Facebook Ad Sizes and Specs: 2026 Cheat Sheet
Facebook ad sizes come down to three aspect ratios: 4:5 (1080 x 1350) for feeds, 9:16 (1080 x 1920) for Stories and Reels, and 1:1 (1080 x 1080) as the fallback that renders acceptably everywhere. Export at 1080 pixels on the short edge and you have covered the pixel question.
The part that actually breaks ads is not resolution. It is safe zones, text truncation, and assuming one file will work across every placement.
What size should a Facebook ad be?
Design to the ratio, not to a pixel count.
| Placement | Ratio | Pixels | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook and Instagram feed | 4:5 | 1080 x 1350 | Tallest ratio the feed allows, so it takes the most screen |
| Feed (square fallback) | 1:1 | 1080 x 1080 | Safe everywhere, wastes vertical space |
| Stories and Reels | 9:16 | 1080 x 1920 | Full screen, heavy interface overlay |
| Right column (desktop) | 1.91:1 | 1200 x 628 | Tiny render, treat as an afterthought |
| Carousel cards | 1:1 | 1080 x 1080 | Every card must be the same ratio |
4:5 is the default worth building first because it occupies more of a phone screen than 1:1 without being rejected from any feed placement.
What are the safe zones and why do they matter more?
Because the platform draws its own interface on top of your creative.
In Stories and Reels, roughly the top 14 percent and bottom 20 percent of the 1920px frame are occupied by the profile name, the caption, the call-to-action button, and the audio ticker. Anything you place there gets covered or sits awkwardly behind a button.
Practical version: keep all text and product detail inside the middle 60 percent of a 9:16 frame. Use the outer bands for background only.
Feed placements have a smaller version of the same problem. The bottom of a 4:5 image sits directly above the headline and button, so a logo lock-up at the very bottom edge reads as clutter.
What are the text limits?
The character limits are generous. The visible limits are not.
- Primary text. Truncates after roughly 125 characters on mobile, with a "See more" link. Anything after that is read only by people already interested.
- Headline. Around 40 characters before it clips on smaller screens.
- Description. Often not shown at all depending on placement. Never put anything load-bearing there.
So the working rule is: the offer, the hook, or the reason to stop must be inside the first sentence of primary text and inside a 40-character headline. The rest is for people who already leaned in. How to structure that opening is covered in how to write Facebook ad copy.
Text on the image itself is no longer a hard rejection, but image-heavy text still tends to deliver worse because it reads as an ad faster. The old 20 percent text rule was retired, and what replaced it is a preference rather than a limit.
What about video specs?
Length limits run to 241 minutes, which is irrelevant. What matters is that the first two seconds decide whether anyone sees the third.
Captions are not optional. A large share of feed viewing happens with sound off, so a video whose message lives in the voiceover is a video most people never receive. Burn captions in rather than relying on auto-generated ones, because auto-captions do not appear in every placement.
Upload the highest-quality master you have. Meta re-encodes everything, and re-encoding a file that was already compressed twice is where the muddy, blocky look comes from.
Do I need a different file for every placement?
No, but you need at least two.
Meta's automatic placements will crop a single asset to fit, and its cropping is naive. It takes the centre. If your product sits in the lower third of a 4:5 frame, the 9:16 crop may cut it off entirely.
Two options:
- Upload per-placement assets. Cleanest result. In the ad creation flow you can replace the creative for individual placements rather than accepting the auto-crop.
- Design a safe master. Build 4:5 with the subject centred and generous margin, so the automatic crop cannot destroy it.
Option one wins on performance, option two wins on production time. Most brands should start at two and move to one for anything that scales. The placement map itself is broken down in Facebook ad placements explained.
How do I check what sizes competitors are actually using?
Open the Meta Ad Library at facebook.com/ads/library, filter to your country and category, and look at what is running.
This is more useful than any spec sheet, because it tells you what brands in your niche have settled on after testing. If every serious advertiser in your category runs 4:5 statics and 9:16 video, that is a tested answer to a question you were about to spend money on.
The library shows every active ad from any advertiser, free and without an account. It also shows a "Started running on" date, so an ad that has run for months is one whose format is working.
What it does not do is let you save anything. Ads disappear the moment they are paused, and there is no download button. Our free Meta Ad Library Downloader adds one, and its bulk mode packs a whole search into a single ZIP with a searchable index plus a CSV of every ad. Files keep their original dimensions, which is the point here.
For the wider walkthrough of the library itself, see the Meta Ad Library guide. For the format decision that sits above sizing, see Facebook ad formats.
Common spec mistakes that cost delivery
- Uploading 1:1 only. Costs you screen space in every feed and looks lazy in Reels.
- Text in the bottom 20 percent of a Story. Covered by the CTA.
- Relying on the description field. Frequently hidden.
- Exporting at 4K. No benefit. Meta compresses it, and the upload takes longer.
- Exporting below 1080px. Visible softness on modern phones.
- One asset, automatic placements, no preview. You are letting an algorithm crop your creative.
A rejected ad is a different problem from a badly sized one, and the causes are listed in why your Facebook ad was rejected.
The short version
Build 4:5 at 1080 x 1350 and 9:16 at 1080 x 1920. Keep everything important in the middle 60 percent of the frame. Put the hook in the first 125 characters and the first two seconds. Check the Ad Library for what your category actually runs before you spend a day producing something in a ratio nobody uses.
FAQ
What size should a Facebook ad be?
1080 x 1350 (4:5) for feed placements and 1080 x 1920 (9:16) for Stories and Reels covers almost every case. 1080 x 1080 (1:1) is the safe fallback if you can only make one asset.
What is the best aspect ratio for Facebook ads?
4:5 for feeds, because it takes up more of the screen than square without being disallowed anywhere. 9:16 for Stories and Reels, which are full-screen placements.
What size are Facebook Story ads?
1080 x 1920 pixels, a 9:16 ratio. Keep text and product detail out of the top 14 percent and bottom 20 percent of the frame, because interface elements sit there.
How long can a Facebook video ad be?
Technically up to 241 minutes, but that is not the useful answer. For cold traffic, under 15 seconds usually performs best, with the hook inside the first two seconds.
Does Facebook compress my ad images?
Yes. Every image and video is re-encoded on upload. Export a clean, high-quality master at 1080px on the short edge rather than a file that has already been compressed elsewhere.
What file format should I use for Facebook ads?
JPG or PNG for images, MP4 or MOV with H.264 video and AAC audio for video. These are the formats Meta handles most predictably.
The Klipio extension adds a download button to every ad in the Meta Ad Library: one click per ad, or bulk-save a whole search as a ZIP with a searchable swipe file inside. Free, no sign-up.
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