Platform specs
YouTube Shorts safe zone
By the KeyMo team · Updated
YouTube's help pages give no safe zone figures for organic Shorts, so any exact number you see is someone's measurement, not YouTube's. A careful guide for a 1080x1920 Short is to keep text about 269 px from the top, 672 px from the bottom and 65 px from each side. That is KeyMo's recommendation, not a YouTube rule.
What YouTube says, and what it leaves out
We read YouTube's Create YouTube Shorts help page on 13 October 2026 looking for a safe area, an overlay position or any margin for text. It has none. It covers the length limit of up to three minutes, the 1080p ceiling and how to pick a thumbnail frame, and nothing about where the interface sits on top of your video.
| Question | What we found |
|---|---|
| Official safe zone numbers for organic Shorts | None on the YouTube Help pages we read |
| Where the title, channel name and buttons sit | Not described on those pages |
| Shorts thumbnail | A frame you choose from the Short, edited in the YouTube app only, not in Studio |
| Google Ads vertical video | 1080x1920, 9:16 recommended, with a red safe area in a downloadable PNG template, no margins in text |
A conservative guide for captions (KeyMo's, not YouTube's)
Since there is nothing official to follow, we borrow the strictest numbers that a nearby platform does publish. Meta's Reels ad guide asks for roughly 14% free at the top, 35% at the bottom and 6% on each side. YouTube has not said Shorts behave the same way. We use them because a layout that fits inside the smallest box is likely to fit inside a larger one.
| Edge | Share of frame | On 1080x1920 |
|---|---|---|
| Top | 14% | About 269 px |
| Bottom | 35% | 672 px |
| Left and right | 6% each | About 65 px each |
That leaves a box about 950 px wide and 979 px tall, from 269 px to 1248 px down. A caption block whose bottom edge is above 1248 px is inside it. If you want a drawn version, the safe zone checker exports this box as a transparent PNG you can lay over an edit.
A worked example with a thumbnail text
Say you add big text to your thumbnail frame, which YouTube allows in the app. Thumbnails are chosen from the Short itself, so that frame also has to hold your normal captions. Pick a frame where the speaker's face is in the upper-middle and the caption sits around 1000 px down. The text you add then goes in the empty band near the top, below the 269 px line, rather than on top of the caption.
If the frame you like has a caption at 1700 px down, it is deep in the bottom 672 px. Either choose a different frame or re-time the caption higher. Remember that edits to a thumbnail cannot be undone once you tap Done, per the same help page, so check the frame before you commit.
Decision rules
- If a caption's bottom edge is below 1248 px on a 1080x1920 frame, move it up.
- If the text is a logo or a call to action, keep it out of the right edge as well as the bottom.
- If you must hit an exact YouTube number for a client, ask for their brand's own template instead of ours.
- If you export with KeyMo, clips come out at 1080x1920, so these pixel values apply as written. Check the caption style you picked on one frame before you post. See Shorts resolution for the size rules, and all three apps side by side.
Sources: Create YouTube Shorts - YouTube Help (checked 13 October 2026); About video ad specs - Google Ads Help (checked 13 October 2026); Instagram Reels image ad specs (Meta Ads Guide) (checked 13 October 2026).