Reference
Grid size guide for Instagram
Every number you need for a grid, a carousel or a single post, and why they keep changing.
The short answer
Export at 1080 px wide. Use 1080 × 1350 for a portrait post, 1080 × 1080 for a square. For a 3×3 grid, start from a source of at least 3240 × 3240.
| What | Pixels | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Portrait post — the biggest the feed shows | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 |
| Square post | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 |
| Landscape post | 1080 × 566 | 1.91:1 |
| Carousel slide | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 |
| Story or Reel | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
| Source for a 3×3 of squares | 3240 × 3240 | 1:1 |
| Source for a 3×4 of squares | 3240 × 4320 | 3:4 |
| Source for a 3-slide carousel | 3240 × 1350 |
Why 1080 and nothing else
Feed images are served 1080 pixels wide, and everything else follows from that. Upload something larger and it gets resized down; smaller and it gets stretched up. Either way you land at 1080, so the only question is whether the resizing happens with your original detail or without it. Which is why a big source matters and a big export does not.
The profile crop, which catches everyone out
Whatever shape you post, the profile grid shows it as a square cropped from the middle. So a 4:5 portrait loses a strip off the top and the bottom in the grid view, roughly 10 per cent at each end. Nothing you can do about it — the practical rule is to keep faces, text and anything else that must survive inside the middle square, and treat the top and bottom tenths as bleed.
Why the numbers people quote never agree
Search for image sizes and you get five different answers. Mostly they are all correct, they are just answering different questions — some quote the ratio, some the pixel size, some what a particular phone displays, and some are years out of date.
- Ratio is what you compose to. 4:5, 1:1, 9:16. This is the part that matters.
- Pixels are what you export. 1080 wide, always.
- Display size is the app's business. It changes with the device and you can't control it.
Working backwards for a grid
The maths is the same for any grid: multiply the tile size by the number of tiles.
| Grid | Tiles | Minimum source |
|---|---|---|
| 3 × 1 | 1080 × 1080 | 3240 × 1080 |
| 3 × 2 | 1080 × 1080 | 3240 × 2160 |
| 3 × 3 | 1080 × 1080 | 3240 × 3240 |
| 3 × 4 | 1080 × 1080 | 3240 × 4320 |
| 3 × 3 at 4:5 | 1080 × 1350 | 3240 × 4050 |
| 4 slides | 1080 × 1350 | 4320 × 1350 |
Questions
What is the best post size?
1080 by 1350, which is 4:5 portrait. Its the tallest the feed will show, so it takes up the most screen while people scroll.
What size is a 3x3 grid?
Nine tiles of 1080 by 1080, so a source of at least 3240 by 3240. Smaller sources still work, the tiles just get scaled up on upload.
Do portrait posts get cropped on the profile?
Yes. Thumbnails are square, cropped from the middle, whatever shape you posted. A 4:5 image loses about a tenth off the top and the bottom.
Should I upload bigger than 1080 px?
Theres no benefit — everything is resized to 1080 wide. What matters is that your source was big enough that 1080 is a downscale rather than an upscale.
What ratio should carousel slides be?
4:5, and every slide the same. All the slides get cropped to match the first one, so mixing shapes trims the tall ones.
Now make the thing
All free, all in the browser, nothing uploaded.