mimicGet started

Safe Zone Checker

Drop in a frame and see what TikTok, Reels and Shorts cover with buttons and captions. The zones use each platform's published numbers, and your file never leaves your device.

Your frame shows here
Safe on all

Your frame

A screenshot, a thumbnail or the video itself

Opens on your device. Your file never leaves it.

Platforms
  • TikTok: TikTok's In-Feed Standard safe zone file (720×1280): 160 px top, 440 px bottom, 80 px each side, and a 120 px column on the right for the buttons, from 720 px above the bottom.
  • Instagram Reels: Meta's Reels ads guide: leave at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side free of text and logos.
  • YouTube Shorts: Google's safe zone for vertical video ads on YouTube (1080×1920): 288 px top, 672 px bottom, 48 px left, 192 px right.

Dashed box = safe area per platform. All three numbers are the platforms' published guidance for ads; organic posts have the same kind of buttons and caption in the same places, but a long caption can reach higher.

Free, no sign-up. Runs in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Let Mimic place the text.

Captions, hooks and cards kept inside every app's safe zone and off your face, automatically.

Get started

How to check your safe zones

  1. 1

    Pick a frame

    A screenshot, a thumbnail, or the video itself. For a video, scrub to the frame with the most text.

  2. 2

    Choose platforms

    Turn on the ones you post to. Each draws its own dashed safe box.

  3. 3

    Read the white box

    With several on, the white outline is the area that clears every one of them.

  4. 4

    Move what's outside

    Hooks, captions, prices and logos go inside the box. Faces can sit anywhere.

Where the numbers come from

All three platforms publish safe zones for ads, not for organic posts. Organic posts carry the same kind of UI in the same places: the like, comment and share column on the right, the handle and caption at the bottom, and tabs at the top. So the ad guidance is the best published reference for both.

TikTok publishes its zones as a downloadable template rather than numbers in text. We measured TikTok's In-Feed Standard template (720×1280) directly. Meta gives percentages. Google gives pixels on a 1080×1920 frame.

PlatformTopBottomLeftRight
TikTok (720×1280)160 px (12.5%)440 px (34.4%)80 px (11.1%)80 px, plus a 120 px button column from 720 px up
Instagram Reels14%35%6%6%
YouTube Shorts (1080×1920)288 px (15%)672 px (35%)48 px (4.4%)192 px (17.8%)

TikTok says the safe area shrinks as the ad caption gets longer; organic captions behave the same way, so leave extra room above the bottom zone if you write long captions.

The area that's safe everywhere

Overlap all three and the common box on a 1080×1920 frame runs from 288 px to 1,248 px down, and from 120 px to 780 px across: 660×960 px. The right edge is where TikTok's button column starts; above the middle of the frame TikTok leaves more width, up to 960 px across.

In practice: put the hook in the upper third, keep captions in the middle band, and keep the right edge clear below the middle.

Worked example

A 1080×1920 frame with a caption 1,400 px from the top.

TikTok's bottom zone starts at 1,260 px (840 of 1,280, scaled up 1.5×). Reels' starts at 1,248 px (65% of 1,920). Shorts' at 1,248 px (1,920 − 672).

The caption sits under all three bottom zones: move it up to around 1,000 px and it clears every platform.

Sources

Questions

What is a safe zone on TikTok, Reels or Shorts?

The part of a vertical video that the app's buttons, handle, caption and tabs don't cover. Text outside it can end up hidden under the like button or the caption.

Are these safe zones official?

Yes, for ads: TikTok's In-Feed safe zone template, Meta's Reels ads guide and Google's vertical video ads safe zone. None of the three publishes separate numbers for organic posts, which carry the same UI in the same places.

Why does TikTok have a cut-out on the right?

That's the column of like, comment, share and profile buttons. In TikTok's template it's 120 px wide on a 720×1280 frame and starts 720 px above the bottom, so the right side is usable higher up.

Is my image or video uploaded?

No. The file opens in this tab with a local link and is drawn on your screen. Nothing is sent to a server.

My video isn't 9:16. What happens?

Feeds fill the screen, so a wider frame is cropped at the sides. The checker crops it the same way so you see what's left.

Does Mimic keep text in the safe zones?

Yes. Mimic places captions, hooks and cards inside the apps' safe zones and off the speaker's face when it edits your clip.