Every vertical format, the pixels, and what gets covered. One canvas serves Instagram Stories and Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
One canvas, four figures. Everything else on this page is why.
Every one of these apps draws its own buttons on top of your image. Design to the frame and your call to action ends up under a reply bar. The safe area below is the union of all three — 840 × 1186, which is smaller than a square post.
| Platform | Top | Bottom | Left | Right | Safe area |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 250 | 250 | 0 | 0 | 1080 × 1420 | |
| TikTok | 130 | 484 | 60 | 180 | 840 × 1306 |
| YouTube Shorts | 100 | 380 | 0 | 140 | 940 × 1440 |
| Safe on all three | 250 | 484 | 60 | 180 | 840 × 1186 |
All four surfaces take 1080×1920. That is the easy part, and it is where every other size guide stops. Each app then draws its own interface over your image — and the three do it differently.
Design to the canvas and your call to action lands under a reply bar. Design to the union and one file posts everywhere without re-cropping — at the cost of 840 × 1186, less usable area than a plain square post.
Three frames, three different shapes. That is the whole problem.
All three downscale on delivery, so a larger export is a slower upload for an identical result. Below 720×1280 the re-encode starts softening thin type and hairlines.
A JPG turns crisp edges into a halo, which is exactly what a headline is made of. Use JPG only when the whole frame is a photograph and the type sits on a solid band.
A Reel, a TikTok and a Short are the same canvas as the still above — and the same interface still covers it, so the safe area is unchanged. What a video adds: H.264 in an MP4, yuv420p, 30fps, and even pixel dimensions. Get the pixel format wrong and the file plays on a laptop and comes back black on a phone.
A file exported in Display P3 shifts on the way through: saturated brand colours come back duller, and the shift is not the same on every device. Convert before you upload.
1080 × 1920 pixels, 9:16. The same frame works for Instagram Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts — what differs between them is how much of it their own interface covers.
No. All three platforms downscale to about 1080 on delivery, so a 2160-wide export is a bigger upload for the same result — and a slower one on a phone.
720 × 1280. Below that the platform re-encode softens small type. Between 720 and 1080 the difference shows mostly on thin fonts and hairlines.
The same 1080 × 1920 as the still — and the same interface covers it, so the safe area does not change. For the file itself: H.264 in an MP4, yuv420p, 30fps, even dimensions. PostPop exports any carousel at exactly that.
PNG for flat colour, type and logos — a JPG turns crisp edges into a halo. JPG only when the whole frame is a photograph.
More: safe zone checker · carousel size · post templates