Instagram Reel Size and Free Converter With Safe Zones

Not in so many words. Instagram's Reel size page gives a range of shapes, 1.91:1 to 9:16, a minimum of 720 pixels and a minimum of 30 frames a second. It never names a pixel size for the video itself. 1080 x 1920 comes from putting two published facts together: 9:16 is the full screen shape, and 1080 pixels is the width Instagram keeps for the photos you share, as its photo resolution page says. Meta's own Reels ad specs go higher, to 1440 x 2560.

In practice 1080 x 1920 is the safe choice for a normal Reel. It is vertical Full HD, it meets the 720 pixel floor with room to spare, and it fits the Graph API that scheduling tools use, which takes video up to 1920 pixels wide. A vertical 4K video is 2160 pixels wide, over that limit, so scale it to 1080 x 1920 before you schedule it.

On a Reel, the username, caption and audio name sit along the bottom, and the like, comment and share buttons run down the right side. Meta's Reels ad specs suggest leaving at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side free of text, logos and other important parts. That is written for ads, and we found no safe zone Meta publishes for ordinary Reels, but the same buttons sit over every Reel, so it works as a guide for yours too.

At 1080 x 1920 those margins come to about 269 pixels at the top, 672 at the bottom and 65 at each side. That leaves a box of roughly 950 x 979 pixels in the upper middle of the frame for faces, captions you burn in and product shots. The converter shades the margins over your video so you can see what will be hidden before you post.

Instagram's Reel size page recommends a cover of 420 x 654 pixels, a 1:1.55 ratio. In January 2025 Instagram also changed the profile grid from squares to taller tiles; Adam Mosseri explained the change in his Instagram Story, as the Inquirer reported. Most guides and grid tools put the new tile at 3:4, which on a 1080 x 1920 Reel is the middle 1080 x 1440, though a few say 4:5. Instagram has not published the number, so treat the grid overlay as a close guide rather than a promise.

What it means for your cover: whatever you put in the top and bottom 240 pixels of the frame will not show on your profile. Keep the title and the face of the cover in the middle, switch the converter's overlay to Profile Grid Crop, scrub to a frame that works, and save it as a 1080 x 1920 JPG to upload as the cover.

A horizontal 16:9 video is the usual Reel problem, and there are two ways to fix it. Fill crops the sides away so the video covers the whole 9:16 frame; it works when one person or one product sits in the middle, and the converter lets you drag the crop to follow them. Because a 1920 x 1080 video only has 1080 pixels of height, filling a 1920 tall frame enlarges it about 1.8 times, and the converter tells you so.

Fit keeps every pixel of the original and fills the space above and below with a soft, darkened copy of the video or a plain color. It is the better choice for screen recordings, slides and anything with text at the edges. Instagram's Reel size page accepts shapes as wide as 1.91:1, so you can also post the horizontal video as it is, but then it will not fill a phone held upright.

Up to 20 minutes when you record or upload in the app, according to Instagram Help. The same page adds that Reels over 3 minutes won't be recommended to new audiences, so people who don't follow you are unlikely to see a long one. If growth is the point, keep it under 3 minutes; the converter marks anything longer in red.

Scheduling tools have a lower ceiling. The Graph API takes Reels from 3 seconds to 15 minutes and up to 300 MB, so a 16 minute Reel has to go up from the app. Ads have their own limit of 15 minutes in Meta's Reels ad specs.

The converter draws each frame of your video onto a 1080 x 1920 canvas with the crop you chose and records it with the browser's own MediaRecorder, sound included. The safe zone and grid shading appear in the preview only, never in the file. Nothing is uploaded.

We tested it on 4 November 2026 in a Chromium browser on a Mac, with an 8 second, 1920 x 1080 H.264 test video carrying a steady tone, and checked every copy with ffprobe. With Fit and a soft background the copy was a 1080 x 1920 MP4 of 6.4 MB: H.264 video with 246 frames over 8.1 seconds, which is 30 frames a second, and the tone in stereo AAC at 48 kHz. With Fill it was 6.3 MB with 242 frames over 8.0 seconds, and a second Fill copy matched it frame for frame in count, with no gap between frames longer than 0.04 seconds. Each took about as long as the video plays. With Fill the converter also flagged the video as enlarged 1.8 times, which is right for 1080 pixels stretched to 1920.

Our first version drew frames only when the browser repainted, and an earlier review counted 22 to 27 frames a second in its copies, under Instagram's minimum. The converter now sends frames on a steady 30 a second clock, which is what the counts above measure. If the tab goes to the background, browsers pause the video, so the converter stops and asks you to try again rather than save a frozen file.

What it doesn't do: trim, or add text or music. If your browser can only record WebM, the converter says so; Instagram's Graph API and ad specs list MP4 and MOV, so make the copy in Chrome, Edge or Safari. The tab has to stay open and in front while it records.

The social media image sizes guide lists every network on one page, and social media character limits covers captions. For Instagram, the story size tool, the post size tool and the grid maker work like this one. For YouTube, the thumbnail size tool checks covers for videos and Shorts. When the caption is the hard part, the caption generator page shows how one post reads on each network.

If the same video goes to more than one network, Spreadcast does that part. Upload it once and it publishes it to Instagram as a Reel, to YouTube and to your other connected accounts at the time you pick on one calendar. YouTube shows an upright video of up to three minutes as a Short, according to YouTube Help. Spreadcast can write a caption for each network in your brand's voice from the video itself. For TikTok you choose: post straight to your feed, or send the video to your TikTok drafts to add a sound and post it there.

The converter above stays free with nothing to sign up for. Spreadcast is free to try; publishing comes with the paid plans on the pricing page. If you make an app, start with your App Store link and Spreadcast drafts posts from your next update for you.