YouTube Shorts safe zone checker
Upload your Short and see exactly where text, buttons, and UI elements will cover your content.
Free · No signup · Works for Shorts, Reels, and TikTok
Test your text
Type a hook or caption and see whether it survives YouTube Shorts's UI.
YouTube Shorts safe area
888×1500 of 1080×1920
| Platform | Canvas | Safe area | Bottom | Sides | Top |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube Shorts | 1080×1920 | 888×1500 | 300px | 96/96px | 120px |
| TikTok | 1080×1920 | 840×1436 | 384px | 120/120px | 100px |
| Reels | 1080×1920 | 880×1570 | 250px | 100/100px | 100px |
| All platforms | 1080×1920 | 840×1416 | 384px | 120/120px | 120px |
Why safe zones matter for YouTube Shorts
Every vertical platform draws its own interface on top of your video. On YouTube Shorts that's the channel name, subscribe button, description and audio pill along the bottom, plus the like, comment, share and remix column down the right. None of it appears in your editor — you only find out after publishing.
The result is the single most common Shorts mistake: a hook or caption placed at the bottom of the frame, sitting exactly where the subscribe button lands. The text is in the file, it just isn't visible to anyone watching.
Upload a frame above to see the overlay on your own content, then use the text tester to check a specific hook before you commit to it. Switch platforms to see how much the safe area shrinks when you cross-post — TikTok's caption block reaches nearly 400px up the frame, considerably deeper than YouTube's.
How to keep text visible
- Put hooks in the upper third, not the bottom. The top of the frame is only threatened by the status bar.
- If you cross-post, design against the All platforms intersection rather than fixing the framing per platform later.
- Download the template PNG and keep it as a guide layer in Photoshop, Canva or Figma while you design thumbnails and end cards.
- Outline your text so it stays legible wherever it lands — see the caption generator for readable defaults.
Next: write a hook that earns the first three seconds.
Frequently asked questions
It is the part of your 1080×1920 frame that no interface element covers: roughly the central 888×1500 pixels. YouTube draws the channel name, subscribe button and description over the bottom 300 pixels, the action buttons down the right 96 pixels, and the status bar over the top 120.