About TikTok Cover Maker
TikTok covers display in two contexts: the full-screen 1080×1920 view in the For You feed, and a 1:1 cropped thumbnail on your profile grid. Designs that look great in one often disappear in the other — captions slip behind the right-side action rail, focal points get cropped out of the profile thumb. The TikTok Cover Maker renders to 1080×1920 with TikTok's UI safe-area overlaid in the preview (action rail, caption strip, top chrome) and a side-by-side 1:1 thumbnail crop so you can verify both views before exporting. The overlay is preview-only and is never written into the saved file.
- No uploads
- Browser-only
- Works offline
- 100% free
How it works
- 1
Drop a background
Portrait images work best — landscape and square are centre-cropped to 9:16.
- 2
Add headline text
Position it clear of the action rail (right edge) and the caption strip (bottom 15%). The overlay shows you exactly which regions to avoid.
- 3
Verify the profile crop
The 1:1 preview shows what TikTok shows on your profile grid — keep faces and key text inside the centre square.
9:16, and the parts of the frame TikTok covers
A TikTok cover is a 1080x1920 (9:16) still that represents your video on your profile grid and in search. The catch unique to TikTok: a large chunk of the frame is permanently occupied by interface elements during playback and, crucially, by the caption and username area — and the profile grid also crops your tall cover, so what you design and what viewers see diverge in two different ways depending on the surface.
On the profile grid, TikTok shows covers in a portrait tile but overlays the video's caption text along the bottom and your handle beneath. So the lower portion of your beautiful cover is routinely sat under text TikTok draws automatically. Anything load-bearing down there — a headline, a face — gets obscured.
Where to place text and faces
- Vertical centre is the safe zone: TikTok's right-side action buttons, bottom caption, and top search bar all encroach from the edges, leaving the middle band reliably clear.
- Bottom ~20%: assume it's covered by the caption and username on the grid. Don't put your only headline there.
- Right ~15%: the like/comment/share rail lives here during playback — keep subjects off the right edge.
- Use the 1:1 thumbnail preview to check how the cover reads when TikTok crops or shrinks it, and the safe-area overlay to see the UI zones before you commit.
What a TikTok cover can and can't do
The cover sells the tap from your profile and from search results — for a creator building a back-catalogue, consistent, readable covers turn a profile visit into views. But like other short-form feeds, the For-You feed usually autoplays the video rather than showing your cover, so the cover's job is mostly on the surfaces where people browse your work, not where the algorithm serves it cold.
A common mistake is treating the cover as a separate poster unrelated to the video's first frame. Because viewers may see either, keeping them visually consistent avoids a jarring jump. And don't rely on tiny text — TikTok is watched almost entirely on phones, so a headline needs to be large and high-contrast to survive both the small grid tile and a busy background. For the headline itself, Thumbnail Text Overlay handles contrast and outline; to repurpose the same cover for other apps, the Shorts Thumbnail Generator shares the 9:16 canvas.
Frequently asked questions about TikTok Cover Maker
Are the safe-area positions exact?
They're based on TikTok's published guidelines and observed UI as of early 2026. The action rail occupies the right ~18% from 35% to 95% vertically; captions occupy the bottom ~15%. Verify on-device for important campaigns since UI evolves.
Will the overlay appear in my downloaded file?
No. The overlay is rendered on a separate preview canvas — the exported JPG contains only your image and any text you added.
Why both the 9:16 view and the 1:1 thumbnail?
TikTok's profile grid cuts the centre 1:1 from your 1080×1920 cover. If your design depends on the bottom of the cover (a CTA, a logo) the profile grid will hide it. The split preview surfaces this conflict before you upload.
Privacy, offline use, browser support, and pricing questions are answered on the site-wide FAQ.