Runs in your browser · nothing uploaded
Make an Instagram Reel cover from your video
Choose your video, scrub to a sharp frame, add a title and save a 1080 × 1920 JPEG. The preview shows the 9:16 cover and a profile tile cut from its middle, so you can see whether the title survives. The video is never uploaded or played aloud: this page reads single frames from it.
How it works
1Choose a video or image
Pick an MP4 up to 600 MB, or skip the video and start from a photo. The file is opened in your browser and goes nowhere else.
2Scrub to a frame
Tap a thumbnail or drag the slider to a still, sharp moment. Zoom and move the picture to frame the face or product in a 9:16 cover.
3Add a title
Type two to five words and pick a style: marker, sticker, outline or plain. Set the font, colours, size and position. Warnings show if the title may be cut.
4Check the tile and save
A mock grid shows the cover as a profile tile. Change the tile shape if you want to test another crop, then download the JPEG.
What Meta says about Reel covers, and what it does not
We read Meta’s developer documentation for publishing Instagram media on 7 October 2026. It says a Reels cover image is a JPEG of up to 8 MB in the sRGB colour space, and recommends a 9:16 aspect ratio to avoid cropping or blank space. If the image is not 9:16, Meta crops it and uses the middle-most 9:16 rectangle. If a Reel is also shared to the feed through that API, the middle-most 1:1 square becomes the feed post’s cover. This tool exports a 1080 × 1920 sRGB JPEG, and warns you if a file would pass 8 MB.
Instagram’s Help Center article “Reel size & aspect ratios on Instagram” (help.instagram.com/1038071743007909, read on 7 October 2026) gives a different, app-side figure: a recommended cover photo size of 420 × 654 px (a 1:1.55 ratio). It also says you can’t edit a cover after you’ve uploaded it. Neither Meta page says how the profile grid crops a Reel cover. News reports from January 2025 described Instagram moving profile grids from squares to taller rectangles, and 3:4 is the shape most often quoted. We found no Meta page that confirms it, so 3:4 is the default option here, not a stated fact. You can switch to 4:5 or 1:1, or enter your own shape, and the preview and the title warning follow.
Titles that read at the size of a grid tile
- Use two to five words. A full sentence turns into grey texture at the size of a tile.
- Keep the title in the middle of the cover. The preview dims what the chosen tile shape would cut, and a warning appears if the title reaches into it.
- Choose a heavy font and strong contrast: the marker style puts dark text on a bright box so it reads over any frame.
- Crop faces close. In a wide shot, a person becomes a few pixels in the tile; zoom the picture until the face fills the middle.
- Pick a frame where nobody is mid-blink or mid-word. The thumbnails across the top of the slider help you find calm moments.
Tip: Make covers for a series with the same style, font and position, changing only the frame and the words. A profile of matching covers looks planned.
How the frame is picked, and limits
The tool asks your browser to jump the video to a time and draws that frame. It never plays the video or its sound. Which formats work depends on your browser: MP4 with H.264 works almost everywhere, while HEVC and some .mov files often open only in Safari. If a video will not open, the tool says so.
A video wider than 9:16 is cropped to its middle by default. Use Move left or right to choose which part to keep, and Zoom to fill the frame. Frames come out at the video’s own resolution, so a 720p clip enlarged to 1080 × 1920 will look softer than a 1080p one.
Whether a cover can be changed after the Reel is posted is covered in our Reel cover size guide, so check it before you publish.
Questions people ask
What size should an Instagram Reel cover be?
This tool saves a 1080 × 1920 sRGB JPEG, a 9:16 image. Meta’s developer documentation recommends 9:16 and says other shapes are cropped to the middle 9:16, while Instagram’s Help Center article gives 420 × 654 px (1:1.55) as the recommended cover size. The shapes differ, so keep the title and any face near the middle.
How does the profile grid crop a Reel cover?
Neither Meta’s developer documentation nor the Help Center article on Reel sizes says how the grid crops a cover. News reports from 2025 describe a 3:4 grid, so that is the default here, but it is an editable guess. Try 4:5 and 1:1 as well and keep the title inside all of them.
Is my video uploaded?
No. The video is opened in your browser and single frames are drawn from it. Nothing is sent to a server, and nothing plays, so there is no sound.
Why won’t my video open?
Some codecs, mainly HEVC and certain .mov files, often play only in Safari. Export the video as an MP4 with H.264, or start from a screenshot or photo instead. Very large files may also be slow on a phone.
Can I make a cover without a video?
Yes. Choose An image at the top, upload a photo, and add a title the same way. The photo is zoomed to fill the 9:16 frame, and you can move it to choose the part that shows.
More free tools
- Highlight cover maker61 line icons, emoji or letters on a colour or photo, a circle preview, and a matching set as a ZIP.
- Image resizerResize photos to Instagram and Facebook sizes, or any size, fit or fill, up to 20 at once.
- Video caption generatorAuto captions for Reels: transcribe in your browser, fix the words, then burn them in or save an SRT.
- Auto reframeLandscape to 9:16, 4:5 or 1:1, with the crop following the person on screen.
- Grid previewPlan a profile grid of up to 30 images: drag to reorder, pick the tile shape, and save a PNG.
- No-crop fitterFit whole photos into 4:5, 1:1, 9:16 or 1.91:1 with a plain or blurred background. Up to 20 to a ZIP.
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