Social media sizes and safe zones
The pixel sizes for posts, stories, reels, thumbnails and banners, and the parts of each the platform covers with its own interface. With a live view of every format and the text sizes that survive a phone screen.
Beginner3 min readUpdated 27 September 2026Editor · Presets and guides
The sizes
| Format | Pixels | Ratio | Where it is covered |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram post | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | Nothing over it. The profile grid shows a 1:1 crop from the centre. |
| Square post | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 | Nothing. Works on every platform; smaller in the feed than 4:5. |
| Story | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | Top and bottom, about 250 px each: progress bar and name above, reply box below. |
| Reel cover | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | Bottom about 420 px (account, caption, audio) and a column about 120 px wide on the right (like, comment, share). |
| YouTube thumbnail | 1280 × 720 | 16:9 | The duration badge, bottom right. Seen at 200 to 400 px wide. |
| LinkedIn banner | 1584 × 396 | 4:1 | Profile photo over the lower left; the top and bottom cropped differently by screen. |
| X header | 1500 × 500 | 3:1 | Profile photo over the lower left; cropped on some screens. |
Studio adds X post (1600 × 900), Facebook cover (1640 × 624), WhatsApp flyer (1080 × 1350) and Email header (1200 × 600) as job formats. The full list with uses is in Size presets.
Text that survives a phone
A 1080 px wide post is shown about 360 to 430 layout pixels wide on a phone, so everything appears at roughly a third of its canvas size. Text at 36 px on the canvas reads at about 13 px on the phone: caption size. On a 1080 px wide canvas, keep headlines at 80 to 120 px or more, supporting lines at 48 px, and small print at 36 to 40 px. Seven words of headline. Contrast well above 4.5:1, because phones are used outdoors at low brightness. Design social posts that read on a phone has the reasoning.
Make the safe zone once
- Open the Story preset (1080 × 1920).
- Choose View, New guide… and add horizontal guides at 250 and 1670 px. For a reel cover add one at 1500 px and a vertical guide at 960 px.
- Choose File, Save as template. Every new story starts from it with the zones marked, and snapping keeps text inside them.
- Design the most constrained format first (usually the 4:5 post), then File, Resize for other formats… or Studio's key visual to build the rest, and move anything that landed in a covered area.
What is the Instagram story safe zone?
Keep text and logos out of roughly the top and bottom 14 per cent of the 1080 × 1920 canvas, about 250 px each, where the progress bar, name and reply box sit. The middle 1420 px is safe.
Are these sizes still current?
The canvas sizes have been stable for years; what changes is how much interface each app draws over them. Treat the safe zones as approximate and check the platform's own guidance before a paid placement.