Safe zones for TikTok, Reels and Shorts: where text gets covered (2026)

On a 1080×1920 vertical video, keep text and faces between roughly 211 and 1,400 pixels from the top and at least 175 pixels away from the right edge. That rectangle stays clear of the buttons, captions and tabs that TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts draw over your video — and anything outside it may be covered on at least one of them.

Why a perfect export still hides your text

A vertical video fills the whole phone screen, and the app then draws its own interface on top of it. Your hook line, a price, a call to action or a face placed near the edges is uploaded perfectly and then sits under a caption or a heart icon. No spec sheet catches this, because the file is fine. It only shows on the finished post.

Each app covers the frame differently, so a layout that works on Shorts can still lose its bottom line on TikTok.

How much each app covers

We measured the covered areas on a 9:16 frame by hand in September 2026. Values are percentages of the frame; the pixel figures are for 1080×1920.

The pattern is the same on all three apps — tabs on top, text at the bottom, buttons on the right — but the sizes differ. TikTok's bottom band is the tallest because the caption, the sound label and the navigation bar stack up. YouTube's bottom band is the shortest, but its button column reaches further down.

One safe area for all three

If the same video goes to TikTok, Reels and Shorts, combine the strictest edge from each app:

That leaves a box of about 907×1,191 pixels — most of the frame, just not the parts people instinctively use for captions and calls to action.

Where to put what

• Hook text: in the upper third, just below the top band (around 220–600 px from the top). It's the first thing people read and nothing covers it.

• Burned-in subtitles: in the middle, not at the bottom where film subtitles usually go. Around 55–70% of the height keeps them above every app's caption band.

• Faces and products: centred, slightly above the middle.

• Calls to action: say them, or put them in the post caption. A "link in bio" sticker in the bottom corner is exactly where TikTok's caption sits.

• Text in the bottom quarter of the frame.

• Logos or prices on the right edge at mid-height.

• A thin title strip at the very top — it lands under the tabs.

Why these numbers are approximate

The covered areas aren't published as data by the apps for organic posts, and they move. A new app version can rearrange buttons, phones with a notch or a tall navigation bar show a different crop, and longer captions grow the bottom band. Treat the safe area as "don't put text here", not as pixel-perfect. Leave a little margin, and look at the first post on a real phone.

The safe zone checker lays these areas over your own frame or video in the browser, per app or for all three at once. In Uplonic, the video preview shows the same overlay on vertical videos before you schedule.

Safe zones are one part of the export

The rest — resolution, length, codecs and file size per network — is in our social media video specs overview, with the deep dives for TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts.