Videos · Glossary
What is a safe zone in vertical video?
A vertical video safe zone is the part of a 9:16 frame that platform interface never covers. The app draws its own controls over the video: the account row at the top, the caption and buttons at the bottom, icons down one side. Meta publishes the figures for Reels: keep the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% at each side clear of anything essential.
The video you export and the video somebody sees are not the same picture. The difference is a strip at the top, a deep band at the bottom and a column down one edge, and the bottom band is far deeper than most people expect.
Nuwan Madhusanka · Co-founder
4 min read · Published · Updated
| Placement | Top | Bottom | Sides | Where the figure comes from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meta Reels and Stories ads | 14% (269 px) | 35% (672 px) | 6% each side (65 px) | Published by Meta |
| TikTok | About 130 px | About 484 px | About 140 px on the right | Measured from TikTok's downloadable safe zone templates, which vary with caption length |
| Captions in this video builder | Nothing drawn at the top | Pill sits 120 px above the bottom edge | Up to 72% of the width | The builder's caption overlay |
What gets covered
Across the major vertical placements the pattern is the same: a band at the top for the account name and status, a deep band at the bottom for the caption text, the sound attribution and the call to action button, and a column of buttons down the right hand side. Meta is the one platform that publishes plain numbers, 14% top, 35% bottom and 6% on each side, which on a 1080 by 1920 frame is 269 pixels, 672 pixels and 65 pixels. TikTok publishes downloadable templates rather than numbers, because its bottom band grows with the length of the caption; measured on those templates, it covers roughly 130 pixels at the top, 484 at the bottom and 140 down the right. YouTube Shorts follows the same shape.
What to keep out of the bands
Anything that has to be read: the offer, the price, the date, the name, the call to action and the captions. Anything decorative can run to the edges, and should, because a full bleed background is what makes a vertical video feel native. The rule is simple to apply: if a viewer missing it would mean the video failed, it belongs between the top 14% and the bottom 35%, which leaves roughly the middle half of the frame. Designing to Meta's figures also clears TikTok's, so one conservative layout covers both.
Captions sit lower than the safe zone
Captions are the most common casualty, because the instinct is to put them near the bottom where film subtitles live. In the video builder, vertical captions are drawn as one dark pill whose bottom edge sits 120 pixels above the frame edge, which is inside the 672 pixel band Meta covers on a Reels ad. The pill has no position setting. For organic posts the overlap is usually small, because the platform's own caption is short. For a Reels ad with long primary text, the practical workaround is to switch captions off for the affected scenes in the voice dialog, where there is a toggle per scene, and carry the key words as on screen text placed in the middle of the frame instead. Meta does not add automatic captions to Reels ads, so something on screen has to carry the words.
A quick check before posting
Export the vertical cut and open it on a phone as a private post or a draft story. Look at the first frame of every scene against the real interface, with the longest caption you intend to use. Anything essential touched by the account row, the caption or the button column moves inward. Two minutes on a real device catches more than any overlay on a desktop screen, because it shows the actual video against the actual interface at the actual size.
Common mistakes
Placing the price or the call to action in the bottom third, where the platform's own button sits on top of it. Leaving a logo in the top corner, under the account name. Running long on screen sentences to the right edge, behind the like and share column. Letterboxing a landscape video so nothing is covered, which leaves a small picture floating in a black frame. And checking the layout on a desktop preview instead of a phone.
Questions people ask
How much of a 9:16 frame is safe for text?
On Meta's published figures, the band between 14% from the top and 35% from the bottom, with 6% kept clear at each side. On a 1080 by 1920 frame that is roughly 950 by 979 pixels in the middle. Everything essential fits there comfortably if each scene carries one idea rather than a paragraph.
Do safe zones differ between platforms?
Yes, in detail, and they change as apps are updated. TikTok's bottom band grows with the caption, and Shorts and Reels draw slightly different controls. The overlap is large enough that designing to Meta's published figures clears the others, which is what most teams do rather than exporting a separate cut for every app.
Does the safe zone apply to square or 4:5 feed videos?
Much less. A square or 4:5 video in a feed is surrounded by interface rather than covered by it, so the whole frame is normally visible. It is full screen vertical placements, where the video is the background for the app's controls, that need the safe zone treatment.
Can the caption position be moved in the video builder?
No. The caption pill is drawn at a fixed 120 pixels from the bottom of a vertical frame, centred and up to 72% of the width. What can be changed is whether captions show on each scene, through the per scene toggle in the voice dialog, which is on by default.
Should I letterbox a video to avoid the covered bands?
Rarely. A landscape clip shrunk into a vertical frame reads as repurposed rather than made for the feed, and the empty bars waste most of the screen. Moving essential content inward, and letting background footage run behind the interface, is almost always the better answer.
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Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .