Keep important content about 160 px from the top, 420 px from the bottom, 40 px from the left and 140 px from the right of a 1080×1920 frame. TikTok: the profile name and caption sit bottom-left, a sound ticker runs along the bottom, and a column of like, comment, save and share buttons stacks down the right edge.
TikTok does not frame your video with a border. It draws its interface on top of the footage, inside the same 1080×1920 canvas you edited in. The profile name, the caption, the scrolling sound label and the column of buttons down the right edge all share space with your picture, and anything you place beneath them is partly or fully hidden.
This guide shows where those elements fall, how much room your caption gets before it collapses behind a "more" link, and how to check your own file before you publish. The overlay in the tool above is a measured estimate, not an official TikTok specification. Layouts shift between phone sizes, app versions and ad formats, so Frameguard draws conservative margins and tells you which numbers come from TikTok and which do not.
What the TikTok interface covers
On a typical phone the largest obstruction is the bottom of the frame. The caption block, the account name and the sound ticker stack up from the lower edge, and our measurement puts the unsafe band at roughly 420 pixels deep. That is more than a fifth of the screen. A lower-third graphic, a product name or a subtitle placed there will collide with the caption on a large share of devices.
The right edge is the second trouble spot. The like, comment, save and share buttons form a tall column, and we reserve about 140 pixels on that side. The left side is much calmer, at around 40 pixels, so if you must push an element toward an edge, push it left. The top band, about 160 pixels, holds the status area and the tabs that sit above the feed.
Turn on "Platform buttons & captions" in the tool to see a mock of these elements drawn over your frame. It is a rough sketch, not a pixel-accurate copy, but it makes the problem areas obvious in a way the plain red bands do not.
Captions, hooks and the cut-off
TikTok shows only the first few lines of a caption before it truncates the rest behind a more control. In Frameguard's caption studio we assume about three visible lines. What matters in practice is that the opening sentence has to do the persuading, because most viewers will never expand the text.
Write the hook so it fits on one line, around 46 characters, and put hashtags after it rather than before. The caption limit shown in the tool is 2,200 characters, the conservative figure used by scheduling tools and the posting API. Some accounts may be able to write more inside the app, so treat 2,200 as a safe ceiling rather than a hard rule. A handful of focused hashtags, around four, usually reads better than a long block, and TikTok does not publish a hard limit we could confirm.
Use "Break into short lines" if you paste in a long paragraph. It rewraps the text at about 42 characters so the preview shows what a viewer will actually see.
Subtitles and on-screen text
If you let TikTok generate captions, they appear in a band roughly between 1350 and 1650 pixels from the top. That band sits on top of the bottom UI and is easy to collide with if you have also burned in your own subtitles. Switch on the yellow "Native caption warning zone" to see it.
The cleanest approach is to choose one subtitle system. Burn in your own, place them in the upper half of the safe area, and turn off automatic captions for that post, or leave automatic captions on and keep your own text out of the lower third entirely. Mixing the two is the most common reason subtitles look doubled or cramped.
For any text that matters, use the "Check text collisions" button. It runs optical character recognition in your browser and outlines words that sit under the interface. It works on images, so export a frame from your video first.
Cross-posting without losing content
TikTok videos are routinely re-uploaded to Reels and Shorts, and each of those apps covers a different part of the frame. TikTok's bottom band is the deepest of the three, so content that is safe on TikTok is usually safe on the others at the bottom, but the top and right margins differ. Switch tabs with the same file loaded to see how the same framing sits under each app.
If you are cropping to a square or a 4:5 frame for a feed post, use the crop toggles to see what remains. Keep the main subject near the center of the frame, which is safe in every layout.
Remove watermarks before cross-posting. Platforms may reduce distribution for content that carries another app's logo, and the logo itself often lands inside a safe zone on the destination app.
Common mistakes
The first mistake is designing at the edges. Video editors default to placing titles near the bottom, which is exactly where TikTok places its caption. Move titles up to the lower-middle of the safe rectangle.
The second is trusting a single device. A tall phone and a small phone render the interface at different proportions, so a margin that looks fine on your handset may be tight on another. This is why the overlay is deliberately conservative.
The third is forgetting the sound label. A long original-sound name scrolls across the bottom and can overlap a bottom-aligned subtitle, so keep subtitles above the red band, not inside it.
Specs at a glance
The table below pulls together the numbers Frameguard uses. Each carries a label saying whether it comes from TikTok directly, from secondary reports, or varies by account. Where we could not confirm a figure we say so instead of guessing.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Canvas | 1080 × 1920 px (9:16) |
| Safe margins (top / bottom / left / right) | 160 / 420 / 40 / 140 pxMeasured estimate |
| Native caption band | 1350–1650 px from the topMeasured estimate |
| Caption limit used by the tool | 2,200 characters. In-app limit may be higher on some accounts; 2,200 is the conservative figure used by schedulers and the API.Varies - verify |
| Visible caption lines (estimate) | 3Measured estimate |
| Hashtags | Not limited in the tool; about 4 recommended |
| Maximum duration | 10 min recorded in-app · 60 min uploadedOfficial (quoted) |
| Maximum file size | Not published for in-app uploads; API accepts up to 4 GBReported |
Verification labels: Official means read on the platform's own help page; Official (quoted) means platform wording quoted by independent sources; Reported means secondary sources only; Varies means sources disagree. Reviewed 2026-10-26.
Pre-export checklist
- Export at 1080×1920 (9:16) so nothing is scaled or letterboxed.
- Keep titles and faces inside the dashed white rectangle.
- Leave the bottom 420 pixels free of text and logos.
- Check the right 140 pixels for important objects.
- Pick one subtitle system and keep it out of the caption band.
- Write a hook that fits one line, then run the caption preview.
- Run the text collision check on a still frame.
- Switch between the TikTok, Reels and Shorts tabs if you will cross-post.
TikTok safe zone FAQ
How much of the bottom of a TikTok video is covered?
In Frameguard's measurements, roughly the bottom 420 pixels of a 1080×1920 frame can be covered by the caption, account name and sound label. The exact depth depends on the phone and on how long your caption is.
Where do TikTok captions appear on screen?
The creator's caption sits at the bottom left, above the sound label, and is truncated after a few lines. Automatically generated captions appear in a separate band higher up, which is why overlapping text is so common.
Should I keep text out of the right side on TikTok?
Yes. The button column on the right takes about 140 pixels in our overlay, so anything important within that strip risks being hidden behind the icons.
Are these safe zones official?
No. The margins are Frameguard's own measured estimates, drawn conservatively. They are not published by the platforms, and apps change their layouts, so each page shows when it was last reviewed.
Is my video uploaded anywhere?
No. Frameguard runs entirely in your browser. Your file is decoded and drawn to a canvas on your device and never sent to a server. The optional text check loads a script library, but your image is still processed locally.
Can I download a template instead?
Yes. Use the Blank template button in the tool, or download ready-made PNG overlays from the safe zone templates page.
Other platform guides
- Instagram Reels safe zoneMargins, caption limits and a template
- YouTube Shorts safe zoneMargins, caption limits and a template
- Instagram Stories safe zoneMargins, caption limits and a template
- Facebook Reels safe zoneMargins, caption limits and a template
- Snapchat Spotlight safe zoneMargins, caption limits and a template
- LinkedIn Video safe zoneMargins, caption limits and a template
Need a file instead? Download a ready-made overlay from the safe zone templates, or compare sizes on the video sizes page.