Most Facebook ad size guides copy each other, and many still say 1080 x 1920 for Stories and 125 characters of primary text everywhere. Meta's own Ads Guide says something different for Stories, Reels and Facebook Feed. It also disagrees with Meta's Help Center in a few places, and few guides mention it.
This post gives the sizes from Meta's pages, placement by placement, as they read on 24 September 2026. Where two Meta pages disagree, it says so and tells you which one to follow. I run Meta accounts every week and I build Adsap, which uploads creatives to Meta for its users. Every value has a source at the end.
The short answer: three sizes cover almost every placement
If you make one creative in three shapes, you cover Feed, Stories, Reels and the square placements.
| Shape | Size Meta lists | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| 4:5 vertical | 1440 x 1800 pixels | Facebook Feed and Instagram Feed |
| 9:16 full screen | 1440 x 2560 pixels | Facebook and Instagram Stories, Facebook and Instagram Reels |
| 1:1 square | at least 1080 x 1080 pixels | Marketplace, Search, the right column, most carousel cards |
Three shapes, to scale
1080 x 1080
Marketplace, Search, carousel
1440 x 1800
Facebook and Instagram Feed
1440 x 2560
Stories and Reels
Images: JPG or PNG, 30 MB at most. Videos: MP4 or MOV, 4 GB at most. Meta also takes GIF as a video file on Feed and Facebook Reels.
Image ad sizes by placement
| Placement | Ratio | Recommended size | Minimum width |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Feed | 4:5 | 1440 x 1800 | 600 px |
| Instagram Feed | 4:5 | 1440 x 1800 | 500 px |
| Facebook Stories | 9:16 | 1440 x 2560 | 500 px |
| Instagram Stories | 9:16 | 1440 x 2560 | 500 px |
| Facebook Reels | 9:16 | 1440 x 2560 | 600 px |
| Instagram Reels | 9:16 | 1440 x 2560 | 500 px |
| Facebook Marketplace | 1:1 | at least 1080 x 1080 | |
| Facebook Search | 1.91:1 to 1:1 | at least 1080 x 1080 | |
| Facebook right column | 1:1 | at least 1080 x 1080 | 254 px |
Meta allows a small error on the ratio: 3% on Facebook Feed and Facebook Reels, 1% on the Instagram placements. An image 2% off 4:5 is within the tolerance on Facebook Feed and outside it on Instagram.
For Facebook Reels, the Ads Guide adds one line worth reading twice: "Due to the small image size, we recommend that you don't add text on images."
Video ad sizes by placement
| Placement | Ratio | Recommended size | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Feed | 4:5 | 1440 x 1800 | 1 second to 241 minutes |
| Instagram Feed | 9:16 | 1080 x 1920 | 1 second to 60 minutes |
| Facebook Stories | 9:16 | 1440 x 2560 | 1 second to 3 minutes |
| Instagram Stories | 9:16 | 1440 x 2560 | 1 second to 60 minutes |
| Facebook Reels | 9:16 | 1440 x 2560 | no maximum |
| Instagram Reels | 9:16 | 1440 x 2560 | 0 seconds to 15 minutes |
| Facebook in-stream | 16:9 or 1:1 | at least 1080 x 1080 | 5 to 15 seconds on desktop, 5 seconds to 10 minutes on mobile |
| Facebook Search and Marketplace | 1:1 | at least 1080 x 1080 | 1 second to 241 minutes |
The encoding Meta asks for is the same on every page: H.264, square pixels, a fixed frame rate, progressive scan, and stereo AAC audio at 128 kbps or more. Captions and sound are "optional, but recommended" on Feed. On Reels, sound becomes "optional, but strongly recommended".
Two things to know about Instagram Reels ads. They take MP4 and MOV only, no GIF. And they reject licensed music, face or camera effects, product tags, GIFs inside the video, and Reels published before 15 October 2021.
Text lengths: the 125 characters rule is not everywhere
Meta's Help Center gives one rule "for most placements": 125 characters of primary text, 40 for the headline, 25 for the description. The Ads Guide then lists other numbers per placement:
| Placement | Primary text | Headline | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Feed (image or video) | 50 to 150 | 27 | |
| Instagram Feed | 125 | 40 | |
| Facebook and Instagram Stories | 125 | 40 on Facebook, none listed on Instagram | |
| Facebook Reels | 40 | 55 | |
| Instagram Reels | 44 | ||
| Carousel on Facebook Feed | 80 | 20 | 18 |
| Marketplace and Search | 125 | 40 | 30 |
These are the lengths before Meta cuts the text with "See more", not hard limits. An Instagram caption can run to 63,000 characters. What changes is how much people read. Meta's own advice fits in one line: primary text should "span 1-3 lines at most". Put the offer in the first 40 characters and every placement shows it.
Stories and Reels safe zones
Stories and Reels draw the profile name at the top and the call to action at the bottom, on top of your creative. Text or a logo in those bands gets covered.
1440 x 2560
Keep these bands free
- Top 14%: profile name and ad label. about 360 px
- Bottom 35%: call to action and text. about 900 px
- Sides 6%: tall screens crop the edges. about 86 px each
On a 1440 x 2560 frame, that is:
- 14% at the top: about the first 360 pixels.
- 35% at the bottom: about the last 900 pixels.
- 6% on each side: about 86 pixels.
The Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels and Facebook Stories image pages all give these three numbers. The Facebook Stories video page gives a different bottom band: 14% (250 pixels) at the top and 20% (340 pixels) at the bottom. Follow the larger 35% and the creative works on all four placements.
Ads with a legal disclaimer need more room. Meta's safe zone article says to "leave the bottom 40% of your ad free from text, logos and other key creative elements".
Carousel ad specs
A carousel holds 2 to 10 cards, each an image or a video.
| Placement | Card ratio | Size | Video length per card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Feed | 1:1 | at least 1080 x 1080 | 1 second to 240 minutes |
| Instagram Feed | 4:5 if every card is an image, 1:1 as soon as one card is a video | at least 1080 x 1080 | 1 second to 2 minutes |
| Instagram Stories | 9:16 | at least 1080 x 1920 | 1 to 15 seconds |
| Facebook Stories | images only, 3 to 10 cards | at least 1080 x 1920 | video not supported |
Every card needs a landing page URL on Facebook Feed. Keep one ratio across all the cards: Meta recommends "square 1:1 and consistent ratios" for every video in a carousel.
Collection ad specs
A collection ad is a cover image or video with product tiles under it, and it opens an Instant Experience.
- The cover takes the first image or video of the Instant Experience, at 1.91:1 to 1:1 and at least 1080 x 1080 pixels.
- You need "at least 4 product images or products from your catalog".
- Meta may crop the product tiles to 1:1 or 4:5.
- Collection ads run on mobile placements only.
What changed on Meta placements recently
Meta dates a few changes in its Help Center:
- Late 2024: tall video ads in Instagram Feed (taller than 4:5) stopped being cropped. They now show at full height with the header on top, so they need the Reels safe zone.
- June 2025: the Videos tab on Facebook became the Reels tab.
- November 2025: post-loop ads on Reels ended. Reels overlay ads remain.
- March 2026: the Facebook Feed placement started to include the Friends tab, and single media ads on Facebook Feed stopped showing a URL in the ad footer.
The move to 4:5 for Feed and 1440 x 2560 for Stories shows on the current pages, but no Meta page I read gives a date for it.
Where Meta's own pages disagree
These are the conflicts that change what you export. In each case, the safer choice works on both versions.
- Instagram Feed images. The Ads Guide and one Help Center article recommend 4:5. Another Help Center article says 1:1 "is recommended for single-image ads to be delivered to instagram feed". Export 4:5: Instagram shows it in full, and a 1:1 fallback is one crop away.
- Facebook Stories video length. The Ads Guide says 1 second to 3 minutes. The Help Center length table says 1 to 120 seconds. Stay under 2 minutes.
- Stories bottom margin. 35% on most pages, 20% on the Facebook Stories video page. Keep 35%.
- Description length. 25 characters in the Help Center, 30 on the Marketplace and Search pages. Write 25.
- Stories carousel cards. The Ads Guide allows up to 10 cards. Two Help Center articles say 3 on Stories. Put the best three first.
- Stories resolution. The placement pages say 1440 x 2560. Older Help Center articles and the Instagram Feed video page still say 1080 x 1920. Both have the same 9:16 shape, so a 1440 x 2560 export covers both.
How Adsap handles ad sizes
Adsap does not resize or crop anything. It sends your file to Meta as it is, so the sizes above still apply. Three things it does help with:
- One ad, three shapes. An Ad Sheet row has separate slots for a square, a vertical and a horizontal creative. Meta then shows each placement the version that fits.
- Pairing by file name. Name the files
summer-sale_4x5.jpgandsummer-sale_9x16.jpg, select both in the creative library and click Group Selected. Adsap pairs them by the end of the name, and one Ad Sheet row picks up both. Endings such as 1x1, 4x5, 9x16, 16x9, feed and story work without any setup. The creative library guide covers groups. - Upload limits. The web app takes JPG, PNG, GIF, MP4, MOV and AVI up to 500 MB per file. Through the AI copilot, videos up to 4 GB go straight from Google Drive or Dropbox to Meta, as the Google Drive upload guide explains.
In Claude, ChatGPT or Perplexity, the same check is one question:
List the creatives in my library for act_123 and tell me which ones have no 9:16 version.
For Meta's limits on campaigns, ad sets and minimum budgets, see the Meta ad specs and limits page in the Adsap docs.
Frequently asked questions
Meta's Ads Guide lists 4:5 at 1440 x 1800 pixels for both image and video on Facebook Feed, with a minimum width of 600 pixels. Images are JPG or PNG up to 30 MB; videos are MP4, MOV or GIF up to 4 GB.
9:16 at 1440 x 2560 pixels on the current Ads Guide placement pages. Older pages still say 1080 x 1920, which is the same shape. Keep about 14% at the top, 35% at the bottom and 6% on each side free of text and logos.
Up to 241 minutes on Facebook Feed, 60 minutes on Instagram Feed and Instagram Stories, 15 minutes on Instagram Reels, and 3 minutes on Facebook Stories according to the Ads Guide. The Help Center says 120 seconds for Facebook Stories, so stay under 2 minutes there.
Meta recommends 125 characters of primary text, 40 for the headline and 25 for the description on most placements. Facebook Feed lists 50 to 150 and a 27-character headline, Reels 40 or 44. These are display lengths before the text is cut, not hard limits.
1440 x 1800 pixels at 4:5 for Feed, plus a 1440 x 2560 version at 9:16 for Stories and Reels. With those two files, and a 1:1 crop for Marketplace and Search, every main placement gets an image that fits.
Sources
All pages read on 24 September 2026. Meta's Ads Guide and Help Center pages show no update date.
- Meta Ads Guide, image ads: Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, Facebook Reels, Instagram Reels, Marketplace, Search, right column.
- Meta Ads Guide, video ads: Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories, Facebook Reels, Instagram Reels, in-stream, Search, Marketplace.
- Meta Ads Guide, carousel ads: Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories.
- Meta Ads Guide, collection ads: Facebook Feed.
- Meta Help Center, ad text length: 125, 40 and 25 characters "for most placements", and "1-3 lines at most".
- Meta Help Center, aspect ratios by placement: 1:1 for Instagram Feed images, and "square 1:1 and consistent ratios" for carousel videos.
- Meta Help Center, Instagram Feed specs: 1.91:1 to 9:16, 4:5 recommended, and the 63,000-character caption.
- Meta Help Center, video length by placement: Facebook Stories 1 to 120 seconds, and the Friends tab joining Facebook Feed in March 2026.
- Meta Help Center, safe zones: the 40% rule for ads with a disclaimer.
- Meta Help Center, carousel specs: 3 cards on Stories.
- Meta Help Center, collection ads: at least 4 products, tiles cropped to 1:1 or 4:5. Mobile placements only.
- Meta Help Center, dated changes: tall Instagram Feed video, Videos tab renamed Reels, post-loop Reels ads ended, no URL in the Facebook Feed footer.
- Adsap docs: creative library, Google Drive upload, Meta ad specs and limits.