The interface is opaque, not translucent
Anything underneath the profile row or the reply box is not dimmed. It is gone, until somebody screenshots the story, and by then the call to action they never saw has already failed.
Free tool
Instagram Story Size Checker
Drop your story in and see two things on your own design: what the 9:16 crop removes, and which parts Instagram covers with its own interface. Nothing is uploaded.
Free forever No login Nothing uploaded
Your file
Drop in the image you are about to upload, or type its pixel dimensions if you already know them.
Drop an image here
or click to choose a file. It stays on your device.
- Export at
- 1080 x 1920
- Ratio
- 9:16
- Practical floor (not published)
- 720 px wide
- Safe area (Meta's ad guidance)
- 14% top, 20% bottom, 6% each side
- File size limit
- 30 MB
- Formats
- JPG, PNG
What happens on upload
Every row above without a qualifier is Instagram's own published figure. Checked against Meta's Business Help Center on 22 September 2026.
What survives
Free Instagram Story Size Checker
An Instagram story size checker answers the question a size guide cannot. The size is 1080 x 1920 and everyone prints it. What nobody shows you is where Instagram puts its own interface on top of your design, and how much of your frame that costs.
Drop a file in and the browser reads its dimensions, compares the shape to 9:16, and draws both the crop and the covered areas on your own image. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.
How the Story Checker Works
-
1
Drop the file in, or type the dimensions
The browser decodes the image and reads its width and height. That is all the arithmetic needs, which is why nothing is sent anywhere.
-
2
The shape is judged against 9:16
Instagram crops to 9:16 from the centre before anything else, so a file of another shape is a crop problem first and a resolution problem second.
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3
The crop is drawn on your frame
Whatever the upload discards is dimmed on your own image, with the percentage printed beside it.
-
4
The covered areas are marked
Two pink bands: the profile row and progress bar across the top, the reply box and icons across the bottom. Both are opaque on a real phone.
-
5
You get the file type and size checked too
The two things a size guide never looks at, and the two most common reasons an upload is refused.
Four more, all free
One checker per surface. Every one runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and none of them wants an account.
🖼
YouTube Thumbnail Size Checker
Drop a thumbnail in and see what YouTube does to it, against the current 3840 x 2160 spec. Nothing is uploaded.
Try it free 📘Facebook Cover Photo Size Checker
Facebook crops covers differently on desktop and mobile. See both crops and the area that survives them. Nothing is uploaded.
Try it free 💼LinkedIn Banner Size Checker
See the 4:1 crop, the 15 percent mobile cut and where your profile photo lands on your banner. Nothing is uploaded.
Try it free 📐Social Media Image Sizes
Every surface in one table, each figure dated against the platform own page, with a checker per surface.
Try it freeWhy Check a Story Before You Post
A story is the one format where the platform draws over your work by default, and the parts it covers are the parts designers reach for first.
It costs 34% of the frame
The top 269 and bottom 384 pixels of a 1920 pixel canvas. Nearly a third of what you exported belongs to Instagram rather than to you.
The instinct is to use the full height
A headline set flush to the top edge and a call to action at the bottom is the natural layout, and it is exactly the one that disappears.
A third of your story belongs to Instagram.
The top 269 pixels and the bottom 384 are theirs, and they are opaque. Everything you need read goes in the middle, or it does not get read.
The Size Is Public. The Safe Zone Is What Ruins Designs
Ask what size an Instagram story is and you will get 1080 x 1920 from a hundred pages, from Google directly, and from anyone who has posted one. It is not a secret and it is not the problem. The problem is that Instagram draws its own interface over your design and nobody shows you where.
So a story has two canvases. There is the file, which is 1080 x 1920, and there is the part a viewer can read, which is roughly 1080 x 1330 in the middle. Design for the first and your headline sits under the progress bar. Design for the second and it works in the feed, in a highlight, and in a screenshot. A feed post is a different shape again, which the feed size checker handles and the size guide lists in full.
How to Export One That Survives
-
1
Build on a 1080 x 1920 canvas
Anything else is cropped to 9:16 from the centre, and you do not choose which part survives.
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2
Mark the middle 1080 x 1330 as the real canvas
Everything above and below is bleed: safe for background, unsafe for anything that has to be read. Set guides once and every story after it is quick.
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3
Bring the hook down off the top edge
That is where the profile row lands. The instinct to set a headline flush to the top is the most common way a story loses its opening line.
-
4
Keep the call to action off the bottom edge
The reply box covers it. This is the expensive one, because the element you lose is the one the story was for.
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5
Run the file through the checker
It draws the crop and both covered bands on your own design, scaled to whatever survives the crop.
Who This Checker Is For
Anyone posting stories weekly
The format rewards rhythm, and a template that respects the safe zone makes every story after the first one quick.
Designers handing files to someone else
The person posting is rarely the person who made it. A check before handover stops the round trip.
Brands reusing feed artwork
A feed post is a different shape. This shows exactly what the story crop takes before it goes out.
What the Checker Tells You
Every check returns the same four things, so the answer has the same shape whichever file you drop in.
Refused, cropped, resized or clean
One line saying what Instagram does to this exact file, before you upload it.
All of them, worst first
Every thing wrong with the file, not the first one. A file can be the wrong type and the wrong size at once.
Drawn on your own image
The crop dimmed, and every area Instagram covers: the profile row, the reply box and the side margins.
Export at 1080 x 1920
What to re-export, and where a re-export will not help because the detail is not in the source.
Instagram Story Size: FAQ
01 What size is an Instagram story? +
1080 x 1920 pixels, which is 9:16. Instagram accepts nothing else for a story and crops anything of a different shape to fit, centred, so you do not choose the framing.
02 What is the Instagram story safe zone? +
Roughly the top 269 pixels and the bottom 384 pixels of a 1080 x 1920 story are covered by Instagram's own interface: the profile row and progress bar at the top, the reply box and icons at the bottom. That is about 34% of the frame. Keep type, logos and calls to action inside the middle 1080 x 1330.
03 Why is my story text cut off at the bottom? +
It is not cut off, it is covered. The reply box is drawn over the bottom of every story and it is opaque. Anything underneath it is invisible until someone screenshots the story, and by then the call to action has already been missed.
04 What happens if my story is the wrong ratio? +
Instagram crops it to 9:16 from the centre. A square 1080 x 1080 image loses nothing horizontally but is scaled to fill the height, so the edges go. Drop the file into the checker above and it draws exactly what goes.
05 Is the safe zone the same for reels? +
No. A reel is the same 1080 x 1920 canvas but its interface is different: the caption, audio strip and action buttons take more of the bottom and the right side. A story design usually survives as a reel cover, but a reel design rarely survives as a story.
When the Story Fits and There Is Still Nothing to Post
Getting to 1080 x 1920 with the safe zone respected takes one template, and then it is solved forever. The harder problem is having something worth putting in the frame tomorrow, and the day after. Selzee reads your comments, reviews and post results, turns them into concepts worth making, and learns from what each one does.
- A file that arrives the way you made it
- Type and logos still visible after the platform draws its own interface
- One export instead of three attempts
- A check that takes a second, on your own device, with nothing uploaded
Start Posting More Than You Planned To
The checker is free, with no signup and no credit card. When you want the thing in the frame to come from your own audience rather than a guess, start free.
Get started for freePrefer to explore on your own? Get started or browse free ecommerce tools.
Keep exploring: the Instagram feed size checker, every other surface, the YouTube thumbnail checker, the Instagram size guide.