Instagram sizes changed more in 2025 than in the five years before. The profile grid switched from squares to taller 3:4 rectangles in January 2025, and in late May 2025 Instagram added 3:4 as an upload shape for feed photos. Advice written before then, "post squares" or "4:5 is the tallest you can go", is now incomplete. This guide lists the sizes that work as of October 2026, explains what Instagram crops and where, and the tool above crops your photo to each size with the crops drawn on the preview.
Instagram sizes at a glance (October 2026)
| Format | Aspect ratio | Size to upload | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portrait feed post | 4:5 | 1080 x 1350 | The most used size; grid shows a 3:4 crop of it |
| Tall feed post | 3:4 | 1080 x 1440 | Uploadable since May 2025; matches the grid exactly |
| Square feed post | 1:1 | 1080 x 1080 | Sides are cut in the 3:4 grid |
| Landscape feed post | 1.91:1 | 1080 x 566 | Small in the feed, heavily cut in the grid |
| Story | 9:16 | 1080 x 1920 | Keep text out of the top and bottom strips |
| Reel and Reel cover | 9:16 | 1080 x 1920 | Grid thumbnail is a 3:4 crop of the cover |
| Profile photo | 1:1 | 320 x 320 or larger | Shown as a small circle |
| Carousel | 1:1, 4:5 or 3:4 | Same as feed posts | Up to 20 slides; all slides take the first slide's shape |
Width is the constant: Instagram works with images 1080 pixels wide. Its help center has long said that photos between 320 and 1080 pixels wide keep their resolution, narrower photos are enlarged to 320, and wider ones are reduced to 1080. Uploading larger than 1080 does no harm, but it will not look sharper in the app.
How Instagram sizes changed
- 2010 to 2015: square photos only, at 612 pixels and later 640 and 1080 pixels wide.
- August 2015: portrait (up to 4:5) and landscape (up to 1.91:1) formats were added. The grid still showed a square center crop.
- January 2025: the profile grid switched to 3:4 rectangles, so grid thumbnails became taller and square crops disappeared from profiles.
- May 2025: 3:4 photos could be uploaded to the feed without cropping, matching the new grid.
Old photos were not changed; Instagram simply shows them through the new 3:4 grid window. That is why some older square posts now look cut at the sides on profiles.
How to crop a photo to an Instagram size
- Drop your photo into the tool at the top of this page.
- Click the size you want: Portrait 4:5, Tall 3:4, Square 1:1, Landscape 1.91:1, Story or Reel 9:16, or Profile photo.
- Drag the frame to choose what is included, and drag a corner to zoom in. The frame keeps the right shape.
- Check the guides. The dashed green box shows the 3:4 crop Instagram uses in your profile grid. For Stories and Reels, the red bands show the top and bottom areas where Instagram places its own buttons and text.
- Keep JPG for photos, PNG for graphics with text, and click Crop and resize. The file comes out at exactly the size in the table, for example 1080 x 1350.
- Download and post.
The saved file name includes the size, such as mug-1080x1350.jpg, so you can tell your Instagram versions apart from the originals. If the frame is smaller than the output size, the tool warns that the photo will be enlarged; for sharp posts, start from a photo at least 1080 pixels wide inside the frame. Your original photo is never changed.
The 3:4 profile grid, explained
Since January 2025, the grid on your profile shows each post as a 3:4 rectangle instead of a square. Instagram takes the center of each post and cuts the rest:
- A 3:4 post (1080 x 1440) shows completely. Nothing is cut.
- A 4:5 post (1080 x 1350) loses a narrow strip on the left and right, about 3 percent of the width on each side.
- A square post (1080 x 1080) loses about 12.5 percent on each side, a quarter of its width in total.
- A landscape post shows only its central part in the grid.
- Reels show a 3:4 crop from the middle of the 9:16 cover, so the top and bottom of the cover are hidden.
Instagram added tools to adjust a post's grid thumbnail after posting, but planning for the crop is easier. With Show the profile grid crop ticked, the cropper draws that 3:4 area on your photo. Keep faces, products and text inside it.
Tip: Planning a big image across several grid tiles, such as a panorama or a 3 by 3 puzzle? The Instagram grid maker splits one image into 3:4 tiles that line up in the new grid.
4:5 or 3:4 for feed posts?
Both are good choices; they solve different problems.
- 3:4 (1080 x 1440) is the tallest feed photo and fits the profile grid with no crop at all. It is the natural choice if your grid matters to you, for example for a brand, a portfolio or a shop.
- 4:5 (1080 x 1350) has been the standard portrait size for years and is accepted everywhere Instagram content is reused, such as ads and some scheduling tools. It loses only a sliver in the grid.
Shooting on a phone helps here: most phone cameras take 4:3 photos, which held vertically are 3:4. A vertical phone photo needs almost no cropping for a 3:4 post.
Stories and Reels: safe zones
Stories and Reels fill the phone screen at 9:16, 1080 x 1920 pixels. Instagram draws its interface over them: your name and profile picture at the top, the reply bar or caption, likes and share buttons at the bottom and along the right edge. Text placed there is hidden or hard to read.
Meta's ad guidance for Stories asks advertisers to keep roughly the top and bottom 14 percent free of text and logos, about 250 pixels each on a 1920 pixel tall frame. That is a good rule for normal Stories too. For Reels, captions and buttons take even more room at the bottom, so keep key text in the middle half of the frame. With Show Story and Reel safe zones ticked, the cropper shades the top and bottom 14 percent in red.
Photos that are not 9:16, posted to Stories, are shown on a background and can be moved and pinched, but cropping them to 1080 x 1920 first gives you full control.
Carousels
A carousel holds up to 20 photos and videos. The first slide sets the shape for the whole post: slides with a different shape are cropped to match. Crop every slide to the same size, 1080 x 1350 or 1080 x 1440, before you upload. The first slide also becomes the post's grid thumbnail, so make it the strongest image and keep its subject inside the 3:4 center. For panoramas that continue across slides, use the carousel option of the Instagram grid maker, which cuts one wide image into matching slides.
Profile photo
Your profile photo is shown as a circle, about 110 pixels across in the app and smaller next to comments. Upload a square of at least 320 x 320 pixels so it stays sharp on high density screens. Choose the Profile photo preset: the circle on the preview shows exactly what will be visible, and the corners will be hidden. Logos need generous padding to survive the circle. To make a round PNG for other places, such as a website or an email signature, use the circle crop tool.
Designing graphics for the feed
Quote cards, sale announcements and infographics follow the same sizes as photos, with a few extra rules because people read them on a phone at about 400 pixels wide:
- Text size: on a 1080 pixel wide design, keep body text at least about 40 pixels tall and headlines 80 pixels or more. Smaller text becomes unreadable in the feed.
- Margins: keep at least 60 to 80 pixels clear on every side, and keep text inside the 3:4 grid area if the post is 4:5 or square.
- Carousels of graphics: design all slides at 1080 x 1350 or 1080 x 1440, and put a clear headline on the first slide, which also becomes the grid thumbnail.
- Export: from Canva, Photoshop or Figma, export at 1080 pixels wide as PNG for text-heavy designs, or JPG for photo-heavy ones.
File format and quality
- JPG for photos. Instagram converts every upload to its own JPG anyway, so a high quality JPG (85 to 95) gives the best result for the size.
- PNG for graphics with text, logos and flat colors. It avoids fuzzy edges before Instagram's own compression.
- Color: save in sRGB. Photos exported from editing apps in other color spaces can look dull or oversaturated after upload.
- Avoid sharpening too much. Instagram's compression exaggerates heavy sharpening.
Worked example
A ceramic studio photographs a mug on a phone: 3024 x 4032 pixels, vertical. For the feed:
- Choose Tall 3:4. The whole photo already has that shape, so the frame covers it. Click Crop and resize: 1080 x 1440 JPG.
- For a Story, choose Story or Reel 9:16. The frame becomes narrower; drag it so the mug sits in the middle third, outside the red bands. Export 1080 x 1920 and add text in the Instagram app or with the add text to photo tool.
- For the shop's square product image, use the image cropper with the Shopify square preset.
Posting the same products to Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest every week takes time. AM Jarvis's Social Autopilot crops each image to the right size for each platform (1080 x 1350 for Instagram), writes captions with your own AI and schedules the posts.
Shooting with Instagram in mind
A few habits at the camera save cropping later. Shoot vertical photos in the phone's standard 4:3 mode, which gives a 3:4 picture when held upright, the exact shape of a tall feed post. Leave a little space around the subject, so you can crop to 4:5 or 9:16 without cutting heads or products. For Stories and Reels, frame with the subject in the middle of the screen, where the app's buttons do not reach. And shoot in good light: Instagram's compression is kindest to clean, well lit photos and hardest on dark, noisy ones.
Reusing Instagram images on other platforms
| Instagram size | Also works for | Change needed |
|---|---|---|
| Story or Reel, 1080 x 1920 | TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Facebook Stories | Usually none; check each app's own safe zones |
| Portrait 4:5, 1080 x 1350 | Facebook feed posts | None |
| Tall 3:4, 1080 x 1440 | Pinterest, as a shorter pin | Pinterest prefers 2:3 (1000 x 1500); crop again for best results |
| Square, 1080 x 1080 | Facebook, marketplaces, profile images | None |
Cropping once for each shape from the original photo always looks better than cropping an already cropped Instagram image again, so keep your originals and use the presets above or the collage maker for multi-photo versions.
Sizes change: how this guide is checked
Instagram does not publish one official page with every size, and the app changes often. The sizes above were checked in October 2026 against Instagram's help center, Instagram's own announcements and reporting on the 2025 grid and 3:4 changes. If Instagram changes them again, the 1080 pixel width has stayed the safest constant for years, so crop at 1080 wide and the shape is the only thing you need to adjust.
Troubleshooting
- My photo looks blurry after posting: it was smaller than 1080 pixels wide, or heavily compressed before upload. Start from a larger original and export at 1080 wide.
- Instagram cut off my square post in the grid: that is the 3:4 grid crop. Repost at 3:4, or adjust the grid thumbnail in the app.
- Carousel slides are cropped: they had different shapes from the first slide. Crop all slides to one size.
- Text is hidden in my Story: it is under the app's top or bottom bars. Move it into the middle 72 percent.