Reddit Ads Specs in 2026: Every Format, Every Limit, One Table (Verified July 2026)
Every Reddit ads spec verified against Reddit's live help pages in July 2026: image, video, carousel, conversation, free-form, and takeover formats in one table, plus safe zones and the size change most guides missed. 1200 x 628 is gone; 4:3 at 1440 x 1080 is the current recommendation.
Reddit's recommended feed image is now 4:3 at 1440 x 1080, and most spec guides are still printing 2024's 1200 x 628. Below is every current spec, checked against Reddit's live help pages in July 2026.
The 2026 Reddit Ads Spec Table: Every Format in One Place
Verified July 2026 against Reddit's official image, video, carousel, free-form, and ad unit spec pages, cross-checked against Strike Social and Spilno. Where aggregators disagree with Reddit's pages, Reddit wins.
| Format | Recommended size | Accepted ratios | File | Headline | Key limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Image (feed) | 1440 x 1080 (4:3) | 1:1, 3:4, 4:5, 4:3, 16:9 (any accepted) | JPG / PNG / GIF, 3 MB | 300 chars | Display URL 100, destination URL 268 |
| Video (feed) | 1440 x 1080 or 1920 x 1080 | 1:1, 3:4, 4:5, 4:3, 16:9 | MP4 / MOV, 1 GB | 300 chars | 2 s to 15 min (rec 5-30 s), 30 fps max, thumbnail 3 MB |
| Carousel | 1200 x 1500 (4:5), 1440 x 1080, or 1920 x 1080 | Same ratio on all cards | JPG / PNG 20 MB, GIF 3 MB | 300 chars | 2-6 cards, 50-char caption + URL per card |
| Conversation | Parent format + 400 x 300 (4:3) thumbnail | Follows parent format | Thumbnail JPG / PNG / GIF, 3 MB | 300 chars (truncates early) | Not a separate creative format |
| Free-form | Post-style, no fixed canvas | n/a | Per-file limits unpublished | Body up to 40,000 chars | 20 images, 5 videos, rich text |
| Vertical video (takeover) | 9:16 | 9:16 recommended | MP4 / MOV, 1 GB | 150 chars | Managed buy only, 5-30 s |
| Dynamic product ads | 1:1, min 500 x 500 | 1:1 | Inherits image specs | 300 chars | The only official minimum dimension Reddit publishes |
If your creative library is Meta-first, the 1:1 and 4:5 exports run on Reddit unchanged. The 4:3 recommendation is the only net-new export, and 3:4 exists for mobile-heavy image buys almost nobody ships.
Every frame is drawn at its true ratio. All five run in feed; 4:3 at 1440 x 1080 is the only one Reddit recommends across mobile and desktop.
Reddit Image Ad Specs: 4:3 Is the New Default
One image file, JPG, PNG, or GIF, capped at 3 MB. Headline up to 300 characters, though Reddit's own guidance says stay under 100 and mobile display truncates around 80. Any aspect ratio uploads; ratios off the recommended list can render letterboxed instead of filling the slot.
The 1200 x 628 era is over. Reddit's current image spec page recommends 4:3 at 1440 x 1080 across devices, and 1.91:1 no longer appears on the ratio list at all. A guide quoting 1200 x 628 as the recommended Reddit ad size is quoting a page that no longer exists.
Reddit's spec pages warn that non-recommended ratios may letterbox. This is the 2024-era wide export next to the current recommendation, both rendered for real.
Ratio call: default to 4:3 for cross-device delivery, keep 1:1 or 4:5 when reusing Meta assets, and reserve 16:9 for desktop-heavy targeting. The thumbnail field only matters for conversation placement and compact view: auto-generated at 4:3 400 x 300 and replaceable, which is worth doing (more in the conversation section below).
1:1
Meta creative, Reddit-accepted ratios.
Reddit accepts the 1:1, 4:5, and 16:9 your Meta ads already run, and the free Meta Ad Resizer outputs all three from one file (this pair is its real output). It does not output Reddit's recommended 4:3; generate that one natively or export it separately.
Reddit Video Ad Specs
MP4 or MOV containers, 1 GB cap, 30 fps maximum. Length runs 2 seconds to 15 minutes, with Reddit recommending 5 to 30. ProRes is explicitly unsupported, so a MOV straight off an editing timeline can bounce while the same cut re-exported as a standard MP4 goes through.
Reddit publishes no bitrate floor and no codec list beyond the two containers. The "1 Mbps minimum" you see in other guides is their invention, not Reddit's.
Thumbnails are JPG, PNG, or GIF up to 3 MB and must match the video's aspect ratio. You can replace or crop the auto-generated one; do it, because that thumbnail is the entire ad in conversation placement and compact view.
Reddit's own numbers argue for front-loading: 88% of users who watch a video on Reddit watch the first six seconds, and 80% of top-performing video campaigns reveal the brand inside the first three (Reddit data via eMarketer, November 2022). The 2026 report adds one more: overlay text on video correlated with 8.2% higher average conversion rates, the opposite of what it does on images.
Takeover vertical video (9:16, 150-character headline, 5 to 30 seconds) is managed-buy only, with a $10,000+ quarterly commitment. If you are building 9:16 anyway for TikTok and Reels, the spec overlap is covered in our vertical video dimensions guide.
Reddit Carousel Ad Specs
2 to 6 cards, one 300-character headline for the whole unit, and a 50-character caption plus its own destination URL on every card. Reddit strongly recommends one aspect ratio across all cards; the cross-device picks are 4:5 at 1200 x 1500, 4:3 at 1440 x 1080, or 16:9 at 1920 x 1080.
The file-size split is where guides contradict each other: JPG and PNG cards go up to 20 MB, GIF cards stay at 3 MB with a recommended run of 3 to 10 seconds. Both numbers are on Reddit's carousel page. The compact-view thumbnail comes from card one, so lead with the card that survives 400 x 300.
Conversation Placement: The Spec Reddit Doesn't Publish
Conversation placement is not a creative format. There is no standalone spec sheet on Reddit's help center; the placement reuses your image, video, or carousel assets and renders them inside comment threads, between the post and the first comments.
Two consequences. The collapsed state shows a 400 x 300 (4:3) thumbnail, so detail-heavy creative dies here; supply your own thumbnail instead of trusting the auto-crop. And while the headline limit is still 300 characters, the conversation rendering truncates earlier than feed; the 250-desktop/100-mobile split some guides print is on no official page, so treat the first 80 characters as the whole message.
Real renders of the same files fitted into a 4:3 collapsed thumbnail. The square gives up a quarter of its height and the headline is the first casualty.
One more thing the placement changes: the ad sits directly next to genuine user comments, so anything that reads as a banner reads as an intruder. The native-tone data in the 2026 section below applies double here.
Free-Form Ads: The Native Format
Reddit's most post-shaped unit: up to 20 images, 5 videos, and 40,000 characters of rich body text with headings, lists, quotes, spoilers, and inline links. Reddit recommends it for Traffic and Brand awareness objectives.
Reddit's launch data (March 2024, via TechCrunch) claims free-form ads beat every other format on average CTR by 28%, with more community engagement when comments stay on. That is the strongest argument on this page for building post-shaped ads instead of banner-shaped ones.
There is still no official numeric spec table for free-form. Per-image size limits and headline rules sit behind the advertiser login, and the "10 MB per image" figure in circulation is aggregator guesswork, not Reddit documentation.
Safe Zones: What Reddit's UI Actually Covers
Reddit publishes no safe-zone template. Not a percentage, not a pixel band, nothing equivalent to Meta's Stories guidance. What follows is practitioner consensus read from Reddit's own ad previews and agency testing, labeled as exactly that.
The feed unit stacks Reddit's chrome around your file: avatar, brand name, Promoted label, and headline above the creative; the CTA row and the vote/comment/share bar below it. On the mobile app, UI elements can also sit on top of the image itself, and the bottom edge plus the bottom-right corner are where they land.
Your headline renders here: 300 characters allowed, roughly 80 before mobile truncates it
The working rules: essential text and logo in the top two-thirds, the central ~80% treated as the whole canvas, nothing load-bearing in the bottom 20% or the bottom-right corner, headline under 80 characters. Before launch, flip the Ads Manager preview between Card and Compact view; Compact crops everything to the thumbnail and is the harsher test.
The same UI-overlap exercise for Meta placements is in our Instagram story safe zones guide and the Facebook ad image sizes sheet.
What Actually Converts on Reddit (Their Own 2026 Data)
Reddit's 2026 Creative Best Practices report, published May 2026, analyzed roughly 150,000 in-feed ads from about 7,000 advertisers for lower-funnel conversion outcomes. The headline finding, as quoted by PPC Land: "images featuring a brand logo saw 108% higher average conversion rates compared to images without any logo." The finding is correlational, from Reddit's own ad dataset, not a controlled lift test. Read it as "logos correlate with roughly 2x conversion rate," not "adding a logo doubles conversions."
From the same report: logos placed top-left or lower-right showed the biggest lift, which matches how redditors scan the unit (the eye enters at the community chip, top-left). For video, a logo in the first or last three seconds performed best.
The counter-intuitive one: overlay text on image ads correlated with 13% lower average conversion rates, while on video it ran 8.2% higher. Port a text-heavy Meta static to Reddit unchanged and you are running against the grain of the format's own performance data.
Keeping at least one in three headline variants unique came with a 12.4% conversion lift. Older Reddit data (2022, via eMarketer) points the same direction: top purchase-intent campaigns were about twice as likely to run conversational headlines, and roughly three-quarters of top performers called out a concrete product benefit.
Three Reddit-Ready Example Ads
The rules above, applied. Each example sits inside the feed unit it would actually occupy, chrome and all.
The spreadsheet is free. The lessons cost me $40k.
Native text pattern: first-person headline carries the click, tiny logo top-left, no banner styling. This is the shape behind free-form's 28% CTR edge.
We tested it against a thermos in a parked car in January. It won.
Spec-correct 1440 x 1080: one product, one benefit line, logo in the top-left eye path, bottom fifth left clear for Reddit's chrome.
Ordered Tuesday, ran Thursday.
Thumbnail-proof 1:1: one focal object and a five-word headline that still read at 400 x 300 in conversation view.
Need the 4:3 nobody else outputs?
AdMakeAI generates ad creative natively at any aspect ratio, including Reddit's recommended 4:3 at 1440 x 1080, with the headline, CTA, and logo placed inside the safe area. Free credits, no card.
CTA Buttons, URLs, and the Boring Fields
23 CTA labels, up from 13. The exact strings matter for trafficking docs: it is "Get Quote," not "Get a Quote," and the current list has no explicit no-button option.
URL fields: destination URL up to 268 characters; display URL up to 100 and it must match the destination domain. Reddit publishes nothing further on deep links or app-install destinations, so build your UTMs inside the 268 budget.
What Changed in 2025 and 2026
- The recommended feed image moved to 4:3 at 1440 x 1080; 1200 x 628 (1.91:1) left the official pages.
- The CTA menu expanded from 13 to 23 labels.
- Product Ads and Dynamic Product Ads are documented and live in limited access. DPA is catalog-driven, physical products only, 1:1 with a 500 x 500 minimum, the only official minimum dimension in Reddit's specs.
- Interactive formats (quizzes, countdowns, trivia) are reported by trade press as rolling out through 2026 via KarmaLab. Reddit has published no creative dimensions for them, so there is nothing to spec yet.
- Free-form ads still have no official numeric spec table, two years after launch.
Reddit Ads Specs FAQ
One product photo, every Reddit ratio.
Generate 4:3, 1:1, 4:5, and 16:9 creative with the logo top-left and the bottom fifth clear. Free credits, no card.
Related Resources
Facebook Ad Image Sizes in 2026
The sibling spec sheet: every Meta placement, every pixel count.
Instagram Story Dimensions in 2026
Safe zones and specs for the 9:16 canvas, placement by placement.
Vertical Video Dimensions 2026
The 9:16 spec across TikTok, Reels, and Shorts, which also covers Reddit's takeover vertical video.
Facebook Video Ad Sizes in 2026
Length, codec, frame rate, and ratio for every Meta video placement.
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