[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":556},["ShallowReactive",2],{"\u002Fblog\u002Finstagram-reels-dimensions":3,"related-\u002Fblog\u002Finstagram-reels-dimensions":535},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"canonical":516,"date":517,"description":518,"draft":519,"extension":520,"hubLinks":521,"image":522,"leadCtaHref":516,"leadCtaLabel":516,"leadCtaText":516,"listed":523,"meta":524,"moneyPage":375,"moneyPageAnchor":376,"navigation":523,"path":525,"readTime":526,"seo":527,"stem":528,"tags":529,"updated":516,"__hash__":534},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Finstagram-reels-dimensions.md","Instagram Reels Dimensions in 2026: Size, Crops, Safe Zone",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":495},"minimark",[9,13,16,21,24,76,79,82,85,89,92,168,171,174,177,181,184,187,245,252,255,258,261,265,268,271,318,325,328,331,334,337,341,344,347,350,353,356,360,363,366,369,383,387,390,393,401,414,418,423,426,430,433,437,440,444,447,451,454,458,461,465],[10,11,12],"p",{},"Every guide answers this with one number and stops. 1080 by 1920. That number is correct and on its own it is nearly useless, because Instagram takes the file you export and crops it four separate ways before a stranger ever sees it.",[10,14,15],{},"Instagram Reels dimensions are only worth knowing in terms of what survives those crops. This covers the specs Meta publishes, the much larger set it does not, the exact rectangle that stays visible everywhere, and where to put burned in subtitles so the caption bar never swallows the punchline.",[17,18,20],"h2",{"id":19},"what-instagram-reels-dimensions-meta-actually-publishes","What Instagram Reels dimensions Meta actually publishes",[10,22,23],{},"Meta's help centre page on reel size and aspect ratios is four short sections long. This is all of it that concerns pixels:",[25,26,27,40],"table",{},[28,29,30],"thead",{},[31,32,33,37],"tr",{},[34,35,36],"th",{},"Spec",[34,38,39],{},"What Instagram states",[41,42,43,52,60,68],"tbody",{},[31,44,45,49],{},[46,47,48],"td",{},"Aspect ratio",[46,50,51],{},"anything between 1.91:1 and 9:16",[31,53,54,57],{},[46,55,56],{},"Minimum frame rate",[46,58,59],{},"30 fps",[31,61,62,65],{},[46,63,64],{},"Minimum resolution",[46,66,67],{},"720 pixels",[31,69,70,73],{},[46,71,72],{},"Cover photo",[46,74,75],{},"420 by 654 pixels, a 1:1.55 ratio",[10,77,78],{},"Notice what is missing. No recommended resolution, no safe zone, no file size cap, no codec, no mention of the crops. Meta publishes a floor and a shape, and leaves everything else to the internet.",[10,80,81],{},"The 1080 by 1920 everyone quotes is not in there. It is the creator convention, and it is the right one: it is the same 9:16 shape at double the published minimum, it is the default canvas in CapCut, Premiere and every template you will find, and Instagram re-encodes aggressively enough that giving it 1080 pixels of width rather than 720 is the cheapest quality win available.",[10,83,84],{},"My view on the 1.91:1 end of that range: ignore it exists. A landscape Reel plays as a letterboxed strip in the middle of a phone screen, competing against clips that fill the glass. The ratio is permitted. It is not viable.",[17,86,88],{"id":87},"your-reel-is-one-file-cropped-four-ways","Your Reel is one file cropped four ways",[10,90,91],{},"This is the part the spec sheets skip, and the only reason reel dimensions are confusing at all. You upload one 1080 by 1920 file. Instagram shows it in four places and crops from the centre each time.",[25,93,94,110],{},[28,95,96],{},[31,97,98,101,104,107],{},[34,99,100],{},"Where it appears",[34,102,103],{},"Shape",[34,105,106],{},"Height kept from 1920",[34,108,109],{},"Cut from each end",[41,111,112,126,140,154],{},[31,113,114,117,120,123],{},[46,115,116],{},"Reels player and Reels tab",[46,118,119],{},"9:16",[46,121,122],{},"1920",[46,124,125],{},"0",[31,127,128,131,134,137],{},[46,129,130],{},"Profile grid on mobile",[46,132,133],{},"3:4",[46,135,136],{},"1440",[46,138,139],{},"240 px",[31,141,142,145,148,151],{},[46,143,144],{},"Main feed preview",[46,146,147],{},"4:5",[46,149,150],{},"1350",[46,152,153],{},"285 px",[31,155,156,159,162,165],{},[46,157,158],{},"Desktop web grid",[46,160,161],{},"often still 1:1",[46,163,164],{},"1080",[46,166,167],{},"420 px",[10,169,170],{},"The profile grid row is the one that catches people, because it changed. Instagram replaced the square 1:1 grid with a taller 3:4 grid in January 2025. Adam Mosseri announced it in a Story, acknowledged it would be \"a bit of a pain\", and argued the transition was worth it because most uploads are vertical now and \"it just is a bummer to overly crop them.\"",[10,172,173],{},"That was 21 months ago, and page one of this search still contains guides telling you to design your cover as a 1080 by 1080 square so it fits the grid. It does not fit the grid. There is no square grid on mobile any more. YouTube is no better: one of the top explainers for these specs is five years old and still collecting views.",[10,175,176],{},"The arithmetic is simple. The tightest of the four crops keeps the middle 1350 pixels, so anything in the top 285 or the bottom 285 of your frame exists in the Reels player and nowhere else.",[17,178,180],{"id":179},"instagram-reels-size-and-the-safe-zone-nobody-agrees-on","Instagram reels size and the safe zone nobody agrees on",[10,182,183],{},"Cropping is only half the problem. Instagram also draws its own interface on top of the playing video: your handle and follow button near the top, the caption, audio ticker and progress bar along the bottom, and the action rail down the right.",[10,185,186],{},"Ask the internet how much room that interface needs and you get this:",[25,188,189,199],{},[28,190,191],{},[31,192,193,196],{},[34,194,195],{},"Source",[34,197,198],{},"Bottom reserved on a 1080 by 1920 frame",[41,200,201,209,217,225,232],{},[31,202,203,206],{},[46,204,205],{},"The page currently ranking first for this query",[46,207,208],{},"250 px",[31,210,211,214],{},[46,212,213],{},"A widely copied 2026 specs guide",[46,215,216],{},"340 px",[31,218,219,222],{},[46,220,221],{},"Another",[46,223,224],{},"350 px",[31,226,227,229],{},[46,228,221],{},[46,230,231],{},"about 400 px",[31,233,234,240],{},[46,235,236],{},[237,238,239],"strong",{},"Meta, for Reels ads",[46,241,242],{},[237,243,244],{},"672 px",[10,246,247,248,251],{},"A spread of 250 to 672 pixels for the same band. They cannot all be right, and the reason they disagree is that ",[237,249,250],{},"Meta has never published a safe zone for organic Reels."," Not a vague one. None. The only safe zone Meta documents is in its ads guide, it is expressed as percentages rather than pixels, and it reads: keep at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side clear of text, logos and other key creative elements. On a 1080 by 1920 canvas that converts to 269 pixels at the top, 672 at the bottom and 65 on each side. If your ad carries a disclaimer, the bottom requirement becomes 40%.",[10,253,254],{},"Every organic number in circulation is somebody's screenshot measurement, repeated until it looked official. The 250 figure is not even an honest rounding of Meta's own percentage: 14% of 1920 is 269.",[10,256,257],{},"So use the ads number. An organic Reel has no call to action button, which makes 35% slightly generous, and generous is the correct direction to be wrong in. You lose nothing by holding the line 100 pixels higher than you strictly needed. You lose the hook if you do not.",[10,259,260],{},"The sides deserve more attention than they get. On the most watched video for this query, a creator reports in the comments that Instagram crops 5 to 10% off each side of a Reel on tap. On a 1080 wide frame that is 54 to 108 pixels, which brackets Meta's published 65.",[17,262,264],{"id":263},"the-rectangle-that-survives-every-surface","The rectangle that survives every surface",[10,266,267],{},"Put the crops and the safe zone together and you get one box. This is the arithmetic nobody on this SERP does, so here it is in full on a 1080 by 1920 canvas.",[10,269,270],{},"Vertically, the top edge is set by the feed crop at 285 pixels, which is tighter than Meta's 269. The bottom edge is set by Meta's safe zone at 672 pixels up from the base, which is far tighter than the 285 the crop takes. Horizontally, 65 pixels come off each side.",[25,272,273,286],{},[28,274,275],{},[31,276,277,280,283],{},[34,278,279],{},"Edge",[34,281,282],{},"Clear this much",[34,284,285],{},"Set by",[41,287,288,298,308],{},[31,289,290,293,295],{},[46,291,292],{},"Top",[46,294,153],{},[46,296,297],{},"the 4:5 feed crop",[31,299,300,303,305],{},[46,301,302],{},"Bottom",[46,304,244],{},[46,306,307],{},"Meta's ads safe zone",[31,309,310,313,316],{},[46,311,312],{},"Left and right",[46,314,315],{},"65 px each",[46,317,307],{},[10,319,320,321,324],{},"What is left is ",[237,322,323],{},"950 by 963 pixels",". That is 44% of the file you exported. Less than half your canvas is guaranteed to be both uncropped and uncovered, which is the real answer to a question about Instagram Reels dimensions and the one no spec table gives you.",[10,326,327],{},"Two things follow, and the second one is the useful one.",[10,329,330],{},"The safe box is not in the middle of your frame. Its centre sits about 40% down, not 50%, because the bottom band is two and a half times deeper than the top one. Centre your title text in your editor and it lands below the safe zone's midpoint, drifting toward the caption bar rather than away from it.",[10,332,333],{},"And the lower third is dead. Television taught everyone to put subtitles around 75% down the frame. On a 1080 by 1920 Reel that is pixel 1440, which is 192 pixels inside the band where Instagram draws the caption, the audio ticker and the progress bar. It survives every crop and gets covered anyway. This is the single most common failure in faceless content, because narrated formats carry burned in captions on every frame, and the default caption position in most editors is exactly where Instagram parks its own interface.",[10,335,336],{},"Put subtitles at roughly 40% down the frame. They will look strangely high in your preview window. They will be legible on a phone.",[17,338,340],{"id":339},"instagram-reel-cover-size-and-why-metas-own-number-fits-nothing","Instagram reel cover size, and why Meta's own number fits nothing",[10,342,343],{},"The cover is a separate file with a separate set of problems. Instagram stores it at 1080 by 1920 and then crops it to the same three shapes the video gets: full 9:16 in the Reels tab, 4:5 in the feed, 3:4 on the profile grid.",[10,345,346],{},"Meta's published recommendation for Instagram reel cover dimensions is 420 by 654 pixels. Work out the ratio and it comes to roughly 2:3. The cover is displayed at 9:16, 4:5 and 3:4. Meta's own recommended cover size matches none of them, and at 420 pixels wide it is under half the width the grid renders a tile at. The same help page adds a detail worth more than the number: you cannot edit a cover after the Reel is published. Get it wrong and the fix is deleting the post.",[10,348,349],{},"Design covers at 1080 by 1920 and keep everything legible inside the middle 1350 pixels, the tightest crop the cover faces.",[10,351,352],{},"There is a horizontal catch too, found by trial and error by a creator in r\u002FInstagramMarketing in November 2025. Building a three tile banner across a client's grid, they discovered Instagram also crops roughly 160 pixels off each side of a cover. Their workaround was to build artwork at 760 by 1350 and centre it on a 1080 by 1350 canvas. The top reply on that post is one line: \"This seems to change every few months.\" They are not wrong. A thread in r\u002Fphotography the same year has a creator whose iPhone 15 switched to the tall grid two weeks before their iPhone 14, then flipped back to square after the next update, once they had spent hours realigning templates.",[10,354,355],{},"Treat the cover as the one thing you check on a real phone before posting. Instagram shows the live grid crop on the cover selection screen. Two seconds of looking at it is the entire quality control this format needs.",[17,357,359],{"id":358},"export-settings-that-survive-the-compression","Export settings that survive the compression",[10,361,362],{},"Instagram Reels dimensions are the easy half of an export preset. The settings next to them are where quality leaks, which is why \"should Reels be 4K or 1080p\" turns up in People Also Ask on this query. The honest answer is that it barely matters.",[10,364,365],{},"Instagram re-encodes everything on upload. A 2160 by 3840 master just gives it four times as many pixels to throw away and a longer upload, and the Reel still plays back at phone resolution. Export at 1080 by 1920 with H.264, 30 fps and sRGB colour, and spend the effort on bitrate instead. Thin white text on a busy background is what compression destroys, not resolution. Heavy strokes, solid backing plates and high contrast caption styling survive it.",[10,367,368],{},"One setting is worth changing today, because almost nobody knows it exists. Instagram defaults to a lower upload quality to save bandwidth. Open your profile, go to the menu, and turn on the option to always upload at the highest quality. Meta documents it on the same help page as the dimensions and notes only that uploads take longer.",[10,370,371,372,377,378,382],{},"If you are batching Reels with a ",[373,374,376],"a",{"href":375},"\u002Ffaceless-reels-generator","faceless reels generator",", set the canvas and the caption position once at the template level rather than fixing frames afterwards. A 40 second narrated clip has subtitles on roughly every frame, so a caption baseline 300 pixels too low is not one mistake, it is the whole video. The same logic applies across platforms, which is why the ",[373,379,381],{"href":380},"\u002Fblog\u002Fyoutube-shorts-aspect-ratio","9:16 aspect ratio rules"," are worth getting right once rather than per channel.",[17,384,386],{"id":385},"facebook-reel-size-runs-on-different-rules","Facebook reel size runs on different rules",[10,388,389],{},"One export, two platforms, two sets of behaviour. Meta renamed Facebook's Videos tab to the Reels tab in June 2025, made every new Facebook video post as a Reel, and its help centre now states that Facebook Reels \"can be any length or orientation.\"",[10,391,392],{},"So Facebook reel size is genuinely permissive where Instagram is not. The safe zone does not relax, though. Meta publishes the same top, bottom and side guidance for Facebook Reels ads, so the same 950 by 963 box applies if you cross post the same file.",[10,394,395,396,400],{},"The rule that does change is duration, and it bites automated workflows. Instagram's publishing API accepts 3 to 90 seconds and nothing else, which is covered in detail in the guide on ",[373,397,399],{"href":398},"\u002Fblog\u002Finstagram-reels-length","how long Instagram Reels can be",". A scheduler will reject a 2 minute file that the Instagram app would have accepted happily.",[10,402,403,404,408,409,413],{},"Export once at 1080 by 1920 and the shape works for Reels, YouTube Shorts and TikTok together. The safe zones do not transfer as cleanly. TikTok draws its action rail wider and lower, so a caption sitting clear on Reels can collide with it. Worth checking if you already run ",[373,405,407],{"href":406},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-make-faceless-tiktok-videos","faceless TikTok videos"," off the same renders. On a ",[373,410,412],{"href":411},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-create-a-faceless-instagram-account","faceless Instagram account"," the cover matters more than it does anywhere else, because the grid is the only page a potential follower browses before deciding.",[17,415,417],{"id":416},"faq","FAQ",[419,420,422],"h3",{"id":421},"is-an-instagram-reel-45-or-916","Is an Instagram Reel 4:5 or 9:16?",[10,424,425],{},"Both, depending on where someone sees it. You upload 9:16 at 1080 by 1920, which is what plays in the Reels tab. The main feed shows a 4:5 preview of that same file, cropped from the centre, which removes 285 pixels from the top and 285 from the bottom. Design at 9:16 and keep anything that has to be read inside the middle 1350 pixels.",[419,427,429],{"id":428},"are-reels-1920x1080","Are Reels 1920x1080?",[10,431,432],{},"No, that is the number the wrong way round. 1920 by 1080 is landscape. Reels are 1080 wide by 1920 tall. Instagram accepts a landscape upload, since the published range runs to 1.91:1, but it plays letterboxed and loses to anything that fills the screen.",[419,434,436],{"id":435},"is-the-instagram-grid-45-or-34","Is the Instagram grid 4:5 or 3:4?",[10,438,439],{},"The mobile profile grid is 3:4, which is 1080 by 1440. Instagram moved it off the square 1:1 tile in January 2025. The 4:5 ratio is the feed preview and the recommended shape for portrait feed photos, which is why the two numbers get mixed up constantly. Desktop web still renders squares on many accounts, so do not design for one surface alone.",[419,441,443],{"id":442},"should-reels-be-4k-or-1080p","Should Reels be 4K or 1080p?",[10,445,446],{},"1080p. Instagram re-encodes every upload, so a 4K master mostly buys you a slower upload. The exception is Reels ads, where Meta's ads guide recommends 1440 by 2560. For organic posting, export 1080 by 1920 and turn on the highest quality upload setting in the app, which does more for sharpness than resolution does.",[419,448,450],{"id":449},"what-is-the-recommended-video-size-for-instagram-in-2026","What is the recommended video size for Instagram in 2026?",[10,452,453],{},"1080 by 1920 at 9:16 for Reels, Stories and anything vertical. 1080 by 1350 at 4:5 for portrait feed posts. Meta's only published floor is 720 pixels and 30 fps, so 1080 by 1920 clears it while matching the canvas every editing template defaults to.",[419,455,457],{"id":456},"why-does-my-reel-cover-keep-getting-cropped-on-my-profile","Why does my Reel cover keep getting cropped on my profile?",[10,459,460],{},"Because the grid tile is 3:4 and your cover is 9:16, so Instagram takes 240 pixels off the top and bottom to fit. Creators also report around 160 pixels coming off each side. Keep faces and titles central, and check the grid preview on the cover selection screen before you publish, because covers cannot be changed afterwards.",[17,462,464],{"id":463},"continue-reading","Continue reading",[466,467,468,474,479,484,489],"ul",{},[469,470,471],"li",{},[373,472,473],{"href":398},"How long Instagram Reels can be",[469,475,476],{},[373,477,478],{"href":411},"How to create a faceless Instagram account",[469,480,481],{},[373,482,483],{"href":380},"YouTube Shorts aspect ratio",[469,485,486],{},[373,487,488],{"href":406},"How to make faceless TikTok videos",[469,490,491],{},[373,492,494],{"href":493},"\u002Fblog\u002Fyoutube-shorts-length-guide","YouTube Shorts length guide",{"title":496,"searchDepth":497,"depth":497,"links":498},"",2,[499,500,501,502,503,504,505,506,515],{"id":19,"depth":497,"text":20},{"id":87,"depth":497,"text":88},{"id":179,"depth":497,"text":180},{"id":263,"depth":497,"text":264},{"id":339,"depth":497,"text":340},{"id":358,"depth":497,"text":359},{"id":385,"depth":497,"text":386},{"id":416,"depth":497,"text":417,"children":507},[508,510,511,512,513,514],{"id":421,"depth":509,"text":422},3,{"id":428,"depth":509,"text":429},{"id":435,"depth":509,"text":436},{"id":442,"depth":509,"text":443},{"id":449,"depth":509,"text":450},{"id":456,"depth":509,"text":457},{"id":463,"depth":497,"text":464},null,"2026-10-04T00:00:00.000Z","Instagram Reels dimensions are 1080 by 1920, then Instagram crops that file four ways. Here is the rectangle that survives all of them, with the numbers.",false,"md",[375,398,411,380],"\u002Fblog\u002Finstagram-reels-dimensions\u002Fhero.webp",true,{},"\u002Fblog\u002Finstagram-reels-dimensions",13,{"title":5,"description":518},"blog\u002Finstagram-reels-dimensions",[530,531,532,533],"instagram reels dimensions","instagram reels size","faceless reels","instagram reels","RO157X4SBe829N-gvlPxsEakA8my3QNeGBr9VorqolE",[536,541,546,551],{"path":537,"title":538,"description":539,"image":540},"\u002Fblog\u002Fyoutube-automation-tools","YouTube automation tools in 2026, priced and compared","The YouTube automation tools worth paying for in 2026, with real October prices, what each one actually automates, and what a 3 video a week channel costs.","\u002Fautoposting.png",{"path":542,"title":543,"description":544,"image":545},"\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-make-a-stickman-animation","How to Make a Stickman Animation (by Hand vs with AI)","How to make a stickman animation in 2026: frame by frame in Pivot Animator or FlipaClip, or with AI. Honest time and cost for each, and which suits your goal.","\u002Fblog\u002Fhow-to-make-a-stickman-animation\u002Fhero.webp",{"path":547,"title":548,"description":549,"image":550},"\u002Fblog\u002Fveed-alternatives","VEED Alternatives: The Monthly Price Is Actually $25","VEED's pricing card shows about $12 a month. That figure is the year divided by 12. Creator is $25 monthly, and a free export keeps the watermark.","\u002Fblog\u002Fveed-alternatives\u002Fhero.webp",{"path":552,"title":553,"description":554,"image":555},"\u002Fblog\u002Fnarakeet-alternatives","Narakeet Alternatives: The Real Cost Per Minute of Voiceover","Narakeet sells voiceover minutes outright from 20 cents and they never expire. We priced every pack per minute and read the licence behind the free plan.","\u002Fblog\u002Fnarakeet-alternatives\u002Fhero.webp",1792976582767]