Story Size and Safe Zones in 2026: One 9:16 Template for Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok (Arabic RTL Included)

You designed a sharp story. Then you posted it and the price disappeared under the reply bar, the logo got cut off by the profile name, and on TikTok the headline is hiding behind the like button.

That's a safe-zone problem, not a design problem. It's easy to fix once you know where each app draws its interface over your artwork.

This guide gives you the 2026 story size for each major platform, the safe zones the platforms officially publish (in pixels), and one master template that clears all of them. It also covers the part most size guides skip: what changes when your story is in Arabic and reads right to left.

The short answer: what size is a story in 2026?

Design at 1080 × 1920 pixels, 9:16 aspect ratio. That one canvas works for Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and WhatsApp status.

Note: the platforms publish safe zones for ads. Organic stories have similar overlays (profile name and progress bar at the top, reply bar at the bottom), so the ad numbers are a sensible, slightly conservative baseline for organic posts too.

What a "safe zone" is and why it moves

Every story app paints its own interface on top of your image:

1. Top: the progress bar, your profile name and photo, the close button.
2. Bottom: the reply field, the call-to-action button on ads, captions and the sound credit on TikTok.
3. Sides: edges that some phones crop, plus TikTok's vertical column of profile, like, comment, save and share buttons.

The safe zone is the area left over, where text, prices, logos and faces won't be covered. Each platform draws its overlays differently, so the zone moves from app to app. TikTok says it plainly on its In-Feed ads page: the safe zone size "is determined by the dimension (vertical, horizontal, or square), ad caption length, and any additional formats used."

Platform by platform, in pixels

Instagram (and Facebook) Stories

Meta's Ads Guide for Instagram Stories recommends 9:16. It suggests "leaving roughly 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom, and 6% on each side" free from text, logos or other key elements, "to avoid… covering them with the profile icon or call-to-action."

On a 1080 × 1920 canvas that works out to:

1. Top: ~270 px
2. Bottom: ~672 px
3. Sides: ~65 px each

The bottom figure looks huge because it makes room for the ad's call-to-action. If you only post organically, the reply bar takes less room. Still, designing to the 35% rule means the same file can be boosted later without a redesign.

Snapchat

Snap's spec for Single Image or Video ads is a full-screen 1080 × 1920 canvas at 9:16. Its creative guidance says to keep "the top 150 px and the bottom 330 px" clear of graphics or logos so they don't overlap the ad interface.

Snap's Safe Zones page says each format has its own top, bottom and side buffers. Snap's pages give the 150/330 figures. The other figures below come from a third-party breakdown by acquisition.mobi, so treat them as a guide and check them in Ads Manager:

1. Top: 150 px in every case.
2. Bottom, with a Webview or Deeplink attachment (swipe-up/CTA): 330 px. This is the number Snap quotes.
3. Bottom, with no attachment: about 150 px.
4. Sides: about 54 px on each side.

If you don't know yet whether the ad will carry an attachment, design for 330 px at the bottom.

Snap's safe-zone article adds that it now aims for one safe-zone spec across Stories, Spotlight and Commercials. Ads Manager has a Safe Zone toggle so you can check your creative before it goes live. Use it.

Why Snapchat deserves extra care in Saudi Arabia: DataReportal's Digital 2026 report says Snap's own advertising data showed 25.3 million users in Saudi Arabia in late 2025, equal to 72.9% of the population. Meta's tools showed 18.2 million for Instagram. These are ad-reach estimates, not monthly active users, but the gap is hard to ignore if you sell in the Kingdom.

TikTok

TikTok's official vertical minimum is 540 × 960 at 9:16. Most teams export 1080 × 1920 for sharpness.

Instead of one number, TikTok ships downloadable safe-zone files on its In-Feed ads help page. We opened the standard vertical file. It is drawn on a 720 × 1280 frame, so we scaled it to 1080 × 1920:

1. Top: 240 px (the Following / For You tabs)
2. Bottom: 660 px (username, caption, sound)
3. Sides: 120 px each
4. Button column: a 180 px-wide strip starting 840 px from the top, sitting inside the side margin on the right in the standard file

Then comes the detail that matters for Gulf brands. TikTok publishes a separate Arabic version (RTL) of these files. It labels the standard files "for all regions except the Arabic region." In the Arabic file, the button column sits on the left. A layout that's safe in English can collide with the buttons in Arabic, and the reverse is also true.

One master template that clears every platform

If you'd rather design once and post everywhere, stack the strictest number from each platform onto a 1080 × 1920 canvas:

That leaves a core safe area of 840 × 978 px, running from 270 px to 1,248 px down the canvas. Put your headline, price, logo and any face inside it.

One extra rule for TikTok: in the lower part of that core area (from 840 px down), keep a 180 px strip clear on the right for English layouts and on the left for Arabic layouts. A lot of creative passes the box test and fails this one.

Backgrounds, textures and decorative edges can (and should) run full-bleed to all four sides. Only the essential content needs to sit inside the safe area.

Arabic and RTL: what changes in a 9:16 story

Size guides usually stop at pixels. If your audience reads Arabic, the layout logic changes too.

1. Mirror the reading path, not just the text. Arabic readers start at the top-right. Put the hook top-right of the safe area, the product in the middle, and the CTA where the eye finishes. Flip arrows, progress cues and "swipe" hints so they point the right way.
2. Mirror platform overlays where the platform does. On TikTok, use the Arabic RTL safe-zone file and keep the left strip clear. On other apps, check a real phone set to Arabic before you sign off. Don't assume an English preview tells the whole story.
3. Don't letter-space Arabic. Arabic letters join. Tracking that looks stylish in Latin type breaks those connections and makes words harder to read. Use weight and size for emphasis instead.
4. Give Arabic more line height. Arabic glyphs have tall ascenders, deep descenders, dots and, sometimes, diacritics. Tight leading that works for English makes two-line Arabic headlines collide. Preview at real phone size.
5. Pick a font with proper Arabic shaping and a licence that covers commercial use. Many "free" fonts are free for personal use only. Check before a campaign goes out.
6. Decide on digits once. Western digits (49) or Arabic-Indic digits (٤٩) both work, but mixing them in one story looks careless, especially in prices.
7. Watch mixed-direction lines. A line mixing Arabic with a Latin brand name, a percentage or a price can reorder itself in surprising ways. Keep prices and codes on their own line when you can.

A quick pre-publish checklist

1. Canvas is 1080 × 1920 (9:16) and exported at full resolution.
2. Headline, price, logo and faces sit inside the 840 × 978 core area.
3. For TikTok, the button strip is clear (right side for LTR, left side for Arabic).
4. Arabic text has no letter-spacing, generous leading, and one digit style.
5. The story was checked on a real phone and, for ads, with the platform's preview or safe-zone tool.
6. Text is large enough to read at arm's length in under two seconds. If you're squinting on your own phone, your audience will skip.

The same rules apply to stories inside your own app

Social stories aren't the only full-screen 9:16 format. A growing number of Gulf e-commerce, beauty and media apps now run in-app stories: the same tap-through format, shown inside their own app to customers who are already logged in and ready to buy.

The design discipline transfers directly. You still design in 9:16, still keep a safe area, and still mirror layouts for Arabic. The difference is that you control the interface, so the overlays are yours to decide, not a social platform's.

That's the problem we're building Highlit for: in-app stories designed Arabic-first, with native RTL on every plan rather than as an add-on. We're open about where the product is:

1. Highlit is in early access.
2. Shoppable stories are in beta.
3. Mobile SDKs are planned for 2027.

If in-app stories are on your list, you can see how plans and pricing work, compare Highlit with Storyly or request a demo. Either way, the template above is yours to use.

FAQ

What is the Instagram story size in 2026? 1080 × 1920 px at 9:16. For Story image ads, Meta's Ads Guide recommends 1440 × 2560, which is the same ratio at a higher resolution.

What is the Snapchat story size? 1080 × 1920 px at 9:16. Keep the top 150 px clear, and the bottom 330 px when the ad has a swipe-up/CTA attachment (about 150 px without one). Keep roughly 54 px clear on each side. Snap's Ads Manager Safe Zone toggle shows the current buffers.

What is the TikTok safe zone on 1080 × 1920? Based on TikTok's standard In-Feed template scaled up: 240 px top, 660 px bottom, 120 px sides, plus a 180 px button column from 840 px down. Use TikTok's Arabic (RTL) file for Arabic creative.

Can I use one design for every platform? Yes. Keep essential content inside an 840 × 978 px area starting 270 px from the top and 120 px from each side, and respect TikTok's button strip.

Sources (all fetched and checked on 25 Oct 2026)

1. Meta Ads Guide, Instagram Stories (image): 9:16, 1440 × 2560 recommendation, the 14% / 35% / 6% guidance. https://www.facebook.com/business/ads-guide/update/image/instagram-story
2. Snap Business Help Center, Single Image or Video Specifications: 1080 × 1920, 9:16. https://businesshelp.snapchat.com/s/article/top-snap-specs
3. Snap Business Help Center, Single Image or Video Creative Best Practices: top 150 px / bottom 330 px. https://businesshelp.snapchat.com/s/article/snap-ads-practices
4. Snap Business Help Center, Safe Zones for Ads on Snapchat: one spec across Stories, Spotlight and Commercials; Safe Zone toggle. https://businesshelp.snapchat.com/s/article/safe-zones
5. Acquisition.mobi, Safe Zones for Mobile Ads: Snapchat bottom 330 px with Webview/Deeplink, 150 px without, 54 px sides (third-party guide). https://acquisition.mobi/en/blog/safe-zones-for-mobile-ads-a-complete-guide-for-making-optimized-creatives/
6. TikTok Ads Manager Help, Auction In-Feed Ads: minimum 540 × 960; the safe-zone quote; standard (LTR) and Arabic (RTL) template downloads. The pixel figures above come from TikTok's downloadable "In-Feed" standard and RTL PNG files (720 × 1280 frame), scaled ×1.5. https://ads.tiktok.com/help/article/tiktok-auction-in-feed-ads?lang=en
7. DataReportal, Digital 2026: Saudi Arabia: Snapchat 25.3M (72.9% of population) and Instagram 18.2M ad reach in late 2025. https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2026-saudi-arabia