Instagram Reels

At the end of this page you have a 1080 × 1920 film for a Reel. Instagram publishes more numbers for Reels ads than for Reels posts, and this page says which is which.

The limits

The sourced table is in Video specs by platform. Read on 2026-10-31 and 2026-11-01:

• Reels ad (Meta Ads Guide): 9:16, 1440 × 2560, up to 15 minutes, up to 4 GB, MP4 or MOV, stereo AAC at 128 kbps or more, a fixed frame rate.
• Reel post (Instagram): you can record up to 20 minutes, but Instagram does not recommend a Reel over 3 minutes to people who do not follow you.
• Instagram publishes no loudness target.
• The Instagram help page for Reel sizes did not load text. Its ratio, frame-rate and resolution numbers are not on this page.

Safe zone

The Meta Ads Guide page for Reels video suggests a safe zone for ads: “Consider leaving at least 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom, and 6% on each side of your asset free”. It is a design recommendation, not a rule. For a Reel post, Instagram publishes no values, so treat these numbers as an estimate for posts too.

Make the film

bin/vawe new my-reel --request "a 20 second teaser with captions" --aspect 9:16 --length 20

bin/vawe still films/my-reel/page.html --at 2 --aspect 9:16

<audio src="assets/music.mp3" loop data-at="0" data-fade-out="0.4"></audio>

bin/vawe dev films/my-reel/page.html --aspect 9:16
bin/vawe ship films/my-reel/page.html --aspect 9:16
bin/vawe ship --status --wait

Limits

• ship renders 60 fps and has no fps flag. The Meta ad page asks for a fixed frame rate and gives no number. A vawe final has a fixed rate.
• The ad guide lists 1440 × 2560. A vawe 9:16 final is 1080 × 1920, the same ratio at a smaller size. ship has no size flag.
• The vawe final audio is AAC at 192 kbps, 48 kHz: above the 128 kbps minimum on the ad page.

From the blogHTML video aspect ratio: 16:9, 9:16 and 1:1