Instagram Story ad size

Meta’s ads guide has separate pages for Instagram Stories image ads and video ads. They share the 9:16 shape, the 1440 × 2560 size, the 1% tolerance and the margins, and they differ on file types, minimum widths and timing.

The big third-party guides agree. Sprout Social lists Story ads at 1440 × 2560 with a 500-pixel minimum width and a 30 MB cap on JPG and PNG files, and Hootsuite gives the same 1440 × 2560 size.

Meta says an image ad stays on screen for 5 to 16 seconds, or until the viewer swipes away. Plan for the short end: one product, one line and one reason to tap, all readable in five seconds.

Video ads can run from 1 second to 60 minutes, though not as one long Story. Videos under 16 seconds play in full. Longer ones may be split into separate Story cards, with Instagram deciding automatically whether to show one, two or three of them, and for some campaign goals viewers may get a “Keep watching” option for the rest.

• Put the hook and the offer at the very start, since a viewer may never see a second card.
• If the video runs long, make each part make sense on its own, with the product or brand visible in every one.
• Add captions. Meta lists captions and sound as optional but recommended for Story video ads.

Tip: A 15-second cut is the safe length for a Story video ad: it sits under Meta’s 16-second line, so it plays in full as a single card.

Meta asks for roughly 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% of each side to stay free of text, logos and other key elements, because profile icons and call-to-action buttons can hide or crop them. Here are those margins at the two common Story sizes.

Hootsuite’s guide gives a looser rule for Story ads: 14% (250 px) at the top and 20% (340 px) at the bottom. Meta’s own page for the format asks for about 35% at the bottom, and since that is where the call-to-action button sits on a paid Story, Meta’s figure is the one to design to.

Feed image ads are often 1440 × 1800, the 4:5 size Meta recommends for the feed. That is the same width as a Story ad, but at 1,800 px tall it is too tall for the clear box, which is only about 1,306 px. Shrunk to about 1045 × 1306, the whole feed design fits inside the margins, with room for a background around it.

1. Start a 1440 × 2560 canvas and fill it with a solid colour or a blurred, enlarged copy of the image.
2. Place the feed design at about 1045 × 1306, centred, between roughly 358 and 1,664 px down.
3. Enlarge any small print. The design is now shown at about 73% of its feed size.
4. Export at exactly 1440 × 2560, because Meta allows only 1% of leeway on the 9:16 shape.

Tip: A boxed feed ad is a quick fix. A layout built for 9:16 from the start can use the full height, letting the background and the product run behind the margins while only the words stay clear.

To a viewer an ad looks like any other Story, but the files and rules behind it are different.

Because both are 9:16, one design can serve both: export it at 1440 × 2560 for the ad and at 1080 × 1920 for an ordinary Story.

1. Images: 1440 × 2560, as a JPG for photos or a PNG for lettering, under 30 MB.
2. Video: 1440 × 2560 in MP4 or MOV, with H.264 compression, a fixed frame rate, progressive scan and stereo AAC audio at 128 kbps or more.
3. Check the shape to the pixel. A 1440 × 2400 file, for example, is more than 6% short of 9:16, far outside the 1% tolerance.
4. Keep burned-in subtitles inside the clear box, above the call-to-action button.
5. Preview the ad on a phone before publishing and look for anything under the profile icon or the button.