TikTok Ad Specs 2026: Video, Image, Text Limits and Safe Zones

Third-party spec lists often blend numbers from different TikTok placements (In-Feed, TopView, Global App Bundle) into one table. This guide pulls every number straight from TikTok's own Business Help Center, fetched 2026-09-06, naming the exact placement each applies to. Where a TikTok page states no value, this guide says so instead of guessing.

Also see the Meta ad specs hub, the Facebook and Instagram equivalent of this page.

Quick Reference Table

Format	Aspect Ratio	Min Resolution	Duration	Max File Size	File Types	Source
In-Feed video (Auction, non-Spark)	9:16 (recommended), 16:9, or 1:1	540x960px / 960x540px / 640x640px	Up to 10 min	500 MB	.mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp, .avi	TikTok ↗
Spark Ads (boosted post)	Inherits the organic post	No restriction	Up to 10 min once sparked	No restriction	Inherits the organic post	TikTok ↗
TopView	9:16 vertical only	540x960px	5-60s, recommend 9-15s	500 MB	.mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp	TikTok ↗
Carousel images	Horizontal, square, or vertical	1200x628px / 640x640px / 720x1280px	2 to 35 images	100 KB per image (suggested)	.jpg, .jpeg, .png	TikTok ↗
Global App Bundle image (CapCut, Fizzo)	9:16 / 16:9 / 1:1	720x1280px / 1280x720px / 640x640px	n/a	100 MB	.jpg, .jpeg, .png	TikTok ↗

Bitrate: 516 kbps or higher for standard In-Feed video, 2,500 kbps or higher for TopView, per the same source pages.

In-Feed Video Ads (Auction)

The default format for a self-serve campaign, and what most Adship accounts publish. Per TikTok's Auction In-Feed Ads page (updated June 2026):

• Dimensions: vertical 9:16 at 540x960px+ (recommended), horizontal 16:9 at 960x540px+, or square 1:1 at 640x640px+.
• Files: .mp4, .mov, .mpeg, .3gp, .avi; up to 10 minutes; 500 MB or less; bitrate 516 kbps or higher.
• Captions: fixed white font, not customizable, no clickable links, @ symbol, or hashtags.
• Profile photo (optional): 98x98px square, .jpg/.jpeg/.png, under 50 KB, key element centered in a 66x66px safe area.
• Account name: one line, 10 characters (Chinese/Japanese/Korean) or 20 characters (other languages).

Note what's absent: TikTok's own Auction In-Feed page states no character limit for the ad caption itself, only formatting rules. More on that below.

Image and Carousel Ads

TikTok has no plain single-image placement inside the main app the way Meta does. TikTok's page titled "image ad specifications" actually covers Global App Bundle placements inside CapCut and Fizzo, not the main feed. For a static image on TikTok itself, the two documented options are:

Carousel Ads, per TikTok's specifications (updated September 2026): 2 to 35 images (minimum 2, maximum 20 shown at once), .jpg/.jpeg/.png at 100 KB per image suggested, resolutions of 1200x628px horizontal, 640x640px square, or 720x1280px vertical, plus required looped music (2s minimum, .mp3, up to 10 MB). Standard Carousel uses one caption, CTA, and URL for every image; the catalog-powered VSA Carousel keeps one caption and CTA but lets each product image link to its own product page.

Global App Bundle images (CapCut/Fizzo network placements): 9:16 at 720x1280px+ (recommended), 16:9 at 1280x720px+, or 1:1 at 640x640px+, JPG/JPEG/PNG, up to 100 MB.

Spark Ads

Spark Ads boost an existing organic post rather than a new upload, so most technical specs don't apply. Per About Spark Ads (updated June 2026): there are no restrictions on the underlying post's ratio, resolution, file type, bitrate, or file size, though a 10-minute cap applies once it's sparked. Captions can be blank; tagging, emoji, and hashtags are allowed, but the display name and text mirror the organic post and can't be edited during ad creation. Each ad account supports up to 10,000 Spark Ads, and the creation guide confirms you can batch-authorize up to 20 organic video codes at once.

TopView

TikTok's full-screen takeover, sold as a reservation buy rather than self-serve auction. Per TopView ad specifications (updated June 2026): vertical 9:16 only at 540x960px+, .mp4/.mov/.mpeg/.3gp, 5 to 60 seconds (9 to 15 recommended), 500 MB or less, bitrate 2,500 kbps or higher. Ad captions max out at 100 characters and 4 lines before a "See more" link appears; TikTok recommends staying within 50 characters (CN/JP/KR) or 100 (other languages). TopView campaigns are capped at 20 ads per ad group, assets lock once the campaign goes live, and TikTok reviews submissions within 2 days.

Text and Character Limits

TikTok's pages don't use one rule across placements, so match the limit to the format you're actually running:

Field	Limit	Source
Account name (nickname)	10 chars (CN/JP/KR) or 20 chars (other languages), one line, no emoji or braces	Consistent across In-Feed, Reservation, TopView
Ad caption, non-Spark	Not stated on the Auction In-Feed page; TopView states a hard 100-character/4-line cap; Reservation In-Feed only recommends 50/100 chars	Differs by placement
Ad caption, Spark Ads Pull	TopView: max 100 characters or blank, 4-line display cap before "See more". Reservation In-Feed: max 150 characters or blank	Differs by placement
App name (Global App Bundle)	4-40 Latin letters or 2-20 Asian characters, no emoji	Global App Bundle spec
Brand name (Global App Bundle)	2-20 Latin letters or 1-10 Asian characters, no emoji	Same page
Ad description (Global App Bundle)	1-100 Latin or 1-50 Asian characters, no emoji, no "{ }" or "#"	Same page

Punctuation and spaces count as characters everywhere above, and a full-width CJK character counts double against a mixed-language limit.

Safe Zones

TikTok doesn't publish one fixed pixel margin for video the way some cheat sheets imply. Its Auction In-Feed page states the safe zone "is determined by the dimension (vertical, horizontal, or square), ad caption length, and any additional formats used," and ships downloadable overlay templates (standard and anchor-linked video, left-to-right and Arabic right-to-left) instead of one number.

TopView is stricter and stages differently: its spec page documents two separate safe zones, one for the initial 3-second full-screen takeover and a more restrictive one once the ad settles into the regular feed, each with its own overlay file.

The one fixed number TikTok does publish: for the optional profile photo, keep the key element inside the center 66x66px of the 98x98px image.

TikTok's creative best practices page recommends shooting at 720p minimum; its ad spec pages separately note that ad previews aren't device-specific, so framing can render slightly differently on the live ad, and recommend checking your exact creative in TikTok's own Preview Tool before publishing.

Adship's Safe Zone Checker currently validates Meta placements only. For TikTok, use TikTok's overlay files or its in-platform Preview Tool.

Call-to-Action Options

TikTok's Reservation In-Feed and TopView pages document the same pool of 25 standard CTAs, defaulting to "Learn more": Apply now, Book now, Contact us, Download, Experience now, Get quote, Get showtimes, Get ticket now, Install now, Interested, Join this hashtag, Learn more, Listen now, Order now, Play game, Pre-order now, Read more, Shoot with this effect, Shop now, Sign up, Subscribe, View now, View video with this effect, Visit store, and Watch now. A couple are restricted: "Shoot with this effect" isn't available on non-Spark ads, and "Join this hashtag" only works for a commercial or sponsored Hashtag Challenge.

Self-serve Auction campaigns differ: per Dynamic & Recommended CTA (updated November 2025), TikTok builds a contextual pool per ad, roughly "10-20 pre-selected options by default" from "a full candidate list [of] 20-40 CTAs," mixing Dynamic CTA (system-optimized rotation), AIGC CTA (AI-generated from your landing page), and fixed Text CTA, shown across four surfaces: in-feed ads, comments, video endlayer, and Search Ads.

Smart+ Creative Requirements

Per About Smart+ Campaigns (updated June 2025), Smart+ runs targeting, optimization, and creative selection as one AI-managed campaign: you supply KPIs, creative assets, and target geography/language, and automated creative generation handles CTA and format variations with fatigue detection and auto-refresh built in. Organic anchor links it adds automatically only show to users 18 and older.

TikTok's newer asset-group structure for Smart+, per Ads for Smart+ campaigns (updated January 2026, flagged there as not yet available to every advertiser), allows up to 50 creatives (video, image, or carousel) and 5 texts per ad, with up to 30 unique ads per ad group.

TikTok Shop and Video Shopping Ads

Video Shopping Ads make an in-feed video shoppable against a connected TikTok Shop. TikTok's best practices page lists no separate creative dimensions, so the standard In-Feed video specs above apply. What it does state: GMV Max has been "the default and only supported campaign type for TikTok Shop Ads" since July 2025, with 3-5 creatives per ad group recommended minimum, a daily budget run for at least 7 days, and roughly 50 times your target CPA as starting budget for a new product. Adship's TikTok launch flow does not currently publish to the Sales/GMV Max objective; it supports Traffic, Conversions, Reach, Video Views, and App Promotion.

Common Rejection Reasons Tied to Specs

Per Common Reasons Ads Fail Review (updated July 2025), several top causes are spec issues, not policy issues: text or caption problems (spelling errors, excessive capitalization, symbols swapped for letters, a logo covered by a sticker), video or image quality (low resolution, black bars or pixelation, missing or poor audio), exaggerated performance claims, a product or price mismatch between ad and landing page, a broken or non-mobile-friendly landing page (or one missing contact info, a privacy policy, or a refund policy for ecommerce), unauthorized third-party logos (including TikTok's own, or a "TikTok Bestseller" claim), and sexual or shocking content.

Pre-Upload Checklist

• Vertical 9:16 at 540x960px+ (or 960x540px horizontal / 640x640px square)
• .mp4 or .mov, under 500 MB, 10 minutes or less, 516 kbps bitrate or higher
• Sound on, no black bars, nothing important covered by a sticker
• Caption short enough to survive a 4-line, roughly 100-character truncation
• Account nickname at or under 10 (CN/JP/KR) or 20 (other language) characters, no emoji or braces
• Profile photo logo centered inside the 66x66px safe area of the 98x98px image
• CTA chosen from an option your objective actually supports
• Landing page loads on mobile with contact info and a privacy policy (plus a refund policy if ecommerce)
• TikTok's safe-zone overlay checked against the final export before publishing

How Adship Validates TikTok Creative Before Publish

Adship's TikTok upload flow enforces a subset of the above in code, ahead of the API call:

• File acceptance: .mp4/.mov for video and .jpg/.jpeg/.png for images, capped at 2 GB per file, narrower than TikTok's own list (which also allows .mpeg, .3gp, and .avi).
• Ad text: the Creative Editor caps typed ad text at 100 characters and strips emoji before publish; AI-generated or bulk-imported text is capped at 150.
• Aspect ratio detection: every upload is measured and labeled (9:16, 16:9, 1:1, 4:5, 4:3, 3:4, 2:3, or 3:2), so a wrong-ratio asset is visible before you publish.
• Pre-publish validation: a pure function mirrors TikTok's edge-function guards so a bad draft fails locally instead of as a 400 mid-publish, covering campaign/ad-group budget rules (Smart+ forces a $50/day minimum and blocks a manual ad group), objective/optimization-goal/billing-event validity, a pixel and conversion event for conversion-based goals, at least one location, a numeric App ID for App Promotion, and a positive custom bid.
• CTA options: 12 of TikTok's documented CTAs are exposed (Download Now, Learn More, Shop Now, Sign Up, Contact Us, Apply Now, Book Now, Watch Now, Play Now, Get Quote, Subscribe, Order Now).

Not yet built: Sales/GMV Max publishing, a TikTok-specific safe-zone check, or pre-upload duration/bitrate checks; confirm those manually for now.

FAQs

What is the ideal TikTok video ad size in 2026? Vertical 9:16 at 540x960px or higher, per TikTok's Auction In-Feed specifications, matching how content already displays on the For You feed.

What's the maximum file size for a TikTok video ad? 500 MB for a standard upload to In-Feed or TopView. Spark Ads have no file size limit since they reuse an existing organic post.

Is there a TikTok ad caption character limit? It depends on the placement: Auction In-Feed states none, TopView states a hard 100-character/4-line cap, and Reservation In-Feed only recommends staying under 50-100 characters.

Can I run a plain static image ad on TikTok? Not as a main in-feed placement the way Meta supports single-image ads. The two documented image formats are Carousel Ads (2-35 images, inside TikTok) and Global App Bundle image ads (a network placement inside CapCut and Fizzo).

What CTA options does TikTok support? Reservation and TopView document a shared pool of 25 standard CTAs, defaulting to "Learn more." Self-serve Auction campaigns instead draw from a dynamic, partly AI-generated CTA pool.

What is TikTok's safe zone for ads? No fixed pixel margin. TikTok says safe zone size depends on dimension, caption length, and interactive add-on use, and provides downloadable overlay templates instead of one number. The fixed exception is the profile photo's 66x66px safe area.

Why did my TikTok ad get rejected even though it matched the specs? Matching dimensions doesn't cover ad review. TikTok's rejection-reasons page cites text issues, low quality video or audio, exaggerated claims, a mismatched landing page, and unauthorized logos as the top causes, none of which are spec issues.

Sources

All fetched directly 2026-09-06.

• TikTok Auction In-Feed Ads (June 2026)
• Reservation in-feed ad specs, incl. Reach & Frequency (July 2025)
• TopView ad specifications (June 2026)
• Specifications for Carousel Ads (September 2026)
• Global App Bundle image ad specifications (September 2026)
• About Spark Ads (June 2026)
• Spark Ads creation guide (June 2026)
• Dynamic & Recommended CTA (November 2025)
• About Smart+ Campaigns (June 2025)
• Ads for Smart+ campaigns (January 2026)
• Best practices for Video Shopping Ads with TikTok Shop (March 2026)
• Common Reasons Ads Fail Review (July 2025)
• Creative best practices for performance ads (June 2025)

Related Resources

• Meta Ad Specs Hub, the sibling reference for Facebook and Instagram
• TikTok Creative Center Guide
• TikTok Ads Cost 2026
• Adship Pricing