Instagram Post Size Guide and Free Resizer

Every Instagram Post Size in One Table

These are all the Instagram dimensions you need, checked against Instagram's and Meta's own help pages on November 12, 2026. Instagram shows photos at up to 1080 pixels wide, so every size starts there.

A ratio is width to height: 4:5 means 4 wide for every 5 tall. Names with a link open Instagram's or Meta's page about that size.

How to Resize a Photo for Instagram

1. Tap Choose photos and pick one photo, or up to 20. On a computer, you can drop them in instead.
2. Pick a size. Portrait 4:5 suits most posts, Grid 3:4 is the tallest post, and Story / Reel 9:16 fills the screen.
3. Pick Crop to fill, then drag the photo and zoom until it looks right. Or pick Fit with blur or Fit with color to keep the whole photo.
4. Tap Grid crop to see what shows on your profile. For a Story or reel, Safe zones shows where Instagram's buttons go.
5. Tap Download JPG. On a phone, tap Save / Share, then Save Image, to put it straight into your photos.

Added several photos? They all get the same size, ready for one carousel, and Download all (ZIP) saves them in one go. Need a photo to try it on? Grab one from our free stock images.

Instagram Post Dimensions: Portrait, Square and Landscape

The Instagram aspect ratio for feed photos can be anything from 1.91:1 (wide) to 3:4 (tall). At 1080 pixels wide, that's any height from 566 to 1440 pixels. Photos outside that range get cropped to fit, Instagram's help page says. There are four shapes to pick from:

• Portrait 4:5 (1080 × 1350): The size most people use. It fills more of the screen than a square, and every app that posts to Instagram takes it.
• Portrait 3:4 (1080 × 1440): The tallest post. Instagram added it in May 2025, because most phone cameras take 3:4 photos. It also fills a profile grid tile exactly.
• Square 1:1 (1080 × 1080): The classic Instagram shape. It's shorter in the feed, and the grid trims a strip off each side.
• Landscape 1.91:1 (1080 × 566): The widest post. It looks small in the feed, and the grid shows only a narrow slice from the middle.

Which is best? A portrait. Taller posts take up more of the screen as people scroll, so they're harder to miss. Pick 3:4 if you post from the Instagram app. Pick 4:5 if you schedule posts with another app: Meta's publishing tool for those apps only takes photos from 4:5 to 1.91:1, as JPGs up to 8 MB (as of November 2026).

Whichever Instagram post size you pick, make it 1080 pixels wide, so Instagram doesn't have to resize it.

Instagram Carousel Size

A carousel can hold up to 20 photos and videos, and they all share one shape: square, portrait or landscape. Instagram's help page says you can't pick a different shape for each one, so every slide gets cropped to match. A landscape photo in a portrait carousel loses its sides.

Resize them all to the same size before you post, and you choose what each one keeps. The resizer above does that when you add several photos at once. Want one big photo split into tiles across your profile? Use the Instagram grid maker.

Instagram Story Size and Safe Zones

Instagram story dimensions are 1080 × 1920 pixels, a 9:16 shape that fills a phone screen. A photo in another shape still works, but Instagram puts a background around it.

Parts of every Story get covered: your name and the progress bar at the top, and the reply box and buttons at the bottom. Reels are the same, with the caption and buttons on top. Meta's guide for ads says to keep text and logos out of the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% on each side. On a 1080 × 1920 image, that's about 270 pixels at the top, 670 at the bottom and 65 on each side. It's a safe rule for normal Stories and reels too. Pick Story / Reel 9:16 in the resizer and turn on Safe zones to see them on your photo.

Instagram Reel Size and Cover Size

Reels are 1080 × 1920 pixels too. Instagram's help page says a reel can be any shape from 1.91:1 to 9:16, at least 720 pixels and 30 frames per second, but only 9:16 fills the screen.

The cover is the picture people see before they tap play. Make it 1080 × 1920 as well, and keep faces and words in the middle. Your profile grid shows only the middle 1080 × 1440 of it (3:4), so 240 pixels come off the top and the bottom. Instagram's help page still recommends 420 × 654 pixels for covers, but a bigger cover stays sharper.

Instagram Profile Picture Size and Highlight Covers

Instagram doesn't publish an exact profile picture size. It shows your picture as a small circle, so use a square photo of at least 320 × 320 pixels (1080 × 1080 is plenty), with your face in the middle and nothing important in the corners. The Instagram pfp maker crops any photo to the circle and shows how it will look on a profile.

Highlight covers are the circles under your bio. Each one comes from a Story, so make it 1080 × 1920 and keep the icon or word in the middle: only a circle from the center shows. Make a matching set with the free Instagram highlight cover maker.

Why Does Instagram Crop My Photo?

There are four reasons:

• It's too tall or too wide. Anything taller than 3:4 or wider than 1.91:1 gets cropped to fit. A 9:16 screenshot posted to the feed loses its top and bottom.
• Your profile grid shows a 3:4 tile. Since January 2025, the grid in the app shows each post as a tall rectangle cut from the middle. Square and landscape posts lose their sides there, but the whole post still shows when someone taps it.
• It's in a carousel. Every slide takes the same shape, so photos in a different shape get cropped to match.
• It's a Story or reel. Nothing is cut off, but your name, the caption and the buttons sit on top of the edges.

The fix is the same every time: resize your photo to the right Instagram post size before you post, so you pick what stays. Already posted? You can still change which part shows on your grid: open the post, tap the three dots, and look for the option to adjust the preview.

How to Keep Your Photos Sharp on Instagram

• Upload at 1080 pixels wide. The Instagram photo size limit is 1080 pixels wide: bigger photos get shrunk to 1080, and anything under 320 gets stretched. Every photo from the resizer is exactly 1080 wide.
• Don't zoom in too far. Zooming crops away pixels, and a small crop has to be stretched to fill 1080. The resizer tells you when a photo will look soft.
• Turn on Upload at highest quality for reels. In the app, tap your profile, then the menu at the top right, then Media quality. Higher quality reels can take longer to upload.
• Keep files small for scheduling apps. Meta's publishing tool takes JPGs up to 8 MB. To shrink a big photo or turn a PNG into a JPG, use the image file size calculator.

More Free Instagram Tools

• Instagram fonts: copy and paste fancy text for your bio and captions.
• Instagram username ideas: find a new handle that fits your page.
• Instagram engagement rate calculator: see how your likes and comments stack up.
• How much does Instagram pay?: what creators can earn from their posts and reels.
• Who unfollowed me on Instagram?: check your followers with no login.