Instagram Image Sizes 2026: Feed, Stories, Reels & Ads

Instagram is one of the few platforms where uploading the "wrong size" image does not just look slightly off. It often crops away a third of your design. The app scales, crops and pads images differently for feed posts, stories, reels, carousels and ads. Get the size wrong and your carefully designed cover image becomes an awkward zoom of the middle third.

This is the entire guide, on one page. Bookmark it and stop guessing.

Feed post sizes

Feed is what most people mean by "Instagram post". There are three aspect ratios supported (square, portrait and landscape) and they all display in the same column.

Portrait (4:5) is the highest-engagement format. It takes up more of the feed, which means more attention per post. If you only remember one size from this guide, remember 1080 x 1350.

Story sizes

Stories are the most commonly mis-sized format. The 1080 x 1920 canvas is correct, but the app overlays UI on the top and bottom, so the "safe zone" is much smaller than the full canvas.

If you design a story with important content at the very top or bottom, it will be covered by the profile picture, timestamp, progress bar, reply box or swipe-up call-to-action. The 1080 x 1420 safe zone is the region that will always be visible.

Reels sizes

Reels are video-first, but the covers and thumbnails are images you need to think about.

The tricky part: a reel cover needs to work at 9:16, 4:5 and 1:1 because it appears on three different surfaces. Design the middle 1080 x 1080 first, then extend upward and downward. If the middle third does not work on its own, the profile grid will look wrong.

Carousel sizes

Carousels use the same dimensions as feed posts, but with a twist: every slide must be the same aspect ratio, or Instagram will crop them all to match the first slide.

• Choose one aspect ratio (usually 4:5) and use it for every slide.
• The first slide is what appears in the feed. Make it the strongest.
• Slides 2 to 10 are only visible after the user swipes, so they can be more detailed.
• Maximum 10 slides per carousel (up to 20 in some accounts).

Profile picture size

Profile pictures are cropped to a circle in the app, but stored as a square. Design with the circle in mind. Keep the subject centred, and do not put anything important in the corners, because they will be cut off.

Instagram ad sizes

File format and quality

Two things matter for image quality:

• Use JPG for photos. Instagram recompresses everything you upload anyway, so uploading a JPG that is already compressed saves Instagram from re-compressing a PNG (which loses more quality).
• Use PNG only for designs with flat colors, text or transparency. Instagram will still recompress it, but PNG maintains sharp edges for text-heavy designs.
• Do not upload PNGs of photos. They are enormous and Instagram's re-compression will produce a worse result than if you had uploaded a JPG.

How to resize an image for Instagram

If you have an image and need it at a specific Instagram size, here is the workflow:

1. Open the Image Resizer tool.
2. Upload your photo. JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC.
3. Enter the target dimensions. For example, 1080 x 1350 for a portrait feed post.
4. Choose crop mode if you want to keep the aspect ratio, or stretch mode if you want to force the size.
5. Download the resized image.
6. Optional: run it through the Image Compressor to bring the file size under 200 KB. Instagram still compresses but a small file uploads faster.

Quick reference card

Save this page. Every time Instagram changes a dimension (which it does about once a year), check back. The article will be updated.