Instagram Story safe zone

Meta’s ads guide asks for text, logos and other key elements to stay out of three strips of a Story: the top 14%, roughly the bottom 35%, and 6% down each side. Anything placed there may be cropped, or hidden behind the profile icon or the call-to-action button. On the 1080 × 1920 canvas most people design on, the strips land here.

Designing at Meta’s ad resolution of 1440 × 2560 instead? The same percentages come to about 358 pixels at the top, 896 at the bottom and 86 on each side, so the clear box runs from roughly 358 to 1,664 pixels down.

A Story is never shown bare. Instagram lays its own controls over the picture, and they differ between an ordinary Story, an ad and the view you get of your own Story.

• Top, on every Story: one thin progress bar per Story in the set, then the profile photo, account name and how long ago it was posted, with the menu and close buttons at the right.
• Bottom, on an ordinary Story: the “Send message” field, with buttons to like the Story and share it.
• Ads: a Sponsored label at the top and a call-to-action button at the bottom, which takes up more height than a reply field.
• Sides: no fixed buttons, but Meta warns that elements near the edges may be cropped, which is why its guide keeps 6% clear on each side.

Tip: Checking your own Story isn’t a fair test. As the owner you see viewer activity and your own buttons along the bottom, not the reply field your followers see, so ask a friend to screenshot it from their phone.

Search for the Story safe zone and you will find at least three answers. Meta’s are the strictest because they are written for ads, where the call-to-action button covers a deep band at the bottom. Third-party guides give looser figures aimed at everyday Stories.

Sprout Social’s two figures can’t describe the same box: margins of 250 and 340 pixels leave 1,330 pixels, not 1,610. Its percentages don’t match its pixels either, since 14% of 1,920 is about 269 and 20% is 384. Our advice: use Meta’s box for anything that carries a link, an offer or an ad, and at least Sprout Social’s 250 and 340 pixels for a casual Story.

Interactive stickers need the safe box more than text does, because people have to tap them. A link, poll or question sticker that slides under the reply field is hard to read and harder to tap.

• Link stickers: put them in the lower part of the box, roughly 900 to 1,200 pixels down, near the thumb but clear of the reply field.
• Polls, quizzes and question boxes: they take up a lot of room, so place them first and fit your text around them.
• Mention and hashtag stickers: keep them inside the box as well; one dropped in the top strip sits right under your own name.
• Countdown stickers: treat them like links, since their whole job is to be tapped.
• Subtitles on video: captions are often placed near the bottom of the frame, as on television, which on a Story is under the reply field. Lift them to about 1,050 to 1,200 pixels down.

1. Create a 1080 × 1920 canvas in your design app and save it as a template.
2. Draw a band 269 px deep across the top, one 672 px deep across the bottom and a 65 px strip down each side.
3. Fill the bands with a see-through red on a separate layer, and lock that layer.
4. Design every Story with the bands showing, then hide the layer before exporting.
5. Export at 1080 × 1920, as a JPG or PNG for stills or an MP4 for video, so Instagram has no reason to enlarge or crop it.
6. After posting, ask a friend for a screenshot from their phone and check all four edges.