Why Every Safe-Zone Guide Gives Different Numbers
Bottom margins for the same 1080×1920 video are quoted from about 190 px to 672 px. Here is where each kind of number comes from, and when to use it.
In this article
Look up the safe zone for a 1080 × 1920 Reel or Short and you will find bottom margins anywhere from about 190 px to 672 px. They are not all wrong. Most describe a different situation: ads instead of organic posts, a different caption state, another phone, or a different way of measuring. This article sorts them out, using our own measurements as examples.
By Softphoria. Our measurements were last verified in October 2026; the published figures below were checked on 8 October 2026.
The spread, in one table
| Source type | Source | Bottom margin (1080 × 1920) |
|---|---|---|
| Published platform guidance (ads) | Google Ads help: vertical video ads (in-stream, in-feed and Shorts) | 672 px (reference image: 288 px top, 672 px bottom, 48 px left, 192 px right) |
| Published platform guidance (ads) | Meta Ads Guide: Instagram Reels ads | 35% of the height, which is 672 px (also 14% top, 6% each side) |
| Third-party figures | Safe-zone tools and guides for organic Reels | 310 px to 480 px in the guides we reviewed on 8 October 2026, each with its own method and date |
| Softphoria observed | Instagram Reels, caption collapsed / opened | 220 px / 750 px (opened: Nokia 6.1 Plus only) |
| Softphoria observed | YouTube Shorts | 190 px |
Our values are observed measurements, not official Instagram or YouTube specifications. The platform figures are official, but for ads.
Organic interface vs advertising guidance
Both 672 px figures come from ad guidance. An ad carries interface an organic post does not, such as a call-to-action button, and ad guidance has to cover several placements at once. Google's vertical-video image applies to in-stream, in-feed and Shorts ads; Meta's figure is for Reels ads. That makes them deliberately cautious. They are the right numbers for ads, and a safe upper bound for anyone who wants one rule. They are larger than what we observed on ordinary posts: 220 px on Reels and 190 px on Shorts.
Different interface states
The same app covers different areas depending on what the viewer does. On Instagram, a collapsed caption covered the bottom 220 px; when a viewer opened a long caption, it covered up to 750 px on the Nokia 6.1 Plus. Switching auto-captions on adds another band: y 1590 to y 1700 on Reels (iPhone 14 Plus) and y 260 to y 380 on Shorts. A guide that measures one state will disagree with a guide that measures another.
Caption length
Longer captions take more room. In our measurements, a medium-length Instagram caption on the Nokia stretched the caption row across the full width of the frame, where a short one left the bottom-right corner to the audio tile. Guides measured with a long caption will quote larger margins than guides measured with a short one.
Device differences
Phones differ. Instagram's top bar measured 190 px on our iPhone 14 Plus but 90 px on the Nokia 6.1 Plus. YouTube's was 180 px on the iPhone and 160 px on the Samsung Galaxy A20s. Taller screens can also crop the sides of a 9:16 video: on the iPhone, Instagram cut about 54 px from the left edge. We publish the larger value of our test phones, so a single-phone measurement can easily come out smaller.
App versions and platform updates
Apps change. In our tests, the iPhone's Instagram version shrank the video when a caption was opened, while the Android version covered it. A guide measured on an older or newer app can show a different layout. That is why every number should carry a date, and why we re-check ours quarterly or sooner when a visible change is reported.
Account and interface experiments
Platforms test interface changes with some accounts before others, so two people on the same phone can see slightly different layouts. We have no first-hand measurement of an experiment, but it is one more reason to treat any safe-zone number as guidance and to check important posts in the app.
Measurement method
Numbers also differ because they are made differently:
Observed measurements: screenshots of real playback, measured on the frame (our method).
Ad templates and guides: official, but for ads and often rounded to a percentage.
"Largest possible interface" estimates: worst-case margins combining several states.
Percentage presets: convenient starting points that scale to any size, but not measurements.
Which number to use when
Running an ad: follow the platform's ad guidance.
Posting an organic Reel or Short: use measured margins as a practical guide, such as our Reels and Shorts pages.
Posting one video to both: use the combined Reels + Shorts safe area.
In every case: check your actual frames rather than comparing numbers. The Social Video Safe Zone Checker finds text and logos in your own video and shows what the interface covers. It runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
How we measured
We made calibration videos at 1080 × 1920, played them in the official Instagram and YouTube apps and took screenshots on an iPhone 14 Plus, a Nokia 6.1 Plus (Instagram) and a Samsung Galaxy A20s (YouTube). Each interface element's edges were measured on the frame and recorded to the nearest 10 px. Last verified: October 2026. These are observations, not official specifications, and interfaces can vary by device, app version, account configuration and interface experiments. TikTok is not covered: we have not measured it, and our checker shows it only as a labelled estimate.
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