Muze AIYouTube Shorts · 9:16 · 1080 x 1920
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- Top10% · approx. 192 pxSearch, the menu, and on ads a sponsored label.
- Bottom30% · approx. 576 pxVideo title, channel name and avatar, the call to action button and the progress scrubber. Longer titles wrap and raise this band.
- Right rail12% · approx. 130 pxLike, dislike, comment, share, remix and the sound control.
- Pixelson a 1080 x 1920 canvasPercentages are the figure to build against. Pixel values are derived from them and are approximate, because the interface changes and captions wrap.
In short
The YouTube Shorts safe zone is the part of a 9:16 frame that the Shorts player does not cover. Keep essential text and logos out of roughly the top 10 percent, which holds search and the menu, the bottom 30 percent, which holds the video title, channel name, call to action and progress scrubber, and the right 12 percent, which holds like, dislike, comment, share and remix. On a 1080 by 1920 file that is approximately 192 pixels at the top, 576 pixels at the bottom and 130 pixels on the right. Preview in the app before launch, because Shorts has changed its lower interface more than once.
Before you build to these numbers
Reserved interface areas move. They differ by placement, by app version, by device, and by whether the viewer has captions turned on. A longer caption makes the bottom band taller on the same day with the same file. The percentages here are deliberately conservative and are a starting point, not a final production specification. Check the platform's current official guidance before you sign off a file, and preview the ad in the real placement.
Google does not publish a Shorts safe zone as a single clean pixel table in the way Meta does for Stories. The percentages here are a conservative reading of the current player layout rather than a quoted official figure, and they are the values most likely to need revising. Verify in the app, and check Google Ads Help for the ad format you are actually buying.
YouTube Shorts safe zone, in numbers
| Area | Share of frame | Approx. px | What sits there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top | 10% | 192 | Search, the menu, and on ads a sponsored label. |
| Bottom | 30% | 576 | Video title, channel name and avatar, the call to action button and the progress scrubber. Longer titles wrap and raise this band. |
| Right rail | 12% | 130 | Like, dislike, comment, share, remix and the sound control. |
| Clear area | 60% h / 88% w | 950 x 1152 | Your headline, price, logo and offer. Nothing else needs to be here. |
Percentages are the figure to build against. Pixel values are calculated from them against a 1080 by 1920 canvas at 9:16, and are approximate.
Keep essential text, logos and offers inside the middle 60 percent of the frame. Nothing a platform does to its interface takes that away from you.
Shorts is a player, not a canvas
The Shorts interface behaves like a video player that happens to be vertical. There is a scrubber, there are playback affordances, and there is a title block that grows with the length of the title. That is a different set of furniture from Stories, and it sits lower and wider than people expect.
The practical consequence is that the bottom of a Shorts frame is the least reliable real estate on any vertical placement. Treat it as decoration.
One vertical master, three platforms
Most advertisers running Shorts are also running Reels and TikTok with the same footage. The efficient move is one master built for the strictest combination: about 14 percent clear at the top, about 35 percent clear at the bottom, and about 13 percent clear on the right. A file built to that will run correctly on all three.
The alternative is three exports, three reviews and three chances to get it wrong. Use the placement picker in the checker above to flick between them and confirm one layout clears all three.
Titles are longer than captions
A YouTube title is often a full sentence written for search, which means it wraps to two or three lines more often than a social caption does. Every wrapped line raises the bottom band.
If you write long titles because they help discovery, and they do, then accept the deeper band and design above it rather than trying to reclaim the space.
The durable version of this advice
If the same vertical master has to run on Shorts, Reels and TikTok, build to the deepest bottom band of the three and everything else takes care of itself.
Verify against the platform before a production sign-off. The official specification is the only source that reflects the current build of the app:
Frequently asked questions
- What is the YouTube Shorts safe zone?
- It is the area of a 9:16 Shorts frame that the player interface does not cover. Keep essential content out of roughly the top 10 percent, the bottom 30 percent and the right 12 percent. On a 1080 by 1920 file that is approximately 192, 576 and 130 pixels.
- What size should a YouTube Shorts video be?
- 1080 by 1920 pixels at 9:16. The ratio is the stable part of the specification and is safe to build against.
- Does Google publish an official Shorts safe zone?
- Not as a single clean pixel table in the way Meta publishes Stories guidance. The figures on this page are a conservative reading of the current player layout, which is why they carry more uncertainty than the Meta numbers. Verify in the app before you sign off a production file.
- Why is my text hidden behind the video title?
- The title block sits in the lower part of the frame and wraps to as many lines as the title needs. A long, search-oriented title takes more vertical space than a short one, so the same creative can be clear one week and covered the next.
- Can I use my TikTok cut on Shorts?
- Usually yes. The two placements reserve similar areas. The safest approach is one master built to the strictest combination of Shorts, Reels and TikTok, which is roughly the top 14 percent, the bottom 35 percent and the right 13 percent.
- Do in-stream YouTube ads have the same safe zone?
- No. In-stream ads are 16:9 and the main risk is the player control bar across the bottom and the skip button in the lower right. Burned-in subtitles placed at the very bottom of a 16:9 frame can end up behind the controls.
Other placements
Related
Creative that lands, in an account someone is watching.
Getting the safe zone right is one job. Knowing which of your ads is losing money this week is another. Muze reads Meta, Google, Amazon and Shopify from ChatGPT or Claude, and previews every change before it runs. New campaigns are created paused.
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