YouTube ad safe zone: what Google's templates say
Google's YouTube safe-zone templates, measured: on 9:16, 15% top, 35% bottom, 17.8% right; on 16:9, 35.8% bottom plus two top-corner blocks.
- Hristijan Jankulovski
- 10 min read
YouTube's ad safe zone is the area Google's diagrams mark red: keep your logo, product and text inside it to avoid the risk of them being covered by YouTube's overlays, calls to action and buttons. On vertical 9:16 video, keep text, logos and the product out of the top 15%, the bottom 35%, the left 4.4% and the right 17.8%. That is Google's one zone for vertical video wherever it runs: in-stream and Shorts, and in-feed in some campaign types. On horizontal 16:9 video, keep them out of the bottom 35.8%, the left 2%, the right 8.4% and the top 3.5%. Two blocks also cut into the top corners: 25.8% wide by 16.9% deep on the left, 24.8% by 12.3% on the right.
Google publishes them, with a square one, as three transparent PNG templates on its About video ad specs page. The pixel figures are in the tables below, and all three shapes are drawn to scale on our in-stream, bumper, Shorts and square video pages. Google's other files draw two more 16:9 shapes, and no Google page explains the difference.
What does Google say about the YouTube ad safe zone?
The section is headed "Universal safe zones for video ads on YouTube", and its text is two sentences:
Overlays, call-to-actions, and buttons may appear in different places depending on the format, campaign type, and screen.
Use these images as a reference to ensure important elements like your logo, product, supers, and others are within the red safe area to avoid risk of elements being covered within certain inventory or download transparent PNG templates for horizontal, vertical, and square videos.
("Supers" means on-screen text.) Five diagrams follow, all labeled in pixels: a vertical and a horizontal frame, and the same zones drawn on a TV, a tablet and a desktop screen. The three templates are gray overlays with a transparent hole, and the hole is the safe area.
Google's older PDFs, still on its servers, went further ("Approved for use across all screens, formats & campaign types"), then hedged it: "There are no guarantees that some elements may get cut off for some device models." The current page carries neither line.
What is the safe zone for YouTube Shorts and vertical ads?
| Edge | Pixels at 1080 × 1920 | Share of the frame |
|---|---|---|
| Top | 288 | 15% of the height |
| Bottom | 672 | 35% of the height |
| Left | 48 | 4.4% of the width |
| Right | 192 | 17.8% of the width |
That leaves an 840 × 960 px box: half the frame's height, set left of center.
Google uses this one zone for every vertical placement. Its page on square and vertical video shows the same diagram under "Safe zones for vertical video ads on YouTube" and says:
Vertical video ads may show up on in-stream, in-feed, and YouTube Shorts across mobile, desktop, or TV screens for Performance Max, App, and Demand Gen campaigns.
Not every campaign type shows vertical ads in-feed; the in-feed page has Google's wording on where vertical video does and doesn't serve. Google's Shorts ads page publishes no safe zone of its own, so a "Shorts safe zone" is this template. Our Shorts page draws it.
When a viewer scrolls through related content under the video, Google says "the video player can compress up to a 1:1 aspect ratio. This will crop the displayed video at the bottom and top". The page doesn't relate that crop to the safe zone.
What is YouTube's 16:9 safe zone?
The horizontal template is not a box. Two blocks cut into the top corners:
| Pixels at 1920 × 1080 | Share of the frame | |
|---|---|---|
| Top, between the corner blocks | 38 | 3.5% of the height |
| Bottom | 387 | 35.8% of the height |
| Left | 38 | 2% of the width |
| Right | 162 | 8.4% of the width |
| Top-left block (width × height) | 496 × 183 | 25.8% × 16.9% |
| Top-right block (width × height) | 476 × 133 | 24.8% × 12.3% |
The only band that is clear across the width is 1720 × 510 px, from 183 px below the top edge to 387 px above the bottom. Above it the clear area narrows: between 496 and 1757 px from the left edge up to 133 px from the top, then between 496 and 1443 px up to 38 px.
Google gives no zone of its own for bumpers or skippable ads; the page has one horizontal template, and the bumper page draws the same one.
Why do Google's 16:9 safe-zone templates disagree?
Google changed the diagram on its specs page between November 2023 and February 2024 and left the old files up, and its Demand Gen page links a template of its own. All figures are pixels at 1920 × 1080:
| Specs page | Demand Gen | Older stepped | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top, middle | 38 | 36 | 38 |
| Left | 38 | 38 | 38 |
| Right | 162 | 162 | 152 |
| Bottom | 387 | 387 | 143 to 337, stepped |
| Top-left block (width × height) | 496 × 183 | 496 × 183 | 352 × 166 |
| Top-right block (width × height) | 476 × 133 (diagram: 475) | 344 × 183 | 433 × 133 |
The Demand Gen template. Google's Demand Gen asset specifications page says "Creative teams and designers can download the following templates to help ensure their assets are aligned with our guidelines" and links a "Download Video Template" file. Its 16:9 frame, marked "Safezone", matches the specs page on the bottom, the sides and the top-left block. Its top margin is 36 px, and its top-right block is 344 px wide and 183 deep: narrower than the specs page's 476 × 133, and 50 px deeper. Google's server dates the file 11 August 2026, the latest date any of these files carries. Its 9:16 frame has the vertical template's margins exactly, and its other frames (1:1, 1080 × 720 and a 300 × 60 one) have no zone drawn. The page's video row, next to the template link, says "Check the video ad safe zones" and links the video ad specs page, and its image specs say the same for 9:16: "Safe zones for 9:16 images are similar to 9:16 videos. Check the video ad safe zones."
The stepped overlay. An Internet Archive capture of the specs page from 30 November 2023 shows a different horizontal diagram: smaller corner blocks, a 152 px right margin, and a bottom that steps: the diagram labels the left 856 px 377 px deep (the stepped PNG and both PDFs say 337), then 143, 190 and 309 px deep moving right. A capture from 22 February 2024 shows today's shape. The stepped shape is still served as a PNG template and in two PDFs on Google's servers, none of them linked from the current page. Their vertical zone is the same 288 / 672 / 48 / 192 px as today's.
Labels that don't match their files. There are three, across Google's files:
- The specs page's diagrams label the top-right block 475 px wide; the template is 476.
- The 2023 stepped diagram labels the bottom-left block 377 px deep; the stepped PNG and both PDFs say 337.
- The older PDF with a square frame labels its right margin 192 px; the square template it links for download leaves 101.
Google doesn't say which figure in each pair it meant. The in-stream page draws the specs page's template and names the other two shapes.
Is there a safe zone for square YouTube ads?
Yes, as a template only. The square PNG on the specs page, at 1080 × 1080:
| Edge | Pixels at 1080 × 1080 | Share of the frame |
|---|---|---|
| Top | 48 | 4.4% of the height |
| Bottom | 390 | 36.1% of the height |
| Left | 48 | 4.4% of the width |
| Right | 101 | 9.4% of the width |
| Top-right block (width × height) | 546 × 105 | 50.6% × 9.7% |
There's no square diagram on the page and the Demand Gen template's square frame draws no zone; our square video page draws this template to scale.
Which margin is for the skip button?
No Google page or file names the interface element behind any margin; the specs page says only "overlays, call-to-actions, and buttons". Google's Shorts ads page lists a "Right Hand Side (RHS) Panel" that "includes like, dislike, comment, and share buttons". The panel's name puts it on the right, but the page gives no pixel figure for it, so we don't label the margins either.
How does YouTube's safe zone compare with Meta and TikTok?
On vertical video, the bottom is where the three platforms nearly agree: 35% on YouTube's template, 35% on Meta (its percentages, page by page) and 34.4% on TikTok's standard template (TikTok's safe zone). The rest differs. YouTube's top is 15%, against Meta's 14% and TikTok's 12.5%. YouTube keeps 4.4% clear on the left and 17.8% on the right, for the full height of the clear area, and adds no corner block. Meta keeps 6% and TikTok 11.1% on each side, also full height, and each adds a block in the lower right on top of that: the bottom 40% of the right-hand 21% on Meta, the bottom 56.25% of the right-hand 27.8% on TikTok. The safe zone entry in our glossary has all three platforms on one page.
Laying out a YouTube video ad
- Download the template for your frame from Google's video ad specs page and lay it over your edit as a guide layer, or check the drawings on our in-stream, Shorts and square video pages. Google's templates are 1920 × 1080, 1080 × 1920 and 1080 × 1080; at another size of the same ratio, work from the percentages, or drop your export into the free safe zone checker, which draws the zone at your file's own size.
- Use one vertical layout for every vertical placement. There is no separate Shorts zone.
- On 16:9, check the top corners, not just the bottom. A logo in the top-left corner sits under the 496 × 183 px block.
- If the ad also runs in Demand Gen, keep one more strip clear. Laid over each other, the specs page's template covers everything the stepped overlay covers. The Demand Gen template adds one strip the specs page leaves clear: 182 × 50 px under the top-right block, 1576 to 1757 px from the left and 133 to 182 px from the top. Keep that empty too and a 16:9 layout clears all three. Google doesn't say this; it's what the files show.
Sources
- About video ad specs — Google Ads Help (accessed October 22, 2026)
- Use square and vertical video to engage mobile customers — Google Ads Help (accessed October 22, 2026)
- Demand Gen campaign creative: Asset specifications and guidelines — Google Ads Help (accessed October 22, 2026)
- YouTube Shorts ads: Asset specs and best practices — Google Ads Help (accessed October 22, 2026)
- Horizontal, vertical and square (accessed October 22, 2026)
- Demand Gen video template — Google (accessed October 22, 2026)
- Stepped horizontal template
- About video ad specs, Internet Archive capture of 30 November 2023 and of 22 February 2024 — Google Ads Help (accessed October 22, 2026)
Google changes these files without notice, so open the specs page before relying on any figure above.
Terrads composes each placement for its own frame instead of cropping one master.