What the overlay shows
Each platform lays its own overlay over an ad: the account name, the caption and the buttons. The safe zone is what that overlay leaves uncovered. The checker shades the bands the platform asks you to keep clear, shades any block it cuts out of a corner, and draws a dashed line around the clear area that is left. Text, a logo or the product inside the line stays visible; anything in the shading may sit under the platform's own overlay.
The shading is drawn at your file's own width and height, and the reading with it gives every band in your file's pixels, with the platform's percentage after it.
Why a safe zone is a percentage
A pixel figure is true at one canvas size only. Meta's Stories and Reels zone keeps 14% of the frame clear at the top: that is 358 px on a 1440 × 2560 frame and 269 px on a 1080 × 1920 one. Meta states its zone as percentages. TikTok and Google publish template files drawn at one size, and the /ad-specs pages store each as the percentages of that template, so it can be drawn at any size.
The zones
Placements that share one zone share one choice in the checker. Each is given as the platform states it, then in pixels on its /ad-specs frame.
- Facebook & Instagram · 9:16 — Stories & Reels & Feed (video)
- Keep 14% at the top, 35% at the bottom, 6% on each side, and the bottom 40% of the right-hand 21% clear. On the 1440 × 2560 frame that is 358 px at the top, 896 px at the bottom and 86 px on each side. Drawn on Facebook Stories (image), Facebook Reels (image), Facebook Reels (video), Instagram Feed (video), Instagram Stories (image), Instagram Stories (video), Instagram Reels (image) and Instagram Reels (video). Download as a template.
- TikTok · 9:16 — In-feed
- Keep 12.5% at the top, 34.4% at the bottom, 11.1% on each side, and the bottom 56.25% of the right-hand 27.8% clear. On the 720 × 1280 frame that is 160 px at the top, 440 px at the bottom and 80 px on each side. Drawn on TikTok In-feed (video). Download as a template.
- YouTube · 16:9 — In-stream & Bumper
- Keep 3.5% at the top, 35.8% at the bottom, 2% on the left and 8.4% on the right, and the top 16.9% of the left-hand 25.8% and the top 12.3% of the right-hand 24.8% clear. On the 1920 × 1080 frame that is 38 px at the top, 387 px at the bottom and 38 px on the left and 162 px on the right. Drawn on YouTube In-stream (video) and YouTube Bumper. Download as a template.
- YouTube · 9:16 — Shorts
- Keep 15% at the top, 35% at the bottom, 4.4% on the left and 17.8% on the right clear. On the 1080 × 1920 frame that is 288 px at the top, 672 px at the bottom and 48 px on the left and 192 px on the right. Drawn on YouTube Shorts. Download as a template.
- YouTube · 1:1 — Square video
- Keep 4.4% at the top, 36.1% at the bottom, 4.4% on the left and 9.4% on the right, and the top 9.7% of the right-hand 50.6% clear. On the 1080 × 1080 frame that is 48 px at the top, 390 px at the bottom and 48 px on the left and 101 px on the right. Drawn on YouTube Square video. Download as a template.
Meta's Stories and Reels zone
Meta's ads guide pages for Stories and Reels ask for 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side to be kept free of text, logos and other key elements. The diagram in Meta's help article on text overlays and the safe zone for ads on Facebook and Instagram (as of 2026-10-22) prints the same three figures and adds a corner: the bottom 40% of the right-hand 21% is kept clear too. The checker draws that block. Facebook Stories, Facebook Reels, Instagram Feed (video), Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels share the zone, so they are one choice.
TikTok's template
TikTok publishes its in-feed zone as template files, not as numbers on its help page. TikTok says it is determined by the dimension (vertical, horizontal, or square), ad caption length, and any additional formats used, and offers four template downloads: standard and with-anchor, each left-to-right and Arabic. The checker draws TikTok's standard safe-zone template: a vertical in-feed ad with no anchor. Check a file made with an anchor, or for Arabic, against TikTok's own download. The zone was measured from TikTok's standard in-feed safe-zone template (the In-Feed Standard download on its Auction In-Feed page), as of 2026-10-22, on its 720 × 1280 frame.
Google's overlays for YouTube
Google's video ad specs page links one transparent overlay per shape: the horizontal one for In-stream & Bumper, the vertical one for Shorts and the square one for Square video. The vertical overlay is the zone for Shorts as well; Google gives no Shorts-only zone. Google's files draw more than one horizontal shape; the checker draws the one its video ad specs page links. Google says overlays, calls to action and buttons "may appear in different places depending on the format, campaign type, and screen" — a reference, not a guarantee.
Why guides disagree
The Instagram Stories spec page sums it up: “Guides give pixel counts for this placement that disagree with each other: 250 px at the bottom, 150 at the top, 160, a range of “250 to 1248”. They disagree because they are conversions of a percentage at canvas sizes nobody states. Some trace back to Meta itself: its Stories pages printed “14% (250 pixels)” for the top margin into 2026, and a few still do.” The same is true of TikTok: “The pixel figures guides print disagree with each other, and the frame explains why. 160 px top and 80 px sides match TikTok's standard template, drawn on 720 × 1280 — at 1080 × 1920 the same template is 240 and 120 px.” Check the zone as a percentage drawn on your own file.
A file that isn't the zone's shape
Every zone here is drawn for one shape, the ratio on its choice: 9:16, 16:9, 1:1. Drop a file and the checker shows the zone nearest its shape — the one you picked, or one on its platform, when two are equally near. On a file of another shape it still draws the bands as percentages of it, and says how far the file is off, in percent and in pixels: the platform fits, crops or pads it to its own frame, so the bands can land that far from where they are drawn. Check the file's shape against each placement with the ad size checker.
Checking a video
A video plays muted on a loop under the overlay, so you can watch where captions, a product shot or an end card fall. Pause it, or drag the slider to any moment: the shading stays put while the picture moves under it.
When something sits in a band
Move it inward, or give the frame more room around it. If the picture has no room to give, Adapt in Terrads makes it in each platform's sizes and extends it with AI where a size needs more of it, so the subject can sit inside the line.