Split one photo across your Instagram grid

Until January 2025 the grid cut every post down to a square. Since then each post sits in a taller cell. We couldn’t find a page where Instagram gives the exact shape, but the size guides from Sprout Social (updated 11 May 2026) and Hootsuite (October 2026) both measure it at 3:4, showing 1012 × 1350 pixels of a 4:5 post. A few outlets call the grid 4:5; the two guides that publish pixel sizes say 3:4, so that is what this tool cuts for.

Adam Mosseri, who runs Instagram, explained the change on Threads on 19 January 2025: “most photos and videos that are uploaded to Instagram at this point are vertical and rectangles do a better job showing off those photos and videos.” On 28 May 2025 he added that Instagram now supports 3:4 photos: “From now on, if you upload a 3:4 image, it’ll now appear just exactly as you shot it.”

Tip: Only a 3:4 post fills a grid cell with nothing cut off. If you would rather keep posting 4:5, choose that shape in the tool: the pieces then overlap a little so the grid still lines up.

At 3:4 the post and the grid cell match, so your photo is split into equal 3:4 pieces and each piece is one post at 1080 × 1440. Nothing is lost, and the grid shows the picture whole.

At 4:5 or 1:1 the grid shows only the middle of each post. Cut a photo into equal 4:5 pieces and the grid would show a missing strip of about 67 pixels at every join, the 34 pixels each neighbour loses added together. So the tool cuts the other way round: the middle of each post is the piece that meets its neighbour exactly, and the post reaches a little into the pieces beside it. On the grid you see one picture. In the feed, each post carries a sliver of the next one.

Posts are saved at 1080 pixels wide because that is the most Instagram keeps: its Help Center says it uploads photos “up to a width of 1080 pixels” and sizes larger ones down. For three posts across at 3:4 your photo wants about 3,240 pixels across the part you use. The tool tells you when a post will be enlarged and look soft.

• Keep faces and writing away from the lines between tiles. The grid puts a thin gap between posts, so anything crossing one shows a hairline break.
• A tile that is only sky or only a sleeve looks odd on its own in the feed. Check the result list before you post.
• Zoom in and drag the outline to choose which part of a large photo is used; the preview on the right updates as you go.

The grid lists the newest post first, from the top left, along the row and then down. So the last post you publish becomes the top-left tile, and the first one ends up bottom right. That is why the files are numbered 01, 02, 03 and so on: post 01 first, then 02, and nothing else in between.

• Pause anything that would post in the middle of the set, such as a scheduled post or a Reel you were about to share.
• Pinned posts stay ahead of newer ones on the grid, so unpin them before you start or the rows will not line up.
• Post whole rows. Every extra post you add later pushes the picture along by one tile.
• Check the profile after the last post: the preview in the tool shows what to expect.

Instagram now has two fixes for a slip. Social Media Today reported on 8 June 2026 that “Reorder grid” lets you press and hold a post and drag it into place, and on 1 March 2026 that “Adjust preview”, added in late February, moves the crop of a single tile without changing the post. Posting in order is still the quicker way to get it right the first time.

Instagram changes its grid and its image rules often, so these are the pages the numbers above rest on. We opened each one on 6 October 2026.