Resize an image for Instagram
Choose where the picture is going — a portrait post, a square, a landscape post or a story — and the editor above makes it exactly that size. If your photo is a different shape, it shows a frame over it so you can see, and move, what Instagram would otherwise crop on its own. Prefer to keep every part of the photo? Fit it whole with a white border instead.
Instagram sizes, checked October 2026
Instagram’s help centre page on photo resolution sets the rules for feed posts: 1080 pixels wide, in any shape from 1.91:1 landscape to 3:4 portrait. Story sizes come from Meta’s Stories specifications. The links open the editor at that size.
| Where it goes | Pixels | Shape | A 3:2 photo cropped to it keeps |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portrait post, tallest allowed | 1080 × 1440 | 3:4 | 50% |
| Portrait post | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | 53% |
| Square post | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 | 67% |
| Landscape post, widest allowed | 1080 × 566 | 1.91:1 | 79% |
| Story or Reel | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | 38% |
The last column is how much of an ordinary landscape camera photo survives each crop. It is why the choice between cropping and padding matters more on Instagram than almost anywhere else: a story keeps barely more than a third of the frame.
3:4 is now the tallest post
For years the tallest feed photo Instagram accepted was 4:5, 1080 × 1350, and nearly every size guide still says so. The help centre now gives the range as 1.91:1 to 3:4, “a width of 1080 pixels with a height between 566 and 1440 pixels”. A 3:4 post is 90 pixels taller than a 4:5 one, so it fills more of the screen as people scroll — and 3:4 is the shape of the photo most phones take, so a phone photo needs no crop at all.
The profile grid changed with it. Since early 2025 it shows each post as a tall rectangle rather than a square. Instagram’s help centre does not give that shape, so the safe habit is simply to keep the subject near the middle of the frame.
Why 1080 pixels wide
Instagram stores feed photos at most 1080 pixels wide. Upload a 4000-pixel photo and Instagram shrinks it for you; upload one narrower than 320 pixels and it is enlarged. Anything between 320 and 1080 is kept as it is.
So a larger file gains nothing, and doing the reduction yourself has one real advantage: you choose how it is done. The editor resizes with Lanczos3, a sharp resampling filter, rather than leaving it to the app. Our resampling guide shows the difference a filter makes. Exports here are JPEG at quality 90, which Instagram accepts everywhere.
Crop it, or keep it whole with a border
- Crop to fill the frame is the default. A frame of the chosen shape opens over your photo, centred and as large as it fits, with what will be cut shaded out. Drag inside the frame to slide it to the part you want, then Apply crop. If you change your mind later, Move the crop brings the frame back with the whole photo behind it.
- Fit the whole image, with padding scales the photo to fit inside the frame and fills the rest with a colour — white by default, the look many photographers use to post landscape pictures in a portrait slot. Pick any other colour with the colour control.
Whichever you choose, the panel states the exact size of the export, and for a crop how much of the picture it keeps.
Carousels and stories
Carousels share one shape: the first photo sets it and every later photo is cropped to match. Choose the size once, then run each photo of the set through the editor at that same size, so that you decide each crop rather than Instagram.
Stories have parts of the screen covered by the profile name at the top and the reply bar at the bottom. Meta’s advice for story ads is to keep roughly the top 14%, the bottom 35% and 6% at each side free of text and logos; it is a sensible margin for any story. For a landscape photo in a story, padding is often kinder than cropping away 62% of it.
Questions about Instagram sizes
What size should an Instagram post be in 2026?
1080 pixels wide, with a height from 566 to 1440. The tallest shape, 3:4 at 1080 × 1440, takes the most room in the feed. Instagram crops anything outside that range.
Is 4:5 still allowed?
Yes. 1080 × 1350 is inside the supported range. 3:4 is simply taller, and matches the shape most phones shoot.
How do I post a whole landscape photo without Instagram cropping it?
Choose Fit the whole image, with padding, and a size such as 1080 × 1350. The photo is placed whole in the frame with white above and below it, so nothing is cut.
What size is an Instagram story?
1080 × 1920, a 9:16 frame, according to Meta’s story specifications. Keep text away from the top 14% and the bottom 35% of the frame.
Are my photos uploaded to resize them?
No. The crop, the padding and the resize run in your browser, and nothing is sent anywhere until you post it to Instagram yourself. See the privacy policy for how to check.
More image tools
Every one of these is the same editor, opened for a different job — and all of them run on your device.
- YouTube thumbnail16:9 at YouTube’s current 3840 × 2160, cropped or padded.
- LinkedIn resizerPosts, banners and covers at LinkedIn’s exact pixels.
- Crop an imageTrim to what matters, freeform or to a fixed ratio.
- Remove EXIF dataStrip the GPS location before you post a photo.
- Compress an imageShrink a photo for the web, an email or an upload form.
Or start from the full editor, which does all of it at once.