Shorts, Reels, and TikTok specs 2026: sizes and safe zones

For YouTube Shorts, Instagram and Facebook Reels, and TikTok, the safe default in 2026 is a 9:16 vertical video at 1080 x 1920 pixels. Length is where the platforms split: a Short ends at 3 minutes, a reel is only recommended to new viewers up to 3 minutes, and a Facebook reel published through Meta's API stops at 90 seconds.

Safe zones are the part most guides get vague about. The platforms publish them only for ads, and in different forms: Meta gives percentages, Google gives a pixel template, and TikTok gives downloadable files. This page collects the numbers from each platform's own pages as they read on October 24, 2026, converts them to pixels on a 1080 x 1920 frame, and combines them into one area that clears all of them. If you want the step-by-step workflow for exporting one file to all three apps, read our guide to posting one vertical video to TikTok, Reels, and Shorts; this page is the reference sheet behind it.

The short answer

Size: 1080 x 1920 pixels, 9:16. Meta's Facebook Reels API recommends exactly that, and it clears every minimum listed below.
Length: 3 minutes or less covers Shorts and Instagram's recommendation threshold. Facebook Reels through the API need 90 seconds or less.
Keep text, logos, and faces inside a box 288 pixels from the top, 672 from the bottom, 65 from the left, and 192 from the right of a 1080 x 1920 frame. That is the strictest edge from Meta's and Google's published safe zones.
Covers: Instagram crops a reel cover to the middle square on your grid, and YouTube recommends 9:16 Shorts thumbnails at 2160 x 3840.

Frame size and shape

Platform	Recommended	Accepted shape	Minimum	Frame rate
Instagram Reels (app)	Not stated	1.91:1 to 9:16	720 pixels	30 fps or more
Instagram Reels (API)	9:16	0.01:1 to 10:1	1,920 pixels wide at most	23 to 60 fps
Instagram Reels ads	1440 x 2560, 9:16	9:16	Not stated	Not stated
Facebook Reels (API)	1080 x 1920, 9:16	9:16	540 x 960	24 to 60 fps
YouTube Shorts	Not stated	Square or vertical	Not stated	Not stated
TikTok (desktop upload)	Not stated	Not stated	720 x 1280 (per Hootsuite)	Not stated
TikTok ads (in-feed)	9:16	9:16, 16:9, or 1:1	540 x 960 for vertical	Not stated

Two numbers conflict with the 1080 x 1920 default. Meta's ads guide for Instagram Reels recommends 1440 x 2560, a larger 9:16 frame, while Meta's Instagram API caps width at 1,920 pixels, which 1440 x 2560 clears but a vertical 4K export (2160 x 3840) does not. If you schedule reels through any tool, stay at or below 1,920 pixels wide.

YouTube does not set a resolution for Shorts in the pages we read. What decides whether an upload becomes a Short is shape and length: square or vertical, three minutes or less.

Length limits

Platform	In the app	Through the official API	Reach threshold
YouTube Shorts	Up to 3 minutes	Up to 3 minutes (a longer vertical video becomes a regular video)	None stated
Instagram Reels	Up to 20 minutes	3 seconds to 15 minutes	Over 3 minutes is not recommended to new audiences
Facebook Reels	No length restriction announced (Meta, June 2025)	3 to 90 seconds	None stated
TikTok	Hootsuite says 10 minutes; our earlier read of TikTok's creator tools page said 30	Up to 10 minutes, with each account's own cap of 3, 5, or 10	None stated
TikTok ads (in-feed)	Up to 10 minutes	Not applicable	Not applicable

If one file has to fit everything, 90 seconds is the ceiling. If Facebook is not on the list, 3 minutes is.

Safe zones in pixels

Each app draws a username, caption, and buttons over the bottom and right side of a vertical video, plus a header at the top. None of the platforms we checked publishes a safe zone for regular, unpaid posts. The published numbers below are for ads, which share the same full-screen players, so they are the closest official guide.

Meta: Instagram Reels ads

Meta's ads guide for Instagram Reels asks you to leave at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom, and 6% of each side free of text, logos, and other key elements. On a 1080 x 1920 frame that is:

Edge	Meta's guidance	Pixels at 1080 x 1920
Top	14%	269
Bottom	35%	672
Left	6%	65
Right	6%	65

That leaves a box 950 pixels wide and 979 pixels tall for anything that must stay readable.

Google: YouTube vertical video ads

Google's Ads Help page on square and vertical video includes a safe zone template for vertical video ads on YouTube, which can run in Shorts, drawn on a 1080 x 1920 frame. It marks:

Edge	Pixels at 1080 x 1920	Share of the frame
Top	288	15%
Bottom	672	35%
Left	48	4%
Right	192	18%

The right margin is the wide one. Google also notes that when a viewer interacts with the YouTube app below the video, the player can shrink a vertical video to as narrow as 1:1, cropping the top and bottom.

TikTok

TikTok's help page for in-feed ads says the safe zone depends on the video's shape, the length of the ad caption, and any extra formats such as anchors, and offers it only as downloadable template files. It gives no percentages or pixel values in the text, so there is no TikTok number to put in a table. Treat the combined box below as a starting point and check a test post on a phone, especially if your captions run long.

One box that clears Meta and Google

Take the larger margin from each edge:

Edge	Use	Source of the strictest value
Top	288 px	Google
Bottom	672 px	Both
Left	65 px	Meta
Right	192 px	Google

On a 1080 x 1920 frame, that leaves a safe box 823 pixels wide and 960 pixels tall, starting 65 pixels from the left and 288 from the top. Put captions you burn into the video, product names, prices, and faces inside it. Backgrounds and motion can run edge to edge.

Both companies agree on the bottom: 672 pixels, about a third of the frame. Burned-in subtitles placed at the very bottom of the video land inside that zone, so put them just above the line instead.

Covers and thumbnails

Platform	What to upload	Notes from the platform
Instagram reel cover (app)	420 x 654 pixels, about 1:1.55	You can't edit the cover after uploading
Instagram reel cover (API)	JPEG, 9:16 recommended, up to 8 MB	When the reel appears in the feed grid, Meta crops the cover to the middle square
YouTube Shorts thumbnail	9:16, 2160 x 3840 recommended, at least 640 pixels tall, JPG or PNG	Custom Shorts thumbnails are added in YouTube Studio on a computer and need a verified account
YouTube video thumbnail	16:9, 3840 x 2160 recommended, at least 640 pixels wide	A vertical video with a 16:9 custom thumbnail gets an automatic 4:5 thumbnail on the home, Explore, and subscription pages

The Instagram grid crop is the one to design for. On a 1080 x 1920 cover, the middle square runs from 420 to 1,500 pixels down. Keep the title of the cover inside that band, or it will be cut off on your profile.

YouTube's thumbnail size limit depends on where you upload: 2 MB from a phone, 50 MB from a computer.

File and encoding

	Instagram Reels (API)	Facebook Reels (API)	TikTok ads (in-feed)
Container	MOV or MP4	MP4 recommended	MP4, MOV, MPEG, 3GP, AVI
Video codec	H.264 or HEVC	H.264 or H.265 (VP9 and AV1 also supported)	Not stated
Audio	AAC, up to 48 kHz, 128 kbps	AAC Low Complexity, 48 kHz, stereo, 128 kbps or more	Not stated
File size	300 MB at most	Not stated	500 MB at most
Bitrate	25 Mbps at most	Not stated	516 kbps or more

The Instagram API's 300 MB cap is the tightest file limit here. At 25 Mbps a minute of video is about 188 MB, so a two-minute reel needs a lower bitrate to fit.

Check the specs before you schedule in eksis

eksis publishes the file you upload as it is. It does not resize, re-encode, or crop, so the numbers above are the ones your export has to meet. What eksis does is check each destination against its own rules before it lets you schedule:

Instagram Reels: vertical, between 1:2 and 9:16, and 3 seconds to 15 minutes.
Facebook Reels: 3 to 90 seconds, between 1:2 and 9:16.
YouTube Short: three minutes or less and not wider than it is tall. The Short option is greyed out otherwise, and eksis adds #Shorts to the description.
TikTok video: up to 10 minutes, and at publish time the account's own cap.

To use it, click Create post, pick your accounts, add the video, and set Content type on each account's tab. A problem shows as an error with Fix next to it, and the post cannot be scheduled until it is solved. The preview draws each network's own layout, fold point, and media ratio. It is close rather than pixel-exact, so treat it as a check on cropping and caption length, and use the safe box above for overlay text.

For the thumbnail on YouTube, the YouTube tab offers Pick a frame from the video or an uploaded JPG or PNG at least 640 px wide. Then click Edit next to Publish time and Schedule.

Sending one video to Reels, Shorts, TikTok, and Facebook means four accounts, which needs Starter ($4 a month for up to 20 accounts); Free connects one. See plans, or the Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook integrations. For still images, our social media image sizes guide is the companion to this page, and how long Instagram Reels can be goes deeper on reel length.

Sources

All were read on October 24, 2026. The TikTok API limits come from our vertical video guide, which read TikTok's developer documentation on October 21, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

What size should a Reel, Short, or TikTok be?

1080 x 1920 pixels at 9:16. Meta recommends that size for Facebook Reels, it clears the minimums Instagram and TikTok list, and it stays under the 1,920-pixel width limit of Instagram's API.

What is the safe zone for Instagram Reels?

Meta's ads guide says to keep at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom, and 6% of each side free of text and logos. On a 1080 x 1920 frame that is 269 pixels at the top, 672 at the bottom, and 65 on each side.

What is the safe zone for YouTube Shorts?

Google's template for vertical video ads on YouTube, drawn at 1080 x 1920, keeps 288 pixels clear at the top, 672 at the bottom, 48 on the left, and 192 on the right. Google publishes it for ads; we found no separate figure for regular Shorts.

Does TikTok publish safe zone dimensions?

Only as downloadable template files for ads. TikTok says the safe zone depends on the video's shape, the caption length, and any extra formats, and its help page gives no pixel values in text.

What is the longest video that works on all of them?

Ninety seconds if Facebook Reels is included, because Meta's Reels publishing API stops there. Without Facebook, three minutes covers YouTube Shorts and stays within Instagram's recommendation threshold.

Shorts, Reels, and TikTok video specs in 2026: sizes, lengths, and caption safe zones

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