Where to put text on Instagram Reels
Where to put text on Instagram Reels so the caption, buttons and profile name don't cover it: the safe zone in pixels on a 1080 × 1920 video, for Reels, TikTok and Shorts.
By the Razzle team · Updated
The short answer
Keep text and faces in the middle of the frame. On a 1080 × 1920 Reel, leave about 270 px clear at the top, 670 px at the bottom (caption, audio and profile), 120 px on the right (like, comment and share) and 65 px on the left.
What covers a Reel
When a Reel plays in the Reels tab, Instagram draws its own interface on top of your video:
- Bottom: your profile name and photo, the follow button, the caption's first line and the audio name. With a long caption opened, even more.
- Right edge: like, comment, share, save and the audio button, stacked from the middle down.
- Top: the Reels header and, on many phones, the status bar.
Anything under those, whether a price, a name or the main line of your hook, is hard to read or hidden.
The safe zone in pixels
On a 1080 × 1920 Reel, these are the margins Razzle lays text out within. They follow Meta's Reels guidance (about 14% at the top, 35% at the bottom and 6% at the sides), with a little extra on the right for the buttons:
| Platform | Top | Bottom | Left | Right |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram Reels | 269 px | 672 px | 65 px | 120 px |
| TikTok | 240 px | 660 px | 120 px | 120 px |
| YouTube Shorts | 120 px | 360 px | 48 px | 96 px |
| 250 px | 320 px | 60 px | 120 px |
That leaves a box about 895 px wide and 980 px tall in the middle of a Reel. It's smaller than most people expect: roughly half the frame.
Where to put each thing
- The hook (first line): centre, or the upper middle. Never the bottom third.
- Prices, dates and offers: inside the box and big. They're what people pause on.
- Faces: keep eyes in the upper half of the box, so the caption doesn't cut through a face.
- Your logo or handle: top left inside the margin, or on the last frame. Not bottom left, where Instagram puts your own profile name anyway.
- Captions (subtitles): in the middle or upper middle, not at the very bottom where Instagram's caption sits.
Posting one video everywhere
If the same video goes to Reels, TikTok and Shorts, use the strictest margins of all of them: the most room on each side from the table above. TikTok keeps more of the left side covered, and Instagram more of the bottom.
The cover
The profile grid shows a taller-than-square crop from the middle of your Reel's cover. Put the cover's title in the centre so it survives both the full-screen view and the grid.
Check a video you've already made
Drop your video into Razzle's Reels safe zone checker: it plays on your device with each app's interface outlined over it, and nothing is uploaded. When you make videos in Razzle, text is laid out inside the safe zone automatically, for one platform or all of them.
Questions
- What is the Reels safe zone?
- The part of a vertical video the app's own interface doesn't cover. On Reels the caption, audio and profile sit across the bottom third and the buttons run down the right edge.
- Is the safe zone the same on TikTok and YouTube Shorts?
- Close but not the same. TikTok keeps more of the left side clear; Shorts covers less of the bottom. If you post one video everywhere, use the strictest margins of all of them.
- Does the cover image have a safe zone too?
- Yes. The profile grid shows a crop from the middle of the cover, so keep the cover's title in the centre.