Aspect Ratio & Safe Zone Calculator
Pick an aspect ratio to get the matching pixel dimensions, and see roughly where TikTok, Reels and Shorts interface elements cover a vertical frame. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.
The ratios worth knowing
Four cover almost everything, and the choice is really about where the video will be watched.
- 9:16 (1080×1920) — TikTok, Reels and Shorts. The default for anything watched on a phone held upright.
- 16:9 (1920×1080) — YouTube and anything watched on a wider screen.
- 1:1 (1080×1080) — feed posts, where a square holds its size in a scrolling timeline.
- 4:3 and 3:4 (1440×1080, 1080×1440) — a classic, slightly boxier frame; 21:9 (2520×1080) is the cinematic extreme.
What a safe zone actually is
The frame you export is not the frame the viewer sees unobstructed.
On vertical platforms the app draws its own interface over the video: a caption and handle along the bottom, action buttons up the right side, and a header at the top. Anything important underneath them is effectively invisible. The dashed rectangle in the preview is the area that survives that chrome — the region worth keeping faces, text and logos inside. The overlays are approximate on purpose: platform interfaces shift between app releases and differ by device, so they are a guide rather than a specification.
Choosing the ratio before you generate
This is a decision that is expensive to change later.
Aspect ratio is set per video and every clip is generated to it, so switching afterwards means regenerating rather than cropping — and cropping a 16:9 clip to 9:16 throws away most of the frame, usually including the part you cared about. Deciding where the video will be watched first, then generating to that ratio, avoids the whole problem.
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