A Facebook Story is 1080 x 1920 px at 9:16. What trips people up is that the frame is edge to edge, but the top and bottom of it are permanently occupied by Facebook's own interface.
Where it shows
- The Stories tray at the top of the Facebook feed
- Full screen when someone taps into your Story
- Instagram Stories when cross posting is switched on
- Your own Story archive
- Story replies inside Messenger as a thumbnail
The safe zone
Facebook draws your name, the timestamp and the close control across the top of a Story, and the reply box, the share control and any link or sticker prompt across the bottom. Both bands sit on top of your image rather than beside it. Keep every word and any face inside the middle of the 1920 px height and hand the top and bottom sixths over to the interface. Meta publishes exact safe zone measurements for Stories, but that article would not load for this check, so the guidance here is given in proportions rather than an unverified pixel figure.
Quirks worth knowing
- A Story is edge to edge with no margin, and the first and last sixth of that 1920 px height are shared with Facebook's name row and reply bar.
- Meta's Stories safe zone article would not load for this check, so no pixel measurement for that band is quoted on this page.
- The 1080 x 1920 px figure and the 30 MB ceiling here come from the Buffer and Hootsuite size guides, because Meta's Stories placement spec was not reachable either.
- Text added with Facebook's own Story editor is a separate layer you can drag clear of the reply bar, while text baked into the uploaded image is stuck where you exported it.
- The Stories tray at the top of the feed shows a small crop taken from the middle of the frame, so a design that only makes sense at full height gives nobody a reason to tap.
Common mistakes
- Reusing a 1080 x 1350 px feed post as a Story, which leaves the top and bottom of the screen padded out.
- Putting a swipe prompt at the very bottom, where Facebook's reply box already sits.
- Baking a call to action into the top of the image, directly under your own name and the timestamp.
- Leaving the background short of the edges, which shows as a seam against the black screen.
What we recommend
- Export at 1080 x 1920 px and treat the middle two thirds of the height as the only place text is guaranteed to be read.
- Make the frame work as a small tray thumbnail as well as at full screen.
- Use Facebook's own text tool for anything you may want to reposition and bake in only what is genuinely artwork.
- Run the background to all four edges so the Story never shows a border.
Common questions
Why is my Facebook Story covered by buttons at the bottom?
Facebook draws the reply box, the share control and any link sticker over the lower part of the Story frame. Those controls are not optional and they sit on top of your image. Keep your own text out of the bottom sixth of the 1920 px height.
Can I post the same image to a Facebook Story and the feed?
Not without re-cropping it. A feed image is 4:5 at its tallest and a Story is 9:16, so one file cannot fill both frames. Export the Story separately at 1080 x 1920 px and keep the subject centered in each version.
Why does my Facebook Story look stretched?
A Story that is not 9:16 has to be fitted into a 9:16 screen, which means either padding or zooming. Anything wider than 1080 x 1920 px gets pulled to fill the height and loses its sides. Export at 1080 x 1920 px and the frame maps one to one.
How big can a Facebook Story image file be?
Meta does not publish a separate figure for an organic Story image on any page that could be checked here, and the 30 MB ceiling quoted comes from Hootsuite's size guide. In practice a 1080 x 1920 px JPG lands far below that. File size is rarely the reason a Story fails to upload.
More answers on thumbnail, carousel and cover questions are on the FAQ.