Meta Video Ad Specs 2026: Reels, Feed And Stories

Meta Video Ad Specs At A Glance

Here is every main placement on one table. The numbers come from Meta's Ads Guide as reported by current spec guides. Where guides disagree, the cell shows the range and section 9 explains it.

Every placement takes MP4 or MOV up to 4 GB. The pattern to notice: lengths are so generous they never decide anything. What decides whether your ad works is the shape and the safe zone. A 25-second Reel with the product hidden behind the caption is worse than a 9-second one with the product in the clear.

Two shapes cover nearly everything: 9:16 for Reels and Stories, 4:5 for Feed. Square 1:1 is still supported and still needed for some placements, covered in section 8.

Feed Video Specs

Feed video should be 4:5 vertical, 1080x1350 or larger. That shape takes the most screen space a feed allows on a phone, and it is the ratio every guide we checked recommends for Feed.

Feed has no fixed safe zone printed the way Reels does, because the interface sits above and below the video rather than on it. Guides still advise keeping text off the very edges and the bottom strip. One guide, 1ClickReport, suggests about 100 pixels clear at the top and sides of a 4:5 frame and about 250 at the bottom. Treat that as a rule of thumb from a vendor.

Desktop is the catch. Biddy's October 2026 spec sheet says Facebook desktop Feed displays video at 1:1, so a 4:5 file can show with bars or a tighter frame there. Build for the phone first, then check the desktop preview before launch.

Reels Ad Specs And Safe Zone

Reels ads are 9:16 full-screen video, and Meta's interface covers the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% on each side. Everything important goes in the middle.

The top strip holds the Reels title and camera and profile buttons. The bottom strip holds your page name, the ad caption, the call-to-action button and the like, comment and share stack. Most of the guides we checked print the same three percentages for Reels. Here they are in pixels.

A few details change this box:

• Disclaimers push the caption up. Biddy advises keeping the bottom 40% clear if a Reels ad carries a disclaimer.
• Long captions cover more. Billo, which updated its guide in June 2026, recommends treating the full bottom 35% as unsafe because caption length varies.
• Footage still fills the frame. The safe zone is for text, logos and the product's key moment. Background footage should run edge to edge, or Meta may pad it.

On Facebook Reels, one tool maker, Socialync, notes it could not confirm the percentages on Meta's Facebook Reels page and uses the Instagram Reels margins. Every other guide applies the same numbers to both apps. Build to them and check on a real phone.

Reels-Specific Limits

Biddy and AdWize list Instagram Reels ads at up to 15 minutes and Facebook Reels with no maximum. Biddy also lists what Instagram Reels ads cannot use: licensed music, face or camera effects, GIFs and product tags. That rules out trending audio from the app's library. Use music you hold a license for, or an original track.

Stories Ad Specs

Stories ads are 9:16 like Reels, with one shape for both apps. The safe zone is where guides split, and it decides how much of the bottom you can use.

The bottom margin used to be 20% for Stories and 35% for Reels. Billo reports that Meta moved Stories and Reels to one shared safe zone starting in March 2026, so a single vertical file works in both. MarketerTools and 1ClickReport still print 20% for Stories. AdWize prints 20% for Facebook Stories and 35% for Instagram Stories.

Build to 35% for both. If the 20% figure is right, you lose a little space. If it is wrong and you built to 20%, your call to action sits under the reply bar. The cautious number costs less.

The 15-second split matters more than the length cap. Biddy and Sprites both report that Facebook Stories video longer than 15 seconds is broken into several cards. Put the hook, the product and the offer inside the first 15 seconds so the first card works alone.

What Gets Cropped

When one file runs in placements with different shapes, Meta crops, pads or zooms it. Knowing which edge disappears tells you where not to put the product.

The 9:16-in-Feed row is the one that matters for most brands. Ad strategist Jon Loomer wrote that vertical creative "may appear as 4x5 in the feed" and opens closer to full length when tapped (his site blocks link checks, so it is cited by name). MarketerTools says Meta's reformatting crops the top and bottom equally. 1ClickReport says Feed crops to 4:5 or 1:1 from the center.

Do the math on a 1080x1920 frame. A centered 4:5 window is 1080x1350, which leaves 285 pixels cut from the top and 285 from the bottom. Our own arithmetic, so check it against your previews. The practical rule: if a 9:16 file might run in Feed, keep the product and the main caption inside the center 1080x1350 area. Billo goes one step tighter and suggests keeping critical elements inside a centered 1080x1080 square, which survives every crop listed here.

File, Codec And Audio Specs

Meta accepts MP4 or MOV up to 4 GB, and every guide we checked agrees on that ceiling. The encoding details below come from Biddy, Sprites and MarketerTools, which all quote the same Meta recommendations.

Minimum sizes are where sources drift. Biddy says Meta recommends at least 600 pixels wide for video. MarketerTools and Ryze list 500x889 as the Stories and Reels minimum. MarketerTools also lists 720p as a general minimum. None of this matters if you export at 1080 or above, which you should.

On 1080 versus 1440: several 2026 guides now recommend 1440x2560 and 1440x1800 uploads for high-density screens. The file is larger and still far below 4 GB. If you shot in 4K, export the 1440 versions. If you shot on a phone in 1080, do not upscale; 1080 is fine.

Keep an audio track even on a captions-first edit. AdsUploader lists audio as required for Feed video, even if it is only music. AdsUploader lists Reels as sound on by default, so the track gets heard more there than in Feed.

Text, Caption And Character Limits

Meta's ad copy limits are recommended visible lengths. Text over the limit is cut off behind a "more" link rather than rejected. The numbers change by placement.

Biddy, Sprites and AdWize print the same figures above. AdsUploader gives 125 and 40 for Feed instead, which matches Instagram Feed rather than Facebook Feed. Use the shorter number when one ad runs in both.

The Reels limit is the one that surprises people. Forty characters is about six words. Write the Reels primary text as a hook line, and let the video and the on-screen captions carry the rest.

On-Screen Text

The old rule that limited image ads to 20% text is gone. Social Media Today reported in September 2020 that Facebook told advertisers it would no longer penalize ads with more image text in auctions and delivery. Some 2026 guides, including Ryze, still claim text-heavy creative gets less delivery. We found no Meta source for that, so treat it as unverified. The real limit on on-screen text today is the safe zone: text in the bottom 35% of a Reel sits under the caption.

Burned-In Captions

Burn captions into the video. Biddy reports that Facebook Reels ads do not support auto-captions. MarketerTools says SRT caption files and auto-captions are available in other placements. Burned-in captions work everywhere and do not depend on viewer settings. Keep them inside the safe box, above the 35% line, at a size you can read on a phone at arm's length.

Carousel, Marketplace And Others

The smaller placements mostly take square 1:1 video, or the Feed file. Here is what the guides list for each.

The right column is a real disagreement. AdWize lists 1:1 video at 1 second to 241 minutes there. AdsUploader says the right column takes images only. It is a small desktop placement, so it rarely matters for a Shopify brand's video budget. If it does, the Ads Manager preview settles it.

For carousels, the 1:1 rule is the trap. Instagram accepts 4:5 for image-only carousels, but Biddy and AdWize both say a carousel containing video must be square. Mixing a 4:5 video card into a carousel means Meta crops it.

Where Spec Guides Disagree

Meta revises its Ads Guide often, and third-party guides copy it at different times. Here is every conflict we found, and the number we build to.

Notice the pattern. Every conflict is solved by picking the stricter number. Shorter text, a bigger bottom margin, a shorter video and content kept near the center all pass every version of the rules. A creative built to the loosest number passes some placements and fails others without telling you.

Small arithmetic errors also circulate. MarketerTools, for example, labels the 14% top margin of a 1920-pixel frame as about 250 pixels, when 14% is about 269. Billo's guide lists 6% side margins and also says to stay inside the center 80% of the width, which does not quite match. These are small, but they are why you should not copy a template's pixel grid without checking the percentages.

One Shoot For Every Placement

For a Shopify brand, the efficient plan is one vertical shoot, framed so it crops cleanly to 4:5 and 1:1, then exported in two shapes.

A 4K phone or camera gives you room to reframe the 4:5 version without losing sharpness. If you shoot in 1080, frame a little wider than feels natural so the 4:5 cut does not feel cramped.

UGC-style creator video fits this plan well, since creators already shoot vertical on phones. Brief them on the center square and the caption line before they film. Fixing a product that sits in the bottom third after the fact usually means a reshoot. Our UGC at scale guide covers briefing creators, and the Meta creative testing system covers what to do with the cuts once they run.

Pre-Launch Checklist

Run this before every Meta video ad goes live. It takes five minutes and catches most of the problems in this guide.

1. Two shapes uploaded. A 9:16 file for Reels and Stories and a 4:5 file for Feed, in the same ad.
2. Safe zone overlay checked. Open the 9:16 file with a 14/35/6 overlay, or use the safe zone preview in Ads Manager. 1ClickReport calls Meta's version the Safe Zone Guardrail and says it highlights unsafe areas during setup.
3. Product visible in the center square in every scene that matters.
4. First 15 seconds work alone, for the Stories card split.
5. Captions burned in and readable on a phone at arm's length.
6. Reels primary text under 40 characters, Feed headline under 27.
7. Licensed audio only. No app-library music in Instagram Reels ads.
8. Export checked: MP4, H.264, AAC, fixed frame rate, under 4 GB.
9. Previewed on a real phone in Reels, Stories and Feed before spending.

The last step catches things no spec sheet can, such as a caption that reads fine on a monitor and disappears under a long page name on a phone. If you run ads through an agency, ask to see these previews. Our ads management team sends them before every launch.

Shoot Meta Ads Yourself Or Hire A Creator

We make UGC and product video for Meta ads, so weigh this accordingly. Many brands should make their first Meta ads themselves.

• You are testing angles, not polishing them. Phone-shot vertical video that follows the safe zone rules is enough to learn which hook works. Spend on production after a hook has proven itself.
• Someone on your team is comfortable on camera. A founder or staff member talking about the product often outperforms a polished ad in Feed and Reels, and it costs nothing but time.
• You have customer content you can license. Real customer videos, used with written permission, already look native to Reels.

Hiring makes sense when you need many variations quickly for testing, when the product needs a demo that is hard to film well, or when your time is worth more than a shoot. For reference, our UGC review-style video is $495 for a 25-second video, a pack of three is $1,295 and a pack of six is $2,495, and our service page lists every video as delivered in vertical 9:16, square 1:1 and widescreen 16:9. Current prices are on the pricing page, and our UGC video production page shows the formats and process.

Either way, the specs on this page are the same. A creator, an agency and a founder with a phone all lose the call to action if they put it in the bottom 35% of a Reel.