Optimal Instagram Post Sizes: What Size is Instagram Post?
Ever uploaded a photo to Instagram only to have it cropped awkwardly or lose its sharpness? That’s because Instagram post dimensions affect how content is displayed, and if your post isn’t the right size, it can get compressed or cut off in ways you didn’t expect. Using the correct dimensions ensures your content looks crisp, professional, and engaging.
Whether it's a feed post, Story, Reel, or carousel, every type of Instagram content has an optimal size that maximizes visibility and interaction. This guide covers the exact dimensions you need to make sure your posts stand out and don’t get lost in Instagram’s algorithm.
Key Takeaways
Use the correct dimensions for each post type to avoid cropping and compression: 1080 x 1080 pixels for square, 1080 x 1350 pixels for portrait, and 1080 x 566 pixels for landscape. Proper sizing ensures posts remain sharp and professional.
Stories and Reels perform best at 1080 x 1920 pixels, filling the entire screen for a more immersive experience. Choosing the right size prevents black bars and unwanted cropping.
Instagram compresses images and videos, but high-quality uploads can preserve clarity. Using PNG for text-based images, exporting MP4 videos in H.264 format, and enabling High-Quality Uploads in settings help maintain the best resolution.
Instagram Image and Video Dimensions
Instagram isn’t just about posting great content—it’s about making sure it looks great, too. Using the right Instagram image size prevents pixelation, awkward cropping, and Instagram’s notorious compression from ruining your posts. Whether you’re sharing a photo, video, or Story, sticking to the recommended sizes helps maintain a polished and professional appearance.
Instagram supports four main post formats:
Feed posts (Square, Portrait, and Landscape)
Stories (Full-screen vertical content that disappears in 24 hours)
Reels (Short, engaging videos designed for high interaction)
Carousels (Multiple images or videos in one post for swipe-through engagement)
Each of these formats has its own optimal dimensions, ensuring they display correctly across devices. Whether you're posting a high-quality portrait shot, a wide landscape image, or an eye-catching Story, using the correct sizes guarantees your content always looks its best.
Feed Post Sizes & Best Practices
Instagram’s feed supports three main post formats: square photos, portrait photos, and landscape images. Each format affects how content appears on a user’s screen, influencing engagement and overall visibility. Using the correct dimensions ensures posts look sharp without unwanted cropping or compression.
Square Posts (1:1 Ratio)
A 1080 x 1080 pixel post is the most standard format and remains the safest option for maintaining a clean, organized feed. Since Instagram’s grid is designed around square images, this format keeps content visually consistent. Square posts also prevent any unexpected cropping, making them ideal for product photos, text-based graphics, or branding visuals.
Portrait Posts (4:5 Ratio)
Taller posts, sized at 1080 x 1350 pixels, take up more space in the feed, making them more likely to grab attention. This format is perfect for vertical photography, fashion shots, and any content where maximizing screen real estate is beneficial. However, using an aspect ratio taller than 4:5 will cause Instagram to crop the image, potentially cutting off important details.
Landscape Posts (1.91:1 Ratio)
For wide-angle shots or cinematic images, 1080 x 566 pixels works best. However, portrait and landscape photos behave differently in the feed—portrait images take up more screen space, while landscape images appear smaller, which may affect engagement rates. If not sized correctly, Instagram may automatically add white borders to adjust the aspect ratio, which can make the post appear smaller in the feed.
Best Practices for Feed Posts
Maintain High Image Quality
Instagram compresses images upon upload, and lower-resolution files can become pixelated. Using high-resolution images prevents unnecessary blurriness and keeps posts looking sharp. Resizing photos before uploading helps control compression, ensuring they display at their best.
Keep Important Elements Within the Safe Zone
When adding text, logos, or key details, it’s essential to place them toward the center of the image. This prevents important content from getting cropped, especially in preview thumbnails or when displayed in different feed layouts.
Choosing the Right File Format
For the best quality, PNG files work well for text-heavy images and graphics, preserving clarity after compression. JPEG files are better suited for photographs, offering smaller file sizes with minimal quality loss. However, over-compressed JPEGs can appear grainy, so maintaining a balance between file size and resolution is key.
Full-Screen Content: Stories & Reels
Vertical content has become the dominant format on Instagram, with both Stories and Reels optimized for full-screen viewing. These formats are designed for mobile-first engagement, making them ideal for immersive content that grabs attention. Whether sharing a quick moment on Stories or posting a high-energy Reel, using the right dimensions ensures a seamless viewing experience.
Why Vertical Posts Work Best
Instagram prioritizes 9:16 aspect ratio content because it fills the entire screen, eliminating distractions and increasing watch time. The recommended size for both Stories and Reels is 1080 x 1920 pixels, ensuring content is displayed at the highest quality. Since Instagram Stories and Reels share the same dimensions, repurposing content between the two is easy. However, the way users interact with them differs—Stories disappear after 24 hours (unless saved to highlights), while Reels stay on a creator’s profile and can be discovered through Instagram’s Explore page.
Optimizing Stories for Best Results
Since Stories are often viewed quickly, making them visually appealing and easy to digest is essential. Poor formatting can lead to key details getting cut off or text being unreadable.
Avoid Cropping Issues: Instagram places buttons, usernames, and reply fields at the top and bottom of the screen, which can block essential parts of a Story. Keeping important elements within the central safe zone ensures they remain visible.
Use Templates for Better Quality: Pre-made Instagram Story templates help maintain consistency while reducing pixelation. Many design apps offer ready-to-use templates that fit the 9:16 aspect ratio perfectly.
Enhance Engagement with Stickers & GIFs: Interactive features like polls, questions, and countdown timers boost engagement. However, placing them away from edges prevents them from overlapping with Instagram’s default UI elements.
Reels & Video Content Optimization
Reels are Instagram’s answer to short-form video trends, offering a dynamic way to showcase content. Because they live on both the profile feed and the Reels tab, optimizing their visual presentation is key.
Aspect Ratio Matters: The 9:16 ratio ensures videos take up full-screen space, preventing black bars or unwanted cropping.
Thumbnails Keep Your Grid Consistent: Even though Reels play in vertical mode, Instagram crops thumbnails to 1080 x 1080 pixels when displaying them in the profile grid. Choosing a frame that looks good in both formats maintains a professional appearance.
Upload in High Resolution: Instagram compresses videos, reducing their quality if they’re not optimized beforehand. Exporting Reels at 1080p with a high bitrate minimizes loss of detail, ensuring a crisp, professional look.
Instagram Profile & Thumbnails: Get the Right Look
A strong Instagram profile isn’t just about great posts—it starts with the right profile picture and well-chosen thumbnails. These small details help create a cohesive, professional appearance while ensuring your content stands out.
Profile Picture: Keeping It Sharp
Instagram’s profile picture is displayed at 320 x 320 pixels, but it’s cropped into a circle on your profile. This means key elements—such as logos, text, or faces—should be centered to avoid being cut off. Since the profile picture appears small on mobile devices, using a simple, high-contrast image ensures visibility.
Even though Instagram compresses images, uploading a high-quality version helps prevent pixelation. If you're using a logo or branding, make sure it’s clear, legible, and recognizable even at a small size.
Thumbnails for Reels & Videos
When posting Reels or IGTV videos, Instagram displays thumbnails in a square format (1080 x 1080 pixels) on your profile grid, even though the videos themselves are vertical. Choosing the right still frame or uploading a custom thumbnail keeps your feed visually consistent.
For the best results, select a frame that is clear, high-contrast, and represents the video’s content well. A well-designed thumbnail increases click-through rates, helping your Reels or videos attract more engagement.
Carousel Post Sizes & Optimization
Instagram carousels allow users to swipe through multiple images or videos in a single post, making them one of the most engaging formats on the platform. They’re perfect for storytelling, tutorials, before-and-after transformations, and product showcases. Because users actively swipe through them, carousels often get higher engagement rates than standard posts.
Choosing the Right Carousel Size
Carousels can be posted in square, portrait, or landscape formats, but all slides within a carousel must be the same size to ensure consistency.
Square (1080 x 1080 pixels): The most commonly used format, keeping posts uniform and looking great in the feed.
Portrait (1080 x 1350 pixels): Provides a larger visual impact, taking up more screen space and increasing engagement.
Landscape (1080 x 566 pixels): Works well for wide-angle images, but since it appears smaller in the feed, it often gets less interaction.
Best Practices for Carousel Posts
To make the most of a carousel post, all slides should be designed with a consistent look and feel. Mixing different sizes can lead to awkward cropping when users swipe through the post.
The first slide is crucial—it acts as the hook that determines whether people will swipe through or keep scrolling. Using bold visuals, strong headlines, or intriguing previews can encourage users to engage with the full carousel.
Maintaining High Image & Video Quality
Instagram automatically compresses images and videos to optimize loading speeds and save storage, but this can reduce quality, causing blurriness or pixelation. If an image or video isn’t properly formatted before uploading photos, it may lose sharpness, colors, or important details. Understanding how Instagram processes files helps ensure content remains crisp and professional.
How to Prevent Blurry Images
Compression affects photos differently depending on their format. While JPEG files are commonly used for Instagram, they often lose quality when resized or saved multiple times. Instead, PNG files retain more details, making them ideal for text-based graphics or images that require sharp edges.
For videos, Instagram recommends using MP4 format with the H.264 codec, as it provides high quality while keeping file sizes manageable. This is especially important for landscape videos, where lower resolutions can cause details to appear stretched or blurry. Ensuring that wide-angle content is exported at the correct resolution helps maintain clarity and sharpness. Uploading lower-resolution videos increases the risk of compression artifacts, making content appear grainy.
Using Instagram’s ‘High-Quality Uploads’ Setting
Instagram has a setting that allows users to upload high-resolution photos and videos without excessive compression. To enable this feature:
Open Instagram settings
Go to Account > Data Usage
Toggle "High-Quality Uploads" to ON
This ensures content is uploaded at the best possible resolution while minimizing loss of detail.
By choosing the right file formats, exporting at high resolutions, and enabling Instagram’s quality settings, images and videos stay sharp and visually appealing.
Tools for Resizing & Editing Instagram Posts
Ensuring Instagram posts are the right size doesn’t have to be complicated. Several free tools make it easy to resize images and videos without losing quality.
Recommended Free Tools
For quick and effortless resizing, Adobe Express and Canva offer pre-set Instagram dimensions, allowing users to resize images with just a few clicks. These tools also provide templates and drag-and-drop editing features, making it simple to create visually appealing posts.
When it comes to video editing, Kapwing and InShot are great options. Kapwing allows users to crop, trim, and export videos in Instagram’s recommended aspect ratios, while InShot provides advanced video compression features, helping maintain high quality without exceeding file size limits.
How to Manually Resize Photos in Photoshop
For more precise control, resizing images manually in Photoshop ensures they meet Instagram’s requirements. Here’s how:
Open the image in Photoshop.
Click Image > Image Size and set the dimensions to 1080 x 1080, 1080 x 1350, or 1080 x 1920 depending on the post type.
Ensure "Resample" is checked and select Bicubic Sharper for best quality.
Save the file as PNG for text-heavy graphics or JPEG for standard photos.
With the right tools and techniques, Instagram content can be optimized for perfect display without distortion or quality loss.
Conclusion
Using the right Instagram post sizes ensures your content looks sharp, professional, and engaging. Whether it’s a feed post, Story, Reel, or carousel, sticking to the correct dimensions prevents unwanted cropping, pixelation, and compression. Well-optimized images and videos not only improve visibility but also keep followers engaged for longer.
High-quality posts stand out in the feed, increase interaction rates, and enhance overall content performance. By following these best practices—using the correct aspect ratios, enabling high-quality uploads, and resizing content properly—you can maximize your reach and make every Instagram post visually appealing and effective.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best size for Instagram feed posts?
The best size depends on the format you’re using. Square posts should be 1080 x 1080 pixels, portrait posts work best at 1080 x 1350 pixels, and landscape posts should be 1080 x 566 pixels. Sticking to these dimensions ensures that your images are displayed correctly without being cropped or distorted.
What size should Instagram Stories and Reels be?
Instagram Stories and Reels both use a 1080 x 1920 pixel size with a 9:16 Instagram aspect ratio. This vertical format is optimized for full-screen mobile viewing, ensuring that your content fills the screen without unnecessary borders or cropping.
How can I stop Instagram from reducing my image quality?
Instagram compresses images and videos to save space, but you can minimize quality loss by uploading photos at high resolution within the correct dimensions. Using PNG files for text-based images helps prevent blurriness, and enabling High-Quality Uploads in Instagram’s settings can also maintain better image clarity.
Why do Instagram Reels thumbnails need to be 1080 x 1080 pixels?
There are many free tools available for resizing Instagram videos and images. Canva and Adobe Express provide preset Instagram dimensions for images, making resizing quick and simple. For videos, Kapwing and InShot allow you to edit and export content in the correct aspect ratio without losing quality.
What tools can I use to resize Instagram posts correctly?
There are many free tools available for resizing Instagram posts. Canva and Adobe Express provide preset Instagram dimensions for images, making resizing quick and simple. For videos, Kapwing and InShot allow you to edit and export content in the correct aspect ratio without losing quality.