Instagram sizes, with the source for every number
Nine rectangles side by side, each row labelled with where its number came from — including the three Instagram has never published.
GridSlice, already set up for this page
The numbers, and where each one came from
| Surface | Pixels | Ratio | The catch | Where this comes from |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reel | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | 3-second minimum length, and it is the floor that trips people | OfficialMeta for Developers |
| Story | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | The app's own interface covers roughly 250 px top and bottom | UnverifiedshotMod |
| Carousel | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | Ten items maximum, and slide 1 crops every other slide | OfficialMeta for Developers |
| Feed post, tall | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | Your profile grid crops it back to a square thumbnail | DerivedshotMod |
| Feed post, square | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 | Also the ratio a carousel defaults to when unspecified | OfficialMeta for Developers |
| Landscape post | 1080 × 566 | 1.91:1 | Wider than this is cropped at the sides, never letterboxed | UnverifiedshotMod |
| Profile picture | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 | Masked to a circle, so about 21% of the square is never drawn | DerivedshotMod |
| Reel cover | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | The profile grid shows a narrower slice of the middle | UnverifiedshotMod |
| Highlight cover | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | Only a circle from the centre is displayed — about 44% of the frame | DerivedshotMod |
Last verified 2026-09-05 · 4 sources
- Reels publishing — recommended video specification (9 x 16, 1080 × 1920, 3–90 s, 24–60 fps, H.264/H.265, AAC LC 48 kHz) — Meta for Developers
- Instagram Platform content publishing — carousels are limited to 10 items and every slide is cropped to the first slide's ratio — Meta for Developers
- Derived arithmetically from the ratio and width in the cited Meta specification — no independent claim is made — shotMod
- Community consensus, not an Instagram document — Instagram publishes no current page stating this value, and help.instagram.com serves article bodies only to JavaScript, so no Help Center article can honestly be cited for it (checked 2026-09-05) — shotMod
What this actually means
Almost every Instagram size chart on the web presents its numbers with identical confidence, and almost none of them can tell you which ones Instagram actually published. That is not pedantry: it is the difference between a figure that will still be right next year and a figure someone measured off a screenshot on one phone in one app version and everybody copied afterwards.
So the table on this page carries a provenance column. Three of the nine rows are quoted from a live Meta developer document and linked to it. Three are arithmetic on those documented numbers, which introduces no new claim. Three are community consensus that no current Instagram page states anywhere we can read, and they are labelled unverified in public rather than dressed up as specification.
What goes wrong
The one number worth internalising is the width: 1080 pixels, everywhere. Every rectangle in this cluster is authored at that width and differs only in height, so “what size” is really “what ratio”, and the pixel count follows. Exporting wider buys you nothing because it is resampled down on ingest; exporting narrower costs you sharpness that cannot be recovered afterwards.
Most of these surfaces crop your image twice, in different places, and it is the second crop that nobody previews. The feed keeps your 4:5 frame and the profile grid squares it. Reels playback shows the whole cover and the grid shows a slice. Composing for the first view and never checking the second is the single most common way a perfectly sized image still looks wrong.
How to do it here, in three steps
- Pick your surface from the table above — every row links to a page with its full spec.
- The resizer at the top of this page is the same GridSlice tool those pages carry.
- Add a photo, choose a target ratio, and export. Nothing you add is uploaded anywhere.
Questions, answered
What size should Instagram photos be?
Author everything at 1080 pixels wide and let the ratio set the height: 1080 × 1350 for a tall feed post, 1080 × 1080 square, 1080 × 1920 for anything full screen. Width is the settled part; ratio is the decision.
Which Instagram sizes are officially documented?
Very few. Meta publishes the Reels video specification and the carousel rules in its developer documentation, and those rows are linked here. The Story safe zone, the landscape ceiling and the profile-grid crop are not published anywhere current, and this table labels them unverified.
Do I need different files for the feed and my profile grid?
No, but you do need to check both. The grid squares every post, so a tall image loses a band at the top and bottom there while staying intact in the feed. Composing with the centre square in mind covers both views with one file.
Everything on this page runs on your own device. Nothing you add is uploaded, and there is no account to create.