Facebook and Instagram Ad Size Checker (2026)

For years Reels and Stories shared dimensions but not safe zones, so a file built for one bled into the interface on the other. In March 2026 Meta closed that gap, consolidating Facebook Stories, Facebook Reels, Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels into a single 9:16 safe zone built to the tightest of the four (Lucid Media, 2026). The margins are the Reels numbers: keep text, logos and key creative out of the top 14%, the bottom 35%, and 6% on each side (per Meta spec, 2026).

The bands are deep because the interface lives in them. The account name runs across the top, while the caption, audio attribution, CTA button and engagement icons stack through the lower third, which is exactly where a designer instinctively parks the price. Compose vertical creative like a movie poster instead, with the message in the middle band, then check it on a real phone before launch. The desktop preview hides the overlays that cause the problem.

One file is worth re-opening: an older Stories template built to the roomier legacy 20% bottom margin. Run that creative on Reels and the lower 35% is hidden, so anything parked down there disappears. Re-center it once and it clears every vertical placement. Everywhere else the checker draws no bands at all, because Meta publishes margins for those four placements and nowhere else. Feed, carousel, In-Stream, right column and Marketplace crop rather than overlay, so the fix there is the recommended ratio plus a little breathing room at the edges.

Figures derived from Meta's percentages on the stated canvases (Lucid Media, 2026; Meta spec, 2026). The legacy Stories row is here only so an old template makes sense. Design to the 35% bottom and you never need it again.

Thirteen placements, and really only three canvases. A square 1:1, a vertical 4:5 and a full-screen 9:16 cover every row below; 16:9 appears once, on In-Stream, where it is the natural fit. That is why building masters beats building per placement. These rows are the same data the checker above reads.

All figures per Meta spec, 2026.

These are the points where visible text truncates, not a ceiling on what you can type. The spread is the interesting part: the Facebook feed cuts a headline at 27 characters while Facebook Reels allows 55, and primary text runs to 125 characters on the Instagram feed but only 40 on Facebook Reels (per Meta spec, 2026). Front-load the offer into the first sentence, because everything past the cutoff hides behind "See more" and few viewers tap it. Then write Reels copy separately, since 40 characters is a fragment: the creative has to carry the message while the text closes.

Character counts per Meta spec, 2026. "n/a" means the field is not used on that placement; "not listed" means Meta publishes no count for it.

Two of Meta's numbers do different jobs, and confusing them is why ads run ugly without ever being rejected. The recommended resolution is the size that looks right, 1440 px wide and up. The technical minimum is the smallest file Meta will take before it refuses the upload: 600 px wide on the Facebook feed, 500 px on the Instagram feed, with the height floor set by the ratio at 600 px for a 1:1 and 750 px for a 4:5 (per Meta spec, 2026). A file between those two numbers uploads, runs, and looks soft, so "it was accepted" proves very little.

Aspect ratio works the same way, with a small cushion built in. The feed takes anything from 1.91:1 landscape to 4:5 vertical, and Meta allows a 3% aspect-ratio tolerance before it crops or pads a file (per Meta spec, 2026). That is why a near-square export sometimes survives untouched while a file a little further off gets trimmed or letterboxed. When an ad runs but looks cramped or off-center, the fix is usually moving from a merely accepted ratio to the recommended one, not an appeal.

Three steps turn the numbers above into files you can ship.

1. Build the 9:16 master at 1440 x 2560 with guides locked at 14% from the top and 35% from the bottom. It carries Reels and Stories on both platforms, and cropping down beats stretching up.
2. Recompose rather than crop for 4:5 at 1440 x 1800 and 1:1 at 1440 x 1440, so the product and the headline survive each frame on purpose instead of by luck.
3. In Ads Manager, turn on customize media by placement and assign each master to its surface instead of letting auto-crop guess. Advantage+ placements still serve everywhere; each one simply shows the file you composed for it.

Then re-check the spec quarterly, because Meta has bumped its recommended resolutions more than once in recent years and old templates rot silently. The full breakdown behind this tool, every ratio, cap and truncation point with the reasoning attached, lives in the Facebook and Instagram ad sizes guide . And if the resizing round is what eats the week, a workspace that keeps the brand kit, the graphic editor and the video editor in one place, AdPlay.ai among them, exports every frame at spec instead of asking you to rebuild it.