Instagram post size

Instagram keeps photos at up to 1,080 pixels wide, so the shape you choose sets the height. Its help centre says a photo keeps its resolution when its shape is anywhere from 1.91:1, a wide landscape, to 3:4, a tall portrait: at 1,080 pixels wide, that means a height between 566 and 1,440 pixels. A taller post fills more of the screen as people scroll, which is the main reason portrait is the usual pick.

Some popular size guides still give 4:5 as the tallest feed shape. That was the limit for years, but Instagram’s own help centre now gives 3:4 as the tallest shape it keeps, and most phone cameras take 3:4 photos by default when held upright, so a phone photo can go up as shot. The one place 4:5 is still the ceiling is Meta’s publishing API, covered below.

In early 2025 Instagram changed the profile grid from squares to 3:4 rectangles. The feed still shows your whole photo, but the grid shows a 3:4 slice from the middle of each post. A post can look perfect in the feed and lose a logo or a face at the edge when someone opens your profile.

• 3:4 (1080 × 1440): the grid shows the whole image.
• 4:5 (1080 × 1350): the grid shows the middle 1,012 px, trimming about 34 px from each side.
• Square (1080 × 1080): the grid shows the middle 810 px, so a quarter of the width is gone.
• Landscape (1080 × 566): the grid shows roughly the middle 424 px, about 39% of the width.

Tip: Planning a grid where neighbouring posts line up, such as one picture split across three tiles? Make every post 1080 × 1440, so each tile appears exactly as you designed it.

Instagram’s help centre spells out the rules. A photo between 320 and 1,080 pixels wide keeps its resolution, as long as its shape is in the supported range. A wider photo is sized down to 1,080 pixels wide. One narrower than 320 pixels is enlarged to 320, which leaves it soft.

A shape outside 1.91:1 to 3:4 is cropped to fit. A full-screen 1080 × 1920 screenshot, for example, is 9:16: to become 3:4 it has to lose 480 pixels of height. A wide panorama goes the other way and loses its ends to reach 1.91:1.

Big files are not a problem in themselves. A 4,000-pixel-wide camera photo in a supported shape is simply scaled down to 1,080 pixels wide, with nothing cut off.

Tools that publish posts automatically go through Meta’s Content Publishing API, and its documented limits are tighter than the app’s. At the time of writing, the API takes JPEG images only, up to 8 MB, from 320 to 1,440 pixels wide, in sRGB, in shapes from 4:5 to 1.91:1.

The 4:5 ceiling is the one that catches people out. A 3:4 image that posts fine from your phone may be rejected or cropped by a scheduler, so make scheduled posts 1080 × 1350. Carousels differ too: the API allows up to 10 items in one post, while the app allows 20.

Tip: Designed the post as a PNG? That is fine for the app, but save a JPEG copy for any scheduling tool, since the API accepts JPEG only.

• Designing at the wrong size and resizing at the end. Set the canvas to 1080 × 1440 or 1080 × 1350 first, so nothing is stretched or squeezed.
• Uploading a small file. Anything under 1,080 pixels wide has less detail to show, and a reused thumbnail or old web image often looks fuzzy on a modern phone.
• Putting text or a logo near the left or right edge of a 4:5 or square post, where the profile grid trims it.
• Exporting in a wide colour profile instead of sRGB, which can shift colours when the image is converted.
• Posting a 9:16 graphic made for Stories to the feed, where a quarter of its height is cut.