Meta Ad Sizes 2026: Complete Spec Sheet for Every Placement

Quick-reference cheat sheet: every Meta placement

Meta ad sizes span eleven distinct placements in 2026. Before you send a brief to a designer, run down this table and confirm you are speccing the right canvas for each surface.

A few rules apply across nearly every placement: minimum image width of 600 px, maximum file weight of 30 MB for static and 4 GB for video, H.264 encoding for video, and a frame rate between 23.976 and 60 fps.

Where to verify current specs directly: Meta's own Ad Specifications tool and the Marketing API documentation are the canonical sources. Specs shift when Meta rolls out placement experiments, so bookmark those two pages.

Before briefing your designer, filter reference creatives by aspect ratio on adlibrary's unified ad search — you will only study assets that actually render in the placement you are targeting, not creatives built for a different surface that got auto-cropped into your format.

Feed and in-stream placements

Feed placements — Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Video Feed — are where the majority of Meta ad spend lands. Getting these dimensions right is not a cosmetic question; Meta's ad delivery system penalizes creatives that force the renderer to crop, and poor crops correlate with lower relevance scores and higher CPMs.

Facebook and Instagram Feed

The two most useful feed aspect ratios are 1:1 (square) and 4:5 (portrait). Square works on every feed surface without risk of clipping. Portrait captures more vertical real estate on mobile — roughly 78% of Meta feed scrolls happen on phones — which means your creative occupies more screen before the viewer can scroll past.

A 4:5 crop of a 1080 × 1350 px canvas is the single highest-impact meta ad size change a media buyer can make to an existing campaign. In practice, when creative teams run 4:5 tests against their existing 1:1 or 1.91:1 assets in identical ad set budget optimization experiments, the 4:5 version wins on cost-per-click in the majority of cases — simply because it fills more of the viewport.

Static image specs:

• Minimum width: 600 px (hard floor; below this Meta rejects)
• Recommended: 1080 × 1080 px (1:1) or 1080 × 1350 px (4:5)
• File size: ≤ 30 MB
• Formats: JPG, PNG (no animated GIFs in feed)

Video specs:

• Recommended: 1080 × 1350 px (4:5), 1080 × 1080 px (1:1)
• Min resolution: 1080 × 1080 px
• File size: ≤ 4 GB
• Format: MP4 or MOV, H.264 codec, AAC audio
• Length: 1 second to 241 minutes (keep under 15 seconds for thumb-stop rate optimization)
• Frame rate: 23.976–60 fps

In-stream video (Facebook)

In-stream video runs as a mid-roll inside Facebook Watch content and longer-form videos. The viewer did not come to watch your ad — they came for the surrounding content. That behavioral difference should shape how you spec it.

In-stream video supports 16:9 (landscape), 1:1 (square), and 9:16 (vertical). The minimum recommended resolution is 1280 × 720 px for 16:9 and 1080 × 1080 px for square. Length must be between 5 and 15 seconds for skippable formats; non-skippable in-stream runs up to 6 seconds.

Text overlay guidance still applies despite the legacy 20% text rule being retired in 2020: Meta's AI Ad Enrichment data shows that creatives with text covering more than roughly a third of the image tend to underperform on CTR, even though they no longer get hard-rejected. The mechanism is Andromeda — Meta's ranking model penalizes visual complexity in dynamic creative optimization auctions.

Facebook Marketplace

Marketplace ads are served to users already in a shopping mindset. Recommended format is 1:1 at 1080 × 1080 px. Video is supported up to 120 seconds but under 30 seconds performs better given the browse-and-scan context. Think of Marketplace as a conversion-first surface: design for clarity at thumbnail size, not impact at full-bleed.

Stories and Reels specs

Meta ad sizes for vertical placements follow a single canvas: 1080 × 1920 px, 9:16 aspect ratio. Stories and Reels share the same resolution but behave differently enough that they warrant separate briefing.

Stories (Facebook + Instagram)

Stories play for up to 6 seconds (image) or 15 seconds (video) before advancing. The critical constraint that most briefs miss is the safe zone: the top 14% (approximately 250 px) is covered by the account handle and the tappable close control; the bottom 20% (approximately 340 px) is covered by the CTA button and story progress bar on Stories ads.

That leaves a usable canvas of roughly 1080 × 1420 px — a fact your designer needs before they start, not after they deliver a first round with the logo in the bottom corner.

Image Stories specs:

• Canvas: 1080 × 1920 px
• Safe zone: top 250 px and bottom 340 px reserved for UI
• File size: ≤ 30 MB
• Format: JPG or PNG (no animation on image Stories)

Video Stories specs:

• Canvas: 1080 × 1920 px
• Duration: 1–15 seconds
• File size: ≤ 4 GB
• Format: MP4 or MOV
• Frame rate: 23.976–60 fps
• Audio: strongly recommended — but design assuming no sound first (caption-first strategy)

Reels (Facebook + Instagram)

Reels is the fastest-growing surface in Meta's ad inventory. The spec is identical to Stories (1080 × 1920 px, 9:16), but the behavioral context is different: Reels scroll is driven by content-consumption intent, and the ad competes directly with creator short-form content.

This has a direct implication for how you brief creative: Reels ads that open with a caption-over-B-roll pattern get scrolled past faster than Reels that open with motion or a human face in the first 0.5 seconds. The hook rate benchmark for Reels is higher than Stories — targeting at least 30% of impressions watching past 3 seconds before testing.

Reels video specs:

• Canvas: 1080 × 1920 px
• Duration: 5 seconds minimum, up to 15 minutes (but sub-30s performs best for ads)
• File size: ≤ 4 GB
• Format: MP4 or MOV, H.264
• Safe zone: top 250 px and bottom 400 px reserved (Reels UI is slightly taller than Stories)

Practical note on vertical safe zones: The exact pixel dimensions shift as Meta updates the Reels and Stories interfaces. Check Meta's Help Center before a major launch — safe zone documentation is updated there first.

For creative research on vertical formats, filter adlibrary by 9:16 and vertical placement type to pull a targeted swipe file of in-market Reels and Stories ads. You study assets that actually ran in that surface, not feed crops repurposed for vertical.

Carousel and Collection ad specs

Carousel ads allow 2 to 10 cards, each independently linkable. Collection ads pair a cover creative with a product catalog grid. Both formats have their own size logic.

Carousel specs

Every carousel card renders at 1:1 aspect ratio. This is non-negotiable — Meta does not support mixed aspect ratios within a single carousel. A card submitted at 4:5 will be letterboxed to 1:1 on delivery, with grey bars filling the gap. Your designer needs to know this before building card three of ten.

Per-card specs:

• Resolution: 1080 × 1080 px (recommended minimum)
• Aspect ratio: 1:1 (hard constraint)
• File size: ≤ 30 MB per card (image) or ≤ 4 GB per card (video)
• Minimum width: 600 px
• Formats: JPG, PNG, or MP4/MOV per card
• Mixed media: image and video cards can coexist in the same carousel

A carousel where card 1 is video and cards 2–10 are static is a legitimate spec. It is also a common briefing oversight — creative teams sometimes send card 1 as video and forget to adjust the static card dimensions, resulting in a mismatched visual weight across the unit.

Common rejection reasons for carousel:

1. Card submitted at an aspect ratio other than 1:1 (most frequent)
2. Total combined text exceeding character limits (headline ≤ 40 chars, description ≤ 20 chars per card)
3. Video cards using unsupported codecs (H.265 is not supported — use H.264)
4. File size over 30 MB on static cards
5. URL mismatch between card link and landing page domain

Collection specs

Collection ads use a cover image or video paired with a product catalog below it. The cover creative follows feed rules (1:1 or 1.91:1), but the spec decision matters more here than in feed because the cover is what drives the open rate into the Instant Experience.

Cover creative specs:

• Image: 1200 × 628 px (1.91:1) or 1080 × 1080 px (1:1)
• Video: 1200 × 628 px or 1080 × 1080 px, up to 120 seconds
• File size: ≤ 30 MB (image) or ≤ 4 GB (video)

When to use carousel vs collection: If your goal is driving consideration across multiple products with distinct CTAs, carousel. If your goal is driving opens into a catalog browsing experience, collection. Collection CPAs tend to be lower for ecommerce accounts that have clean product feeds with accurate pricing — the catalog grid pre-qualifies intent before the click. For ecommerce ad strategy, collection with a strong cover video is often the preferred spec.

When to research carousel creative references: use adlibrary's unified ad search and filter by ad format to find carousel ads in your vertical. This shows you how competitors and category leaders structure their card sequencing, which is harder to infer from specs alone.

Messenger and Audience Network specs

Messenger and Audience Network are the two placements most commonly left out of initial campaign briefs. They run at lower CPMs than feed and Stories, and skipping them leaves auction density on the table.

Messenger inbox ads

Messenger inbox ads appear in the Chats tab, between conversation threads. The primary spec is 1.91:1 landscape at 1200 × 628 px — the same as a link preview image.

Messenger inbox image specs:

• Resolution: 1200 × 628 px (recommended)
• Aspect ratio: 1.91:1
• File size: ≤ 30 MB
• Formats: JPG or PNG

Messenger Story ads use the same 9:16 spec as Instagram and Facebook Stories (1080 × 1920 px). Messenger Sponsored Message ads — available only for accounts with an existing customer message thread — are text-dominant with optional image attachments; the image spec there is 1200 × 628 px.

Audience Network

Audience Network extends Meta ad delivery to third-party apps and mobile sites. It runs several sub-formats:

Why include Audience Network in your brief: Audience Network inventory is cheapest at the top of a learning phase — it generates impressions fast at low CPM, which helps your campaign budget optimization exit the learning phase sooner. The creative has a secondary purpose beyond driving conversions here. Design Audience Network assets for impression volume, not conversion intent.

Practical point: many brands exclude Audience Network at the campaign level by default and then wonder why their learning phase takes longer than expected. Leaving it on during the first 7 days of a new campaign is a defensible default — you can suppress it once you have enough data to see if the CPAs are out of range.

If you want to see what in-market ads look like on Audience Network specifically, adlibrary's platform filters let you scope your research to individual Meta placements. The visual patterns for native and interstitial differ meaningfully from feed creative.

Common rejection reasons and how to avoid them

Meta's ad review system flags creative at upload and at delivery. Most rejections fall into five categories, several of which relate directly to meta ad sizes and file specs.

Low-resolution warnings

Meta's system issues a low-resolution warning when your image falls below 1080 px in width. The ad can still be approved, but it enters delivery with a quality signal that Andromeda interprets as lower-fidelity creative. In competitive CPM auctions, this matters. The fix is simple: always deliver final assets at 1080 × 1080 px or higher, regardless of the minimum spec listed.

Wrong aspect ratio

Aspect ratio rejections hit hardest on carousel (where 1:1 is the only valid card ratio) and on Stories/Reels (where the safe-zone violation shows up in preview but not in the static spec check). The workaround: run every asset through the Facebook Ads preview tool before launch and check all placement variants, not just the one you expect to be primary.

File size over limit

Static images over 30 MB are rejected outright. PNG files from design tools often arrive at 40–80 MB due to embedded metadata and color profiles. The fix: export as sRGB, strip metadata (most export dialogs have a checkbox), or convert to JPEG at 90% quality — most ad images are photographic enough that JPG compression is imperceptible at delivery sizes.

The text overlay rule (retired, but still relevant)

Meta formally retired the 20% text overlay rule in 2020. Your image will no longer be hard-rejected for heavy text. But the behavioral penalty persists in Andromeda's ranking logic: heavy text competes with Meta's own UI text overlays (price tags on collection ads, CTA buttons on Stories), creating visual noise that reduces CTR. Design for text-light creatives and rely on headline/body copy fields for messaging.

Codec and format rejections

H.265 video is not accepted by Meta's upload pipeline as of 2026 — convert to H.264 before upload. MOV files from Apple devices use HEVC by default; a one-step transcode via HandBrake or FFmpeg resolves this. Audio must be AAC; MP3-audio MP4 containers occasionally get flagged. Frame rates above 60 fps are rejected; GoPro and drone footage often arrives at 120 fps and needs to be conformed before upload.

Ad rejection rate benchmarks

Among active campaigns tracked on adlibrary, the most common spec-related rejection reason is aspect ratio mismatch on carousel cards, followed by file-size violations on PNG static images. Video codec mismatches rank third. All three are preventable with a pre-upload checklist:

1. Confirm aspect ratio per placement type
2. Verify file size (image ≤ 30 MB, video ≤ 4 GB)
3. Check video codec (H.264 only), frame rate (≤ 60 fps), and audio codec (AAC)
4. Strip PNG metadata on export
5. Preview in all scheduled placement types before launch

For ad creative testing workflows, the pre-upload checklist above should be part of your QA gate, not an afterthought.

Creative briefs by placement

Specs without context produce the wrong kind of compliant creative — technically valid but behaviorally mismatched. Each placement below gets a one-line strategic brief alongside its spec, because the constraint that matters for your designer is not just the pixel count.

Facebook Feed (image, 1080×1080 or 1080×1350): Design for a cold-scroll interrupt; the image competes with organic social posts. Strong contrast, minimal text, single visual focal point.

Facebook Feed (video, 1080×1350, 4:5): First 3 seconds determine hook rate. No branded intro card. Open with the hook visual before any logo or supers.

Instagram Feed (image, 1080×1080 or 1080×1350): Higher visual quality bar than Facebook Feed because the IG audience scrolls a curated aesthetic. Product photography at this resolution should be shot natively at 1:1 or 4:5 rather than cropped from landscape source.

Instagram Feed (video, 1080×1350, 4:5): Same hook logic as Facebook video. Caption every video — approximately 85% of Instagram Feed video views are watched without sound.

Stories (1080×1920, 9:16): Design for the safe zone (1080×1420 px usable area). CTA button will cover bottom 340 px. Fast-cut or kinetic text performs well here — hold times average under 5 seconds.

Reels (1080×1920, 9:16): Native-feel creative outperforms polished brand ads here. Open with motion or a face. Keep supers inside the safe zone (top 250 px and bottom 400 px are UI territory).

Carousel (1080×1080 per card, 1:1): Card 1 is the acquisition card — it decides whether they swipe. Cards 2–10 can do deeper product work. Keep the visual language consistent across cards; a jarring style shift mid-swipe drops engagement.

Collection (cover: 1200×628 or 1080×1080): The cover image or video exists to drive Instant Experience opens, not direct conversions. Brief it like a product hero shot, not an ad headline.

In-stream video (1280×720 min, 5–15s): Viewer is interrupted. Lead with your hook in under 2 seconds. If skippable, assume they will skip at 5 seconds and design accordingly.

Messenger inbox (1200×628, 1.91:1): Direct-response mindset applies here — this placement gets fewer impressions but higher intent. A clear offer and CTA outperforms lifestyle imagery.

Audience Network (various): Design for attention at small sizes. The 320×50 banner is the size of a thumb; headline is the only copy that matters at that scale. For interstitials, treat it like a display-ad interrupt: single image, single message, visible CTA.

For your creative team, the most useful document to share is this brief table alongside the placement-filtered search in adlibrary's unified ad search. Filter by aspect ratio, select the 20–30 highest-performing reference creatives in your category, and pass those alongside the specs. The combination of spec sheet and in-market reference examples cuts revision rounds. See the creative strategist workflow use case for how to structure this research step before every brief.

Meta ad aspect ratios: the reasoning behind each constraint

Every aspect ratio in Meta's placement spec exists because of something in the delivery environment, not because of an arbitrary design convention. Understanding the why behind each ratio makes it easier to brief correctly and to push back when a creative team argues for a non-standard crop.

Why 4:5 dominates mobile feed: The iPhone 14 and 15 Pro viewport at standard zoom renders approximately 1125 px wide. A 4:5 image at that width is 1406 px tall, filling roughly 80% of the screen before the CTA. The remaining 20% is split between the account name, CTA button, and bottom nav. No other ratio gets you as much uninterrupted canvas on the dominant device type.

Why 9:16 for Stories and Reels: Full-screen vertical (9:16) eliminates the UI chrome entirely during the ad viewing window. The viewer's thumb rests naturally at the bottom — the swipe-up CTA is positioned where the hand already is. The spec is a product design decision before it is a media buying decision.

Why 1:1 for carousel cards: Carousel cards compete for horizontal space within the swipe unit. Portrait (4:5) cards would need to be letterboxed at the sides when the card is not fully in frame during a swipe, creating an inconsistent transition. The 1:1 constraint is a UX fix that Meta applied early in carousel's development and has not changed since.

Why 1.91:1 for Messenger and link previews: The 1.91:1 (approximately 1200 × 628 px) ratio traces back to the OpenGraph protocol standard, which the early Facebook link previews adopted. Messenger inbox ads carry the same preview frame as organic link shares, so the spec is inherited from a 2010-era web standard rather than from mobile-first thinking.

The practical upshot: When your team says "can we just use the same asset across all placements?", the honest answer is no — but you can minimize production work by designing one 9:16 master canvas and one 4:5 master canvas, then deriving 1:1 from the 4:5 center crop. That workflow covers Stories, Reels, Feed (image and video), and carousel from two source files. Only in-stream video (16:9) and Audience Network (various) require genuinely different source material.

If you are doing Advantage+ creative, Meta will auto-adapt your assets across placements — but only within the aspect ratios you supply. Submit the widest and tallest aspect ratios your creative supports, and let dynamic creative optimization handle the rest within those bounds. Omitting the 9:16 source means Reels and Stories get a cropped version that Andromeda ranks lower than a native 9:16 submission.

How to use ad research before briefing creative

Spec sheets answer the question "what dimensions can I use?" They do not answer "what creative patterns are winning in my category?" Both questions need answers before you send a brief. Skipping the research step means your correctly-specced creative competes with no understanding of what the placement's current creative landscape looks like.

The workflow that closes this gap:

1. Start with adlibrary's unified ad search. Filter by category, placement type, and aspect ratio. For a Reels brief, filter to 9:16 video in your vertical. For a feed carousel brief, filter to 1:1 image in carousel format.

2. Pull 20–30 recent in-market examples. Use adlibrary's saved ads feature to build a placement-specific swipe file. Tag each saved ad with the placement it ran on — carousel, Stories, Reels — so your designer can see the reference in context.

3. Note the creative patterns in use. Are competitors leading with product shots or lifestyle? Are they using text supers? What is the hook in the first frame? This is the level of detail a spec sheet can never give you, but it shapes whether your correctly-specced asset actually performs.

4. Look at ad timeline. Ad timeline analysis shows how long each creative ran before being replaced. If a competitor's 9:16 Reels ad ran for 90 days without rotation, it was either a strong performer or a neglected account — but the pattern tells you something about the category's creative refresh cadence.

5. Brief with both spec and reference. Send your designer the spec table from this guide plus 5–10 saved ad references from the relevant placement and category. That combination produces a first round that is both correctly dimensioned and contextually informed.

For media buyers managing multiple clients, the media buyer daily workflow use case on adlibrary documents how to integrate this research step into a repeatable pre-launch routine. The spec check and the creative reference pull can both be completed in under 20 minutes per campaign, which pays for itself in fewer post-rejection revision cycles.