Free tool
TikTok safe zone checker
See where buttons, captions, and the nav bar cover your vertical video on TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts, before you post it.
Upload a video or screenshot to preview it behind the app UI.
Red areas are covered by the app's UI. Keep text and key action inside the dashed safe area.
Everything runs in your browser. Your video never leaves your device.
Video ready? Schedule it to TikTok with Lemonpost. See the TikTok scheduler
How it works
How to check your TikTok safe zone
- 1
Upload your video or a frame
Drop in the vertical video or a screenshot of it. Nothing uploads anywhere, it stays in your browser.
- 2
Pick the platform
Switch between TikTok, Reels, and Shorts overlays. Each app covers different parts of the frame.
- 3
Adjust and re-export
If text or your subject sits under red, nudge it toward the dashed safe area in your editor and check again.
What the TikTok safe zone actually is
Every vertical video app draws its interface on top of your video: username, caption, sound, the like and comment rail, the navigation bar. The safe zone is the part of the frame none of that touches. Put your hook text or product outside it, and viewers get a beautiful shot of it hiding behind a Share button.
The zones, roughly
On TikTok, the top sliver holds the status bar and search, the right rail holds profile, like, comment, and share buttons from about a third of the way down, and the bottom fifth belongs to your caption, the sound, and the nav bar. Reels and Shorts carve up the frame slightly differently, which is why the tool has an overlay for each. The zones shown are close approximations of the current apps, and the apps do move things around a few times a year.
Captions make the bottom worse than it looks
The red caption zone assumes a short caption. Write three lines and add a sound title, and the covered area grows upward. If your video relies on burned-in subtitles, keep them in the upper middle of the frame rather than the classic bottom placement, or they'll fight the UI on every platform at once.
Why it's worth 20 seconds before posting
Covered text is the most common self-inflicted wound in short video: the hook is unreadable, the call to action sits under the like button, and completion rate quietly pays for it. Checking takes seconds and costs nothing, and the same 9:16 file usually goes to all three platforms, so one check covers TikTok, Reels, and Shorts in one go.
Practical placement rules
Keep text inside the middle 80 percent horizontally and the upper two thirds vertically, leave the right edge for the app, and treat the bottom fifth as the caption's property. If you batch your videos, check one representative frame per template rather than every clip, then schedule the lot.
Good to know
Safe zones, answered
The part of the frame TikTok's interface never covers: no buttons, caption, sound title, or nav bar. Text and important visuals placed inside it stay readable; anything outside risks hiding behind the UI.
1080 by 1920 pixels, a 9:16 vertical frame. The same size works for Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, which is why one well-placed layout can serve all three.
Close, but not identical. Each app draws its rail and caption area a little differently, so the tool ships a separate overlay for each. If one video goes to all three platforms, keep your text inside the strictest overlap.
They're close approximations of the current app layouts. The platforms adjust their interfaces a few times a year, so treat the overlay as a guide with a small margin rather than a pixel contract.
No. The preview runs entirely in your browser; the file never leaves your device. That's also why the tool works with big video files instantly.
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