All TikTok cover dimensions
Verified on 2026-08-10 against TikTok Creator Portal — content specifications . Platforms revise these regularly — if another page does not say when it last checked, treat its numbers with suspicion.
| Use | Size | Ratio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full frame (9:16) | 1080×1920 | 9:16 | the interface covers a lot of it |
| Safe area for text | 1080×1230 | 36:41 | roughly, between the top and bottom overlays |
| Profile grid thumbnail | 1080×1440 | 3:4 | 3:4 — what the grid actually shows |
| Profile photo | 200×200 | 1:1 | displayed as a circle |
Platform limits
| Constraint | Value |
|---|---|
| Accepted formats | JPG and PNG |
| Aspect ratio | 9:16 full screen; the profile grid crops to 3:4 |
| Re-encoding | Yes |
| Interface overlays | Caption, username, sounds and action buttons cover the edges |
Why these numbers
The full frame is 1080 × 1920 — the standard 9:16 of a phone screen held upright. That number is easy and it is not the useful one.
TikTok draws its interface directly over your content rather than beside it. The bottom of the screen carries the username, the caption and the sound attribution, occupying a band that is easily a fifth of the height and grows with the caption length. The right edge carries the profile picture, like, comment, share and sound buttons, taking a vertical strip perhaps 15% of the width. The top carries the following and For You tabs, plus a search icon.
What remains reliably visible is roughly the central band: full width minus the right-hand strip, and the vertical middle. Anything placed in the corners will be behind a button or a caption, on some devices if not all — and the exact overlay sizes vary by device, by whether the phone has a notch, and by how long your caption is.
The second crop worth knowing is the profile grid. When someone visits your profile, videos are shown as thumbnails in a three-column grid at roughly 3:4, cropped from the centre of your 9:16 frame. A cover image designed for the full screen loses its top and bottom entirely there. If the grid appearance matters — and for a creator profile it usually does — the focal point needs to survive a centre crop to 3:4.
Designing for both means a fairly narrow target: centred horizontally to survive the grid crop, and vertically in the middle to clear the interface. It is restrictive, and it is why so many TikTok covers put a single large piece of text dead centre.
Verified on the date shown. TikTok's interface changes frequently and the overlay dimensions are not formally documented, so treat the safe area as an estimate to check on a real device rather than a specification.
Frequently asked questions
What size should a TikTok cover be?
1080 × 1920 pixels, 9:16. But the interface covers the bottom fifth with the caption and username, and a strip on the right with the action buttons, so keep anything important in the central band rather than using the whole frame.
Why is my cover cropped on my profile page?
The profile grid shows videos as roughly 3:4 thumbnails, cropped from the centre of the 9:16 frame. The top and bottom of a full-frame cover are simply not present there. If the grid matters, make sure the focal point survives a centre crop.
How big is the safe area exactly?
There is no official figure, and it varies with device, notch and caption length. As a working estimate: leave the bottom fifth and the right sixth clear, and keep text vertically centred. Check on a real phone before committing — this is the one platform where the specification is genuinely approximate.
Does TikTok reduce image quality?
Yes, uploads are re-encoded and there is no way to opt out. Supplying an image already at 1080 × 1920 means one compression pass rather than a downscale followed by compression, which is the only part you control.
JPG or PNG?
JPG for photographic covers. PNG if the cover is mostly large text over flat colour, which is common on this platform — sharp text survives re-encoding noticeably better when the source is lossless.