a safe zone instruction to keep important content away from the top and bottom of the frame. It is an instruction, not a hard crop, so check each result here before it goes live.

Video Ads makes 9:16 vertical videos at 480p, 720p or 1080p. On-screen text is off unless you turn it on, and when it is on the script keeps the words in clear parts of the frame, away from the product. It does not apply a placement safe zone for you, so drop the finished video into this checker too.