Instagram Stories ads: specs, safe zones and formats

This guide is built from Meta's own pages: the Meta Ads Guide specs for video, image and carousel ads in Instagram Stories, and the Meta Business Help Center pages Design requirements for Instagram Stories ads, Create Instagram Stories ads in Meta Ads Manager, About text overlays and the safe zone, About carousel ads in Instagram Stories, Adjust background colors for Stories ads, Creative best practices for Stories, How to turn existing Instagram posts into ads, About ad placements across Meta technologies and View metrics related to Instagram ads, plus the Instagram Help Center pages Boost an Instagram story and About Instagram insights. Checked on 10 November 2026. Reels ads have their own rules on length and music, covered in our Instagram Reels ads guide; this page is about Stories.

Where Stories ads appear

Meta's Ads Guide describes Instagram Stories ads as full-screen vertical ads that appear to viewers between organic Instagram Stories. In Ads Manager, Instagram Stories sits in the Stories, Status and Reels placement group, next to Facebook Stories and Messenger Stories. Meta's placements page notes that these ads run in the mobile app and on desktop and mobile web. How placement groups work, and whether to pick placements by hand, is covered in our Meta ads placements guide.

Specs for video, image and carousel Stories ads

A Stories ad can be a single video, a single image or a carousel. These are the figures from Meta's Ads Guide:

For video, the Ads Guide recommends H.264 compression, square pixels, fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio compression at 128kbps+, says captions and sound are optional but recommended, and that videos should not contain edit lists or special boxes in file containers.

Meta's separate Design requirements page gives slightly different numbers: a recommended resolution of 1080 x 1920 with a minimum of 600 x 1067, video codecs H.264 or VP8 and audio codecs AAC or Vorbis, and a maximum video length of 60 minutes. It also notes that Advantage+ catalog ads use a 1.91:1 ratio instead of 9:16. If you build at 1440 x 2560 you meet both.

How long a Stories ad plays

• Video: Instagram plays videos shorter than 16 seconds in full. Videos of 16 seconds or longer may be split into separate Stories cards, and Instagram shows one, two or three cards depending on the viewer. With a ThruPlay, 2-second video views or Reach goal, viewers may get a Keep Watching option to see the rest.
• Image: image ads may vary between 5-16 seconds or until the user swipes out of the Story, according to the Ads Guide. The Design requirements page says images show for 5 seconds by default.
• Carousel: Instagram shows the first cards automatically, then offers Expand story for the rest. The Ads Guide says 1 to 3 cards play automatically; the Help Center carousel page says 1 to 5. Both say the number is tailored to each viewer by default. To fix it, make Instagram Stories the only placement; you can then show a fixed 3 cards (or 2 for a 2-card carousel) before Expand story.

The practical result: put the message in the first few seconds, because a long video may be cut into cards and people can tap past at any point.

The safe zone and the call-to-action sticker

Meta defines the safe zone as the area within your ad where important elements — like text overlays and logos — will not be cropped out or covered by the user interface. For Stories, the Ads Guide suggests leaving roughly 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side free of text, logos and other key elements, so the profile icon and call to action don't cover them.

• Taller screens: on phones taller than 9:16, Meta may zoom the creative to fill the screen, which can crop outside the safe zone, or show it at 9:16 with black bars.
• Safe zone guardrail: in Ads Manager you can switch on a yellow overlay that shows where the safe zone is.
• Call-to-action sticker: Stories ads support a default call-to-action sticker placed at the bottom of the ad. Meta's advice for it is to leave roughly 14% of the top and 20% of the bottom free. For 9:16 ads you can change the sticker's position, size and color in the ad creative section. The sticker can only be added to ads that don't already have a sticker or other interactive element, and Meta says it is being introduced gradually, so you may not have it yet.

Using creative that isn't 9:16

You don't have to shoot vertical to appear in Stories. The Design requirements page says all feed photo and video dimensions, from 1.91:1 wide horizontal to 4:5 vertical, are supported in the Stories placement. When you use a non-9:16 image or video, you can choose the background that fills the rest of the screen: in Ads Manager, at the ad level, click Instagram Stories in the preview, click Edit and pick a Solid or Gradient background color. Meta's creative advice adds a caution here: if you repurpose an asset from another placement, make sure cropping or zooming doesn't remove important information.

Stickers, polls and interactive elements

Stories ads can carry some of the stickers organic stories use, within limits Meta sets:

• Up to 5 of these interactive elements: location sticker, hashtag sticker, tappable text and @mention stickers. Or one countdown sticker.
• Meta advises avoiding emojis, GIFs, music stickers, link stickers, more than one sticker and more complex creative tools.
• The polling sticker and the Swipe up call to action can only be used on ads created without a pre-existing post. If an existing story already uses Swipe up, it carries over when the story becomes an ad.

Meta's creative page also warns that stickers can draw attention away from the product, and suggests leaving out any that look unnatural or clutter the ad.

Creating Stories ads in Ads Manager

Meta's steps for a new Stories ad:

1. In Meta Ads Manager, click + Create campaign and choose the objective closest to your goal.
2. Name the campaign, then set budget, schedule, audience and placements.
3. In Ad setup, choose Flexible, Single image or video, Carousel or Collection.
4. In Ad creative, add media, text and destination. For an image, you can use Stories templates to turn it into a vertical animation.
5. Click Select a placement to edit and choose Instagram stories to adjust the creative for that placement, preview it, then publish.

Meta notes that the delivery system may automatically apply creative and formatting optimizations; you can preview them under Advantage+ creative (see our Advantage+ creative guide).

You can also run an existing story as an ad: at the ad level, under Identity, select the Instagram account and choose Use existing post. Only active stories qualify, meaning those shared in the last 24 hours, not archived stories or highlights, and Meta says not to use posts with images larger than 8 MB.

Boosting a story from Instagram

From a professional account you can boost a story straight from the app or instagram.com: open your story, tap Boost (on the web, More then Boost), choose a goal, audience, daily budget and duration, then tap Boost post. The ad goes through review first, and a boosted story will run for the duration you set, even after the original story expires from your profile.

Unlike Ads Manager, boosting works for stories that are active, featured in your highlights or reposted from your archive. Instagram lists these conditions for an eligible story:

• No polls, quizzes, music, link stickers or other complex creative tools.
• Only effects made by Instagram; no emojis, GIFs or copyrighted music.
• A single story card; multi-card stories can't be boosted.
• One interactive element at most for most ads: a location, hashtag or countdown sticker, tappable text, or an @mention of the account you're boosting from. You can mention up to 5 people.
• A link can be added only as an action button during ad creation, and only if the story has no sticker or interactive element.

Instagram also notes that in most regions Apple may take a 30% service fee when you add funds for ads in the Instagram iOS app, and suggests boosting from instagram.com to avoid it. Partnership stories have their own rules; see our partnership ads guide.

Meta's creative advice for Stories

Meta's Creative best practices page draws on its own research studies and recommends testing each idea with your own audience. Its main points:

• Grab attention from the first frame and use short, fast scenes rather than long slow ones.
• Add motion to static images, and try mixing video and static creative.
• Put the brand and key message at the beginning.
• Use sound: Meta says the majority of Stories with voice-over or music tend to drive better results than ads without sound.
• Phone-shot video tends to do better for ad recall and intent; studio shots tend to drive higher brand awareness.
• Keep text overlays to one key point.

Reading the results

In Ads Manager, open the campaign and click View Charts for performance, demographics and platform views, and use Breakdown (by time, delivery or action) to see Instagram Stories next to your other placements. The results you see depend on the objective, alongside amount spent and cost per result. For a boosted story, Instagram's own ad insights show ad goal results, cost per ad goal and spend. Our Meta ads reporting guide covers columns, breakdowns and exports in more detail.

How we make Stories ads

This is our own practice, not Meta's guidance:

• We design one 9:16 master that fits the 14/35/6% safe zone, so the same file can serve both Stories and Reels.
• The offer and brand go in the first two seconds, and any video longer than 15 seconds gets a clear first card in case it is split.
• We keep stickers to the minimum and let the call-to-action sticker do the work.
• We check the preview in Ads Manager with the safe zone guardrail on before anything is published.
• We compare Stories against other placements with the placement breakdown before giving it its own budget.

Frequently asked questions

What size should an Instagram Stories ad be?

Meta's Ads Guide recommends 9:16 at 1440 x 2560 pixels for video and image Stories ads, and at least 1080 x 1920 for carousel cards. Video can be MP4, MOV or GIF up to 4 GB; images JPG or PNG up to 30 MB.

How long can an Instagram Stories ad be?

A video Stories ad can run from 1 second to 60 minutes, but videos of 16 seconds or longer may be split into up to three cards. Video cards in a Stories carousel can be 1 to 15 seconds.

What is the safe zone for Instagram Stories ads?

Meta suggests leaving roughly 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side free of text, logos and key elements. For the call-to-action sticker it advises keeping the top 14% and bottom 20% clear.

Can I add a poll to an Instagram Stories ad?

Only on an ad created in Ads Manager without a pre-existing post. Stories that contain polls or quizzes can't be boosted from Instagram.

Why can't I boost my Instagram story?

Common reasons in Instagram's help page: it uses polls, quizzes, music, link stickers, emojis, GIFs or non-Instagram effects, has more than one card, or has more than one interactive element. In Ads Manager, only stories from the last 24 hours can be used.

For more on Meta advertising, see our guides to Meta ads basics, Instagram for business, Instagram Reels ads and Meta ad review. We build the landing pages ads send people to as part of our website development work. See all our services, or browse more guides.