Free YouTube tool
YouTube Shorts Safe Zone Checker
Drop in a Short or a still frame and see which parts the player is likely to cover. The overlay follows Google's safe zone for YouTube vertical video ads: 288 pixels at the top, 672 at the bottom, 48 on the left and 192 on the right of a 1080 x 1920 frame.
Last updated: 2026-10-25
A Short is watched full screen with the controls on top of it. The bottom of the frame and the right edge are where most of them gather, which is why the right margin in the guidance is four times wider than the left one.
Google publishes these margins in pixels on a 1080 x 1920 frame, in its video ad specs for YouTube vertical video ads, which is where Shorts ads run. That leaves an area of 840 x 960 pixels for text, logos and faces. The player around an ordinary Short can differ by device and app version, so read the overlay as a careful margin rather than an exact map of every button.
Everything happens in your browser. Pick a video and the tool grabs a frame from it, or pick an image, then draws the safe area and the covered bands on top. The file is never uploaded and never stored.
Drop a file above to see the zones over your own frame. Until then they are drawn on an empty 9:16 frame.
- Safe area: keep text, faces and logos inside it.
- Can be covered by the app: captions, buttons and the account name sit here.
These zones come from Google's published guidance for vertical video ads on YouTube. The app around a regular post can differ by device and app version, so leave a little extra room.
The zones in numbers
What Google says to keep clear on YouTube, on a 1080 x 1920 px frame.
- Top: 288 px of a 1080 x 1920 px frame
- Bottom: 672 px of a 1080 x 1920 px frame
- Left: 48 px of a 1080 x 1920 px frame
- Right: 192 px of a 1080 x 1920 px frame
These zones come from Google's published guidance for vertical video ads on YouTube. The app around a regular post can differ by device and app version, so leave a little extra room.
SourceChecked on 2026-10-25
Tips
- Keep the right edge quieter than the left. The margin is 192 pixels on the right against 48 on the left, so a title can sit slightly left of the middle and still look balanced once the buttons are on screen.
- Treat the bottom 672 pixels, more than a third of the frame, as covered. Subtitles and lower thirds belong higher up on a Short than on a landscape video.
- Export vertical at 1080 x 1920. YouTube also counts square video as a Short, but the margins are drawn for 9:16, so on a square frame the overlay is only scaled to fit.
Frequently asked questions
What is the YouTube Shorts safe zone?
It is the area of a vertical frame the player is unlikely to cover. Google's safe zone for YouTube vertical video ads keeps 288 pixels at the top, 672 at the bottom, 48 on the left and 192 on the right clear on a 1080 x 1920 frame, leaving 840 x 960 pixels in the middle for anything people need to see.
Do these margins apply to ordinary Shorts as well as ads?
The numbers come from Google's guidance for vertical video ads on YouTube. The player over an ordinary Short is similar, but it changes with the device and the app version, so staying inside the margins is a sensible default rather than a guarantee.
Is my video uploaded?
No. The video is opened in your browser, one frame is drawn onto a canvas, and the overlay is drawn over it. Nothing reaches Postify or anyone else.
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