Instagram aspect ratios and post sizes
Instagram is built on a 1080-pixel-wide canvas. Almost every recommended size is 1080 px across; what changes is the height, and therefore the ratio.
The numbers
| Placement | Ratio | Pixels | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed — square | 1:1 | 1080 × 1080 | The classic Instagram shape. Safe everywhere. |
| Feed — portrait | 4:5 | 1080 × 1350 | The tallest a feed post can be. Takes the most vertical screen space. |
| Feed — landscape | 1.91:1 | 1080 × 566 | Widest allowed. 1.91:1 is the same link-preview ratio Facebook uses. |
| Stories | 9:16 | 1080 × 1920 | Full screen vertical. |
| Reels | 9:16 | 1080 × 1920 | Same frame as Stories; different crop rules on the profile grid. |
| Carousel | matches slide 1 | 1080 wide | Every slide is cropped to the ratio of the first one. |
| Profile photo | 1:1 | 320 × 320 | Displayed as a circle — keep the subject well inside the square. |
Instagram has been changing how the profile grid previews posts, moving from square thumbnails toward taller 4:5 previews in newer app versions. Because the grid crop can change under you, design portrait posts so that nothing essential sits in the top or bottom eighth of the frame.
Calculator
The four Instagram shapes are preset below. Change the width or height and the other side follows.
Nearest standard resolutions
Why 4:5 is the default choice
A phone screen is roughly 9:16 to 9:19.5. A 1:1 post occupies about a third of that screen; a 4:5 post occupies closer to half. Since Instagram's feed is an infinite vertical scroll, the taller post simply takes longer to scroll past, which is why 1080 × 1350 became the standard for anything that needs dwell time. The cost is that 4:5 is an awkward shape to shoot for — most cameras produce 3:2 or 4:3, both wider than 4:5, so you will always be cropping the sides.
Enter your camera's dimensions with the lock off to confirm the source ratio, then switch to the 4:5 preset with the lock on and set the height to 1350. The resulting width tells you how much of the original frame survives if you match heights — for a 4:3 source, roughly 90% of the width.
Stories, Reels and the safe area
Stories and Reels use the same 1080 × 1920 frame, but the interface covers different parts of it. The top of a Story carries the profile row and progress bars; the bottom carries the reply field. On Reels, the bottom-left holds the caption and audio credit while the bottom-right holds the action buttons. A workable habit is to treat roughly the top 250 px and the bottom 400 px of the 1920 px frame as unreliable, and keep captions, logos and faces inside the middle band. These margins are approximate and change with app updates, so check on a real device before a campaign ships.
A related trap: a Reel's grid thumbnail is cropped from the 9:16 frame, historically toward a square or 4:5 shape centred on the video. Text placed near the very bottom of a Reel — where it reads perfectly in the player — often vanishes from the grid.
Carousels
The first slide sets the ratio for the whole carousel. If slide one is square and slide two is portrait, slide two is cropped to square — it is not letterboxed, and you cannot fix it after posting. Export every slide at identical dimensions before uploading. If you want the taller 4:5 format for the set, make sure slide one is 1080 × 1350.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best Instagram post size?
1080 × 1350 (4:5) for maximum screen real estate in the feed, or 1080 × 1080 (1:1) when you want a predictable square that crops safely into any grid layout. Both are 1080 px wide, which is the width Instagram serves at full quality.
Can I post a 16:9 landscape photo?
Not at 16:9. The widest the feed accepts is about 1.91:1 (1080 × 566). A 16:9 image (1.78:1) is actually narrower than that limit, so it will post without cropping — it simply appears as a fairly small strip in a vertical feed. If the wide framing is the point, consider posting it as a carousel with a cropped square lead slide.
Why do my images look soft after uploading?
Almost always because they were not 1080 px wide. Instagram resamples anything that does not match its canvas, and upscaling a 640 px image or downscaling a 4000 px one both introduce softness. Export at exactly 1080 px wide with the correct height for your ratio, and keep the file within a few megabytes so the compressor has less work to do.
Is Reels the same size as Stories?
The frame is identical: 1080 × 1920, 9:16. What differs is the overlay layout and how the post is later cropped for the profile grid. Assets designed for Stories usually work as Reels covers, but check that nothing important sits behind the Reels action buttons on the right edge.
What size should a Reels cover image be?
Design it at 1080 × 1920 so it matches the video, but keep the critical content centred, because the grid thumbnail is a centre crop of that frame toward a squarer shape. Treating the central square of the cover as the real composition and everything else as background is the reliable approach.
Does Instagram crop my profile picture?
It is stored square and displayed as a circle, so the four corners are always cut. Upload at least 320 × 320 and keep the subject within the inscribed circle — a face that fills the square will have its ears and chin clipped.
Use cases & limitations
- Template setup. Create artboards at 1080 × 1080, 1080 × 1350 and 1080 × 1920 once and never think about it again.
- Cross-posting. A 1080 × 1920 Reel is the same frame as a TikTok video, so one export covers both — see the TikTok page for the differing safe areas.
- Auditing a brand library. Drop existing asset dimensions into the calculator with the lock off to find which ones are not on a supported ratio.
- Limitation: safe-area margins are described in words here because they are layout conventions, not published pixel specifications, and they shift with app releases.
- Limitation: this page covers geometry only. File size caps, video length limits and codec support are outside its scope and change frequently.