Instagram Image Sizes: Post, Story, Reels and Ad Placement Specs

The safest Instagram feed image size (Thai searchers type it as "ขนาดรูป ig") is 1080 pixels wide, with an aspect ratio between 1.91:1 (1080 x 566) and 3:4 (1080 x 1440), as the Instagram Help Center states. Stories and Reels use a vertical 9:16 frame, which at 1080 pixels wide is 1080 x 1920, while ads follow their own specs in the Meta Ads Guide: a feed image ad, for example, is recommended at 4:5 and at least 1440 x 1800 pixels.

This article covers two parts of Instagram only: regular post sizes, and ad creative sizes by placement, plus how to convert the safe zone into pixels and why images get cropped or turn blurry. If you need sizes for every platform in one place, see our separate social media image size roundup.

How many pixels is an Instagram post, and how does Instagram resize images?

The Instagram Help Center describes the mechanism plainly: when you upload a photo between 320 and 1080 pixels wide, Instagram keeps it at its original resolution as long as the aspect ratio is between 1.91:1 and 3:4. If the ratio falls outside that range, the photo is cropped to fit a supported ratio.

Two more cases matter:

• Photos narrower than 320 pixels are enlarged to 320 pixels. The result looks soft or pixelated, because the system has to invent pixels that were never there.
• Photos wider than 1080 pixels are sized down to 1080 pixels. Sending a bigger file does not make a regular post sharper; it only hands the downscaling to Instagram.

The practical conclusion: export regular post images at exactly 1080 pixels wide, then pick the height for the ratio you want. That way you control the scaling and the crop instead of leaving it to the app.

The usable heights at 1080 pixels wide are:

• Landscape 1.91:1 = 1080 x 566 pixels
• Square 1:1 = 1080 x 1080 pixels
• Portrait 4:5 = 1080 x 1350 pixels
• Portrait 3:4 = 1080 x 1440 pixels, the tallest height the Help Center lists for photo posts

4:5 vs 1:1 Instagram image size, and when 3:4 makes sense

The main difference is screen space. A 1:1 image is 1080 pixels tall, 4:5 is 1350 pixels tall and 3:4 is 1440 pixels tall. At the same width, a taller image takes up more vertical room in the feed, so it stays on screen slightly longer as people scroll.

Choose the ratio for the content, not out of habit:

• 1:1 suits product shots on plain backgrounds, logos, and graphics designed for reuse across platforms, because a square crops easily into other ratios.
• 4:5 suits people, lifestyle shots, and graphics with several lines of text. You get 270 more pixels of height than 1:1, and it is the ratio the Meta Ads Guide recommends for feed image ads, so one piece of creative works as both an organic post and an ad.
• 3:4 gives the most height for a regular photo post. It works for full-length portraits or images with vertical detail, but if you later run the same image as a feed ad you will need to crop back to 4:5, so keep the key elements in the middle from the start.
• 1.91:1 is for content that really is horizontal, such as panoramas or website screenshots, but it looks small in a mobile feed.

One caution: the profile grid may show the thumbnail at a different ratio from the full image. Check the thumbnail preview in the app before posting, and do not put important text hard against the top or bottom edge of a portrait image.

Instagram Story and Reels size

Stories and Reels display full screen and vertical, so the ratio is 9:16. At 1080 pixels wide the height is 1920 pixels (1080 divided by 9, times 16).

For ads, the Meta Ads Guide recommends a higher resolution: 1440 x 2560 pixels for Stories images and video and for Reels video. Both sizes are 9:16, so you can design a master file at 1440 x 2560 and export a second version at 1080 x 1920 without rearranging anything.

What separates Stories and Reels from feed posts is the interface layered over the image: the account name and profile picture at the top, the call-to-action button, the caption, and the like and comment buttons along the bottom and side. Those areas are why a safe zone exists, covered in the next section.

Instagram ad sizes by placement

The specs below come from the Meta Ads Guide, which Meta updates from time to time. Before producing a large batch of creative, open the spec page for each placement you plan to use and check it again.

Instagram feed image ads

• JPG or PNG, up to 30 MB
• Recommended ratio 4:5, at least 1440 x 1800 pixels
• Minimum width 500 pixels
• Accepted ratios range from 4:5 to 1.91:1, with a 1% tolerance
• Primary text 125 characters, headline 40 characters, up to 30 hashtags

Instagram feed video ads

• MP4, MOV or GIF, up to 4 GB
• Ratio 9:16, recommended resolution 1080 x 1920 pixels, 1% tolerance
• Minimum width 250 pixels
• Length from 1 second to 60 minutes

Carousel ads in the feed

• 2 to 10 cards
• Image-only carousels use 4:5; carousels that include video currently support only 1:1
• Images JPG or PNG up to 30 MB each; video MP4, MOV or GIF up to 4 GB, 1 second to 2 minutes
• A landing page URL is required

A frequent mistake is designing a carousel at 4:5 and adding a video later. Once a single card is video, the whole set must be 1:1. If you know you will mix in video, design every card at 1080 x 1080 from the start.

Instagram Stories image and video ads

• Ratio 9:16, recommended resolution 1440 x 2560 pixels, 1% tolerance
• Images JPG or PNG up to 30 MB, minimum width 500 pixels
• Video MP4, MOV or GIF up to 4 GB, minimum width 250 pixels, 1 second to 60 minutes. Videos shorter than 16 seconds play in full; videos of 16 seconds or longer may be split into 1, 2 or 3 cards.
• Primary text 125 characters

Instagram Reels video ads

• MP4 or MOV, up to 4 GB
• Ratio 9:16, recommended resolution 1440 x 2560 pixels
• Length from 0 seconds to 15 minutes
• Minimum width 250 pixels for ads shorter than 30 seconds, and 500 pixels for ads of 30 seconds or longer
• Licensed music, face or camera effects, GIFs and product tags are not allowed in Reels ads

The video settings the Ads Guide lists for Stories and Reels are H.264 compression, square pixels, a constant frame rate, progressive scan, and AAC stereo audio at 128 kbps or higher. If your editing software is set to a variable frame rate, switch it to constant before exporting.

How to convert the Reels and Stories ad safe zone into pixels

The Meta Ads Guide asks you to keep text, logos and key elements out of the top 14%, the bottom 35%, and 6% on each side, in both Stories and Reels, so the profile picture, call-to-action button and other interface elements do not cover them.

In pixels that works out as:

• 1080 x 1920 file: leave 269 pixels at the top, 672 pixels at the bottom and 65 pixels on each side. The remaining safe area is roughly 950 x 979 pixels.
• 1440 x 2560 file: leave 358 pixels at the top, 896 pixels at the bottom and 86 pixels on each side. The remaining safe area is roughly 1268 x 1306 pixels.

Notice that the real safe area is almost square and sits toward the upper half of the screen. That is why prices, offers or logos placed at the very bottom of an image so often end up hidden under the caption and buttons.

The simplest working method is to build a 1080 x 1920 template in Figma, Canva or Photoshop, place guides 269 pixels from the top, 672 pixels from the bottom and 65 pixels from the left and right, then lock the guide layer. Everything built from that template stays inside the safe area by default. Backgrounds and imagery can still run full bleed; only the things viewers need to read or remember have to sit inside the frame.

Instagram profile picture size

The profile picture always displays as a circle, so prepare a square 1:1 file and put the logo or face in the center; the four corners of the square are cut off. If your logo has a long wordmark, shrink it until there is clear space around the letters, because at the small size shown next to your account name in the feed or in comments, letters touching the edge of the circle become unreadable.

The profile picture also appears in the top left of Stories and Stories ads, inside the top 14% zone Meta asks you to keep clear, so there is no need to repeat the logo in that spot on the creative.

Why Instagram crops or blurs your images

Most causes can be caught before upload:

1. The ratio is outside 1.91:1 to 3:4. A 9:16 portrait posted as a feed photo, for example, gets cropped to a supported ratio and loses its top and bottom.
2. The image is narrower than 320 pixels. Instagram enlarges it until it breaks up. This usually happens with images saved from chat apps or screenshots that were already downsized.
3. Double cropping. Cropping in an editor and then again in the app can leave the image below 1080 pixels wide without you noticing.
4. An ad ratio off by more than 1%. A 1080 x 1400 image meant to be 4:5 is about 3.6% off, outside the 1% aspect ratio tolerance the Ads Guide allows. Use dimensions that divide cleanly, such as 1080 x 1350 or 1440 x 1800.
5. Text covered by the interface. The image is not actually cropped, but the result is the same: it cannot be read. The safe zone template above fixes this.
6. Repeated compression. Saving a JPG over itself several times adds visible artifacts. Always export from the original source file.

Instagram image and ad size summary table

How to check a file before you upload

1. Open the file info (on a Mac press Command + I or check it in Photos; on Windows right-click, choose Properties and open the Details tab) to see the actual width and height in pixels.
2. Divide width by height. For a regular feed post the result must be between 0.75 (3:4) and 1.91. For a 4:5 feed ad it must be 0.8, or within 1% of it.
3. For Stories and Reels the result must be 0.5625 (9 divided by 16).
4. Check the file size: images up to 30 MB, video up to 4 GB.
5. Lay the image over the safe zone template and confirm that text, prices and logos all sit inside the frame.
6. In Ads Manager, open the preview for every placement you selected. With Advantage+ placements on, the creative goes to several placements at once, so check all of them, not only the feed.

What to plan for with Thai-language creative

Thai script stacks vowels and tone marks both above and below the line, so Thai text needs more line height than English at the same font size. When working out whether copy fits a safe area of roughly 950 x 979 pixels, allow extra line spacing, and test with words that carry both upper and lower marks rather than with English placeholder text.

Loopless Thai fonts read well at large sizes, but when shrunk into a grid thumbnail or a small carousel card, similar letters such as บ, ป and ษ become harder to tell apart. If key text must be readable in a thumbnail, use a larger size and fewer words.

Promotional creative in Thailand often puts the price, conditions and an "order via chat" line at the bottom, which is exactly the bottom 35% covered by the interface in Stories and Reels ads. Move price information up to the middle of the frame and let Meta's call-to-action button do the job of prompting the click.

If your team produces organic posts and ads from one creative set, building the template system at the content planning stage cuts a lot of rework, especially when the same assets also go to Facebook, where placements differ in the details covered by Facebook ads work.

FAQ about Instagram image sizes

What Instagram image size works in every case?

If you must pick one size for feed posts, use 1080 x 1350 (4:5), because it sits inside the range Instagram keeps at original resolution and matches the ratio Meta recommends for feed image ads. Stories and Reels still need a separate 9:16 file.

Will uploading images larger than 1080 pixels make them sharper?

Not for regular posts, because Instagram always sizes images wider than 1080 pixels down to 1080 pixels. For ads, though, the Meta Ads Guide recommends larger files such as 1440 x 1800 or 1440 x 2560, so keep your high-resolution masters.

How many pixels should the Reels ad safe zone leave clear?

On a 1080 x 1920 file, leave 269 pixels at the top, 672 pixels at the bottom and 65 pixels on each side, which comes from the 14%, 35% and 6% margins in the Meta Ads Guide.

Why is my carousel forced into a square?

Because a carousel with at least one video card currently supports only the 1:1 ratio. If you want 4:5, every card has to be a still image.

If you want a team to handle everything from building creative to spec through to running and measuring the campaign, see Relevant Audience's Instagram ads service or the wider social media advertising overview.