YouTube draws its own controls, titles, end-screen cards, and Shorts buttons directly on top of your video. If a face, logo, or caption sits where the player puts a button, viewers simply cannot see it. This guide overlays YouTube’s UI dead zones on a frame so you can confirm your key content stays clear before you export.
How it works
YouTube’s player chrome is positioned by percentage of the frame, not by fixed pixels, so it scales with screen size. On landscape 16:9 video the title and a top gradient occupy roughly the top 12 percent, the progress bar and controls fill the bottom 14 percent, and end-screen cards claim the upper-right corner in the final seconds. On vertical Shorts the layout rotates: a status bar runs across the top, the action rail of like and share buttons covers the right edge, and the handle plus caption overlay the lower-left.
The simulator renders a proportional frame for each view, paints the overlay regions in red, and draws a green dashed central safe zone. Anything you keep inside that green box is guaranteed to stay visible across devices.
Landscape video safe zones in detail
On a standard 16:9 YouTube video, the UI divides into three horizontal bands:
Top zone (~12% of frame height) — On mobile the title and channel name appear here as an overlay when the user taps to pause or interact. On desktop, the top gradient appears at the start of playback. Avoid placing lower-thirds, graphics, or captions in this strip during the first few seconds, when the controls are most likely to be visible.
Safe central zone (~74% of frame height) — Everything from roughly 12% down to 86% from the top is guaranteed unobstructed during normal playback. This is where talking heads, on-screen text, and key product shots should live.
Bottom zone (~14% of frame height) — The progress bar, playback controls, volume, captions button, settings, and full-screen toggle all sit in this band. Burned-in subtitles placed too low are routinely covered by the progress bar on mobile. Always leave this band empty of important content.
End-screen corner (upper right, final 5–20 seconds) — YouTube injects subscribe, video, and channel cards in the upper-right quadrant during the end screen. Plan your outro background to be visually neutral in that corner.
Shorts safe zones
Shorts have a different layout because they are designed for full-screen vertical viewing:
- Top (~8%) — Status bar (time, signal, battery) overlays this area.
- Right edge (~16%) — The action rail: like, dislike, comment, share, remix, and audio chip buttons occupy a vertical strip on the right. Keep faces and text away from this column entirely.
- Lower-left (~22% from bottom) — The creator handle, caption text, and audio chip live in the lower-left. Burned-in captions should start well above this area or they will be hidden.
- Safe zone — The remaining central-left rectangle, roughly 70% of width and 65–70% of height, is your creative canvas.
Tips and notes
- For Shorts, shift text and key subjects toward the left and centre so the right-edge action rail never hides them.
- Plan your outro frames knowing the upper-right end-screen cards will appear — leave that corner clear of important visuals.
- Burned-in subtitles should sit above the bottom control band on landscape and above the caption block on Shorts.
- The percentages are intentionally generous; treat the red zones as do-not-cross lines rather than exact pixel boundaries.
- Check the guide in both “at start” and “during playback” states — some overlays appear only when the viewer taps or hovers.