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Where your carousel actually gets covered
A carousel slide is not cropped the same way on every surface, and the platform puts its own interface on top of yours. Text that looked centred in the editor ends up under a profile row, a caption, or a page counter. This shows the crop and the covered strips for each format, at the size you are actually exporting, before you find out in the feed.
LinkedIn document, square
Safe area 1080 x 886
Keep 329px clear at the bottom, 135px at the top. That is 34% of the slide.
Cropped to this surface's ratio, then 194px covered by its interface. The document title bar and the page counter sit along the bottom.
LinkedIn document, portrait
Safe area 1080 x 1134
Keep 216px clear at the bottom. That is 16% of the slide.
No crop at this ratio; 216px covered by its interface. Taller slide, same interface, so proportionally less is lost.
Instagram carousel, square
Safe area 1080 x 929
Keep 286px clear at the bottom, 135px at the top. That is 31% of the slide.
Cropped to this surface's ratio, then 151px covered by its interface. The caption and action row sit under the slide once it is in feed.
Instagram carousel, portrait
Safe area 1080 x 1080
Keep 270px clear at the bottom. That is 20% of the slide.
No crop at this ratio; 270px covered by its interface. The tallest canvas, and the extra height is the part most likely covered.
Computed in this page. Nothing was uploaded and nothing was sent anywhere. The crop is exact geometry from each surface's ratio; the covered band is a conservative fraction of the rendered height, because the interface scales with the render box rather than with your file.
How it works
Step 1
Pick the format you are exporting
LinkedIn documents, Instagram portrait and square, and the ratios each surface actually renders. The numbers come from the aspect ratio the format enforces, not from a guess.
Step 2
See the crop and the overlays
The preview shows where the slide is cropped and which strips the platform covers with its own interface, drawn to scale on your dimensions.
Step 3
Get the usable box in pixels
The safe area in real pixels for the size you typed, so you can set the margins in your design tool rather than eyeballing them.
What it produces
Every example below is real output from the same engine this page calls. Nothing here was written to look like a result.
A 1080 by 1080 slide on LinkedIn
Square export, viewed as a LinkedIn document post.
Safe area 1080 x 886
The bottom 194px sit under the document title bar and the page counter.
Keep headlines above the lower fifth. A square slide is not cropped here, but the chrome still takes the bottom.
Never: Putting the call to action at the very bottom, which is the single most common carousel mistake.
A 1080 by 1350 slide on Instagram
Portrait export, viewed in the Instagram feed.
Safe area 1080 x 1080
The caption and action row cover the lower band once the post is in feed.
Portrait gives you more canvas than square, and the extra height is the part most likely to be covered.
Never: Assuming the editor preview matches the feed. It does not.
What is a carousel safe zone?
A carousel safe zone is the part of a slide that survives both the platform crop and its own interface. Anything outside it is either cut off by the aspect ratio the feed enforces, or hidden behind overlays such as the profile row, the caption, and the slide counter.
Why this one sends nothing anywhere
Every other tool on this site calls a server because generating needs one. This is arithmetic over two numbers you typed, and the browser can do arithmetic. Sending it somewhere would buy latency, a rate limit and a privacy question in exchange for nothing.
| The usual approach | This tool |
|---|---|
| Uploads your slide to check it | Takes two numbers and computes in the page |
| Shows one generic template overlay | Draws the crop and the chrome to scale on your dimensions |
| Gives you percentages to convert yourself | Gives you the usable box in real pixels |
| Needs an account for the export sizes | Needs nothing, and never did |
Not for: Checking a finished image. This works from the dimensions you are exporting at, not from an upload, so it tells you where to keep things clear rather than grading a slide you already made.
Questions
Is the carousel safe zone checker free?
Yes, and it is free in a stronger sense than the other tools here: it runs entirely in your browser, so there is no account, no limit, and no request to rate limit.
What size should a LinkedIn carousel be?
LinkedIn documents render at the ratio you upload, and 1080 by 1080 or 1080 by 1350 are the two that behave predictably. The checker shows what each one loses to the interface.
Why does my text get cut off in the feed?
Two different reasons that look the same. Either the feed enforces an aspect ratio narrower than your export and crops it, or the platform draws its own interface over the bottom band. The preview separates the two.
Does it upload my slide?
No, and it cannot: it never asks for one. You type the dimensions you are exporting at, and the arithmetic happens in the page. Nothing is sent anywhere.
How much room does the interface actually take?
It varies by surface, and the checker shows the band per format rather than one number. The consistent rule is that the bottom is the risky edge and the last fifth of a slide should never carry anything load-bearing.
Can I use this for stories or reels covers?
The formats listed cover carousel slides. A story is a different shape with different chrome, and guessing at it here would be worse than saying so.
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