Meta Ad Sizes: Facebook and Instagram Image and Video Specs

For most Meta ads you need three shapes: 4:5 vertical for Facebook and Instagram feeds, 9:16 full-screen for Stories and Reels, and 1:1 square for carousels and the desktop right column. Meta's Ads Guide currently recommends 1440 × 1800 pixels for 4:5 and 1440 × 2560 for 9:16, while the familiar 1080-wide sizes (1080 × 1350, 1080 × 1920 and 1080 × 1080) remain comfortably above Meta's minimums. This guide covers each placement, the safe zones for vertical ads, video specs, text on images, and a workflow for designing once and adapting everywhere.

Meta ad sizes at a glance

If you only make one version, make it 4:5 for feeds. If you make two, add 9:16. Square comes third, unless carousels are a big part of your plan.

What size should a Facebook or Instagram feed ad be?

Use 4:5 vertical. At the same width, a 4:5 image is 25% taller than a square, so it fills more of a phone screen as people scroll, and Meta's Ads Guide lists 4:5 at 1440 × 1800 pixels as the recommended feed image size on both Facebook and Instagram. Square 1:1 works in feeds too, and it's the safer choice when the same asset must also run in carousels or on desktop.

That tolerance is small, so export at the exact ratio rather than eyeballing the crop. Instagram Feed accepts anything from 4:5 (the tallest) to 1.91:1 (the widest landscape). Landscape 1.91:1, such as 1200 × 628, was the classic link-ad shape and still runs in feeds, but it uses far less of a phone screen. Keep it for placements that need it rather than making it your default.

If you use Advantage+ placements, one ad can appear across feeds, Stories, Reels and more. Supplying both a 4:5 and a 9:16 version gives Meta the right shape for each, instead of leaving it to letterbox or crop a single image.

Carousel ads

Carousels hold 2 to 10 cards, each with its own image or video, headline and link. Meta recommends 1:1 cards of at least 1080 × 1080 pixels. Keep every card in the same ratio so the swipe feels consistent, and if you want vertical 4:5 cards, check the current Ads Guide for the placements you're using. Meta's guide currently suggests shorter headlines for carousel cards than for single-image ads, so a few words per card is plenty.

Facebook right column

Right column ads appear on desktop only, at a small size. Meta recommends a 1:1 image of at least 1080 × 1080 pixels and, because the image is shown so small, advises against adding text to it. A clean product shot with strong contrast is the safest choice.

Stories and Reels: 9:16 sizes and safe zones

Stories and Reels are full-screen vertical placements. Use 9:16 at 1440 × 2560 (Meta's current recommendation) or 1080 × 1920. The size is the easy part. The safe zone is where vertical ads usually go wrong.

The apps lay their own interface over your ad: the profile name and icon at the top, and the caption, call-to-action and engagement buttons towards the bottom and the right-hand edge. Anything important placed underneath can be covered or cropped. Meta's current guidance for Reels on both apps, and for Instagram Stories, is to leave roughly the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% on each side free of text, logos and other key elements.

Facebook Stories has listed a smaller bottom margin than Reels in Meta's guide, but designing to the stricter numbers means one asset works in all four vertical placements. Check Meta's current safe-zone guidance before you finalise a template.

Notice what the table shows: the safe area is close to a square, sitting in the upper-middle of the frame. That's the key to designing one master asset, covered below.

Video ad specs: length, file type and sound

Meta's technical requirements for video are consistent across most placements. What changes is the shape and the maximum length.

Length limits vary by placement and are far longer than any ad needs. At the time of writing, the Ads Guide allows Facebook Feed videos of up to 241 minutes and Instagram Reels ads of up to 15 minutes, while Facebook Stories videos are capped at 3 minutes. Treat these as ceilings, not targets.

What matters in practice:

• Show the product and the hook in the first second or two. That's what hook rate measures: how many people keep watching past the opening seconds.
• Earn the rest. Hold rate shows whether viewers stay beyond the hook. If it drops sharply, the middle is too slow.
• Start short. A 15 to 30 second cut is a sensible first test for most direct-response ads. Try longer edits once you know what holds attention.
• Design for sound off, reward sound on. Burn in captions for the key lines, and use music or voice that adds something for people who are listening.
• Shoot or reframe for 9:16. Creator-style UGC ads are usually filmed vertically already, while a feed video with bars above and below looks like an afterthought in Reels.

How much text can you put on a Meta ad image?

Technically, as much as you like. Meta retired its old rule that penalised images with more than 20% text, but its own guidance still favours images with little text, and a crowded image is hard to read on a phone anyway.

• One line on the image, two at most: the offer, one benefit or the price.
• Make it legible at phone size. View the export at actual size on a phone. If you have to squint, it's too small.
• Keep text inside the safe zones for 9:16, and away from the edges of 4:5 and 1:1, where crops can clip it.
• Skip text on right column images. Meta recommends none at that size.
• Let the copy fields carry the detail. Primary text, headline and description do the explaining. Our ad copy formulas cover what to write, and the ad copy checker shows how much fits before Meta truncates it.
• Hold image claims to the same standard as copy. Meta reviews both.

How do you design one master asset for every placement?

Designing three separate ads for three shapes triples the work and lets the versions drift apart. A better approach: design once at 9:16, keep everything essential inside the safe area, then crop to 4:5 and 1:1.

Worked example: one 9:16 master, three exports

Example: a product ad on a 1080 × 1920 canvas.

1. Fill the whole canvas with the background or scene, edge to edge, so every crop has something behind it.
2. Mark the safe area: 270 px clear at the top, 670 px at the bottom and 65 px on each side. What's left is roughly 950 × 980 px, running from about 270 px to 1250 px down the frame.
3. Place the product, the one line of text and the logo inside that area. Leave the space above and below for scenery.
4. Export the 9:16 version as it is.
5. Crop to 4:5: a 1080 × 1350 window starting about 85 px from the top keeps the whole safe area in frame, with roughly 185 px of breathing room above and below it.
6. Crop to 1:1: a 1080 × 1080 window starting about 220 px from the top still contains the safe area, with about 50 px to spare at the top and bottom. That's tight, so if square matters to you, keep the key content a little more compact.

At 1440 × 2560 the same proportions apply: multiply every pixel figure by 1.33. Ads Manager lets you use different images or videos for different placements within one ad, so upload the 4:5 version for feeds and the 9:16 version for Stories and Reels.

For video, do the same with a 9:16 edit: keep captions and on-screen text inside the safe area, then reframe for 4:5. Some teams prefer the reverse, designing at 4:5 and extending the background for 9:16. Either works. What matters is that one layout drives every version.

Common sizing mistakes to avoid

• Running a square image in Stories. Meta letterboxes it with bands above and below, which looks unfinished next to native full-screen ads. Make a 9:16 version instead.
• Upscaling a small product photo. Stretching a low-resolution packshot to 1440 pixels wide makes it soft. Start from the largest original you have.
• Exporting close to the ratio, not at it. With tolerances as small as 1% on Instagram Feed, a 1080 × 1300 export is not 4:5. Use exact dimensions.
• Checking only on a desktop monitor. Review every version on a phone, at actual size, because that's where most people will see it.

Checklist: before you upload

• A 4:5 version for feeds (1440 × 1800 or 1080 × 1350).
• A 9:16 version for Stories and Reels (1440 × 2560 or 1080 × 1920), with nothing important in the top 14%, the bottom 35% or the outer 6% on each side.
• A 1:1 version for carousels and the right column, at least 1080 × 1080.
• Images as JPG or PNG under 30 MB. Video as MP4 or MOV under 4 GB, H.264 with AAC audio.
• Text on images is short, large and inside the safe area, with none on right column images.
• Captions on every video, and the product visible in the opening seconds.
• The same offer and price on every version and on the landing page.
• Each placement previewed in Ads Manager before publishing.
• Anything unusual, such as long videos or new formats, rechecked against Meta's current Ads Guide.

How Fly ROAS helps

Fly ROAS generates image ads in 4:5 for feeds, 1:1 for square placements and 9:16 for Stories and Reels, built from your real product photos. Every size starts from your real packshot, and a pre-flight check flags any ad where the label, text or colours drift from your photo. It launches ads into your own Meta ad account, created paused by default so you can review each one before it goes live. If you'd rather keep designing yourself, the master-asset workflow above works with any design tool. To try it on one brand, start your test flight.

The short version

Three shapes cover almost everything: 4:5 for feeds, 9:16 for Stories and Reels, and 1:1 for carousels and the right column. Export at 1440 wide if you can, or at the familiar 1080-wide sizes if your workflow is built around them, and keep key content away from the edges of vertical frames. Design once, crop carefully, and recheck the Ads Guide whenever you rely on a specific limit. Then put your energy where it pays off: finding out which creative wins with a creative testing framework, and refreshing it before ad fatigue sets in.