QuickATools

Creators · Free browser tool

Vertical Video Crop & Aspect Ratio Planner

Preview your vertical videos with Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts UI overlays to ensure your captions and subjects stay in the safe zone.

Drag & drop a video frame or photo

Any aspect ratio · JPG, PNG, WebP · up to 25 MB

Platform overlay

Switch UI chrome to match where you publish.

Guide layers

The dashed cyan box marks exactly what survives a center crop to vertical 9:16. Keep faces, subtitles, and key visuals inside it if you're repurposing horizontal or square footage.

Live crop & safe-zone preview

Instagram Reels · export at 1080×1920

Transparent PNG overlay · 100% client-side, nothing is uploaded

Frequently Asked Questions

How is the safe zone different between Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts?

Each app places its own UI chrome slightly differently: TikTok and Reels both use a right-side action rail (like, comment, share) plus a bottom caption/sound bar, while YouTube Shorts stacks like/comment/share/remix buttons a bit further down and reserves space for a channel row. The exact pixel boundaries also shift as each app updates its interface, so treat these overlays as a close approximation rather than pixel-perfect specs.

Where should I actually place captions and text on a vertical video?

Keep burned-in captions, key text, and your main subject inside the dashed cyan 9:16 crop boundary and outside the red danger-zone bands—especially the bottom band (caption/sound bar) and the right-side rail (action buttons). A common mistake is centering text vertically in the full frame, which often lands directly under the caption text the platform itself adds.

Why does the 9:16 crop matter if my footage is already vertical?

If your source frame is horizontal (16:9), square (1:1), or any ratio other than 9:16, publishing it as-is either adds black bars or gets auto-cropped by the platform in a way you don't control. This tool shows you the exact centered vertical slice a 9:16 crop would keep, dimming everything that gets cut off, so you can reframe or re-shoot before you export.

Is my uploaded image or video frame stored anywhere?

No. Your image is loaded directly in the browser using a local object URL and is never uploaded to a server. The downloaded safe-zone guide is generated entirely on your device as well.

Tools You Might Also Need

Explore other free browser-based utilities for sellers, creators, and professionals.

Why Caption Visibility Decides Watch Time on Reels, TikTok, and Shorts

Short-form algorithms lean heavily on watch time and completion rate, and both collapse the moment a viewer can't read your caption or see your subject clearly. A subtitle hidden behind the like button, or a face cropped out by a bad 9:16 crop, is enough to make someone scroll away in the first second—exactly the signal that tells the algorithm to stop distributing the post further.

Each platform also keeps tweaking its own UI: button stacks move, caption bars grow or shrink, and new features like Remix or Stitch add fresh chrome to plan around. Rather than memorizing exact pixel specs that change every few months, use the general pattern this tool encodes—keep the right-side action rail and bottom caption/sound bar clear on TikTok and Reels, and keep the like/comment/share stack and channel row clear on YouTube Shorts—and always leave a comfortable margin rather than cutting it exactly to the line.

If you're repurposing horizontal or square footage into vertical content, the 9:16 crop guide is the more important layer to watch: it shows you exactly what a centered vertical crop keeps and what gets discarded, so you can reframe a shot or add motion/zoom in your editor before it goes out looking awkwardly cropped.

Once your layout is planned, tighten the caption itself with the Hashtag & Caption Length Checker , double-check platform-specific overlay collisions on a real screenshot with the TikTok & Shorts Safe Zone Checker , and schedule the post using the Best Time to Post Calculator . This free planner runs entirely in your browser—your image is never uploaded to a server.