Safe zone checker for Reels and Stories

Meta’s Ads Guide gives the same rule for Reels and Stories, image and video: keep the top 14 %, the bottom 35 % and 6 % on each side free of text, logos and prices. In pixels on the placement’s own frame, these are the numbers the checker draws.

Meta’s own Reels safe zone template (last updated June 2023) uses the same margins and also cuts out the bottom-right corner, where the like and share buttons sit: from y 1150, keep text left of x 852. The checker draws that corner on both Reels placements.

• Stories, 35 % or 20 %. A Meta help page and Meta’s 2023 Stories template still say 20 % at the bottom of a Story; the Ads Guide says 35 %. The checker draws the stricter one.
• Ads with a disclaimer need the bottom 40 % free (768 px on 1080×1920), per Meta’s help on text overlays in Stories and Reels.
• Tall phones crop the sides. On screens taller than 9:16, Meta may zoom in and cut off what lies outside the safe zone, or add black bars. The “Instagram Reels on iPhone” preview shows what we measured on a 6.3-inch iPhone: the video fills the screen height and loses about 98 px on each side, more than the 6 % margin. Stories fit the width there and are not cropped.
• Feed (1:1 and 4:5) has no numbers from Meta, only the advice to keep the bottom and side edges free of key elements, so it is not in the checker.

Product catalog ads usually carry a square photo, which leaves the rest of a Reels or Stories screen to the background. Emberfeed renders an extra 4:5 and 9:16 image for every product in your feed from one template and tags it so Meta uses it in that placement. While you design the template, the editor and our MCP server draw the same safe zones as this page.