Instagram Post Size
The feed is the one Instagram placement where the shape is a real decision. Three ratios are accepted, they are not treated equally, and the one that earns the most screen height is 1080 × 1350 — the 4:5 portrait rectangle.
Instagram Feed post size calculator
Pre-filled with 1080 × 1350, the size Instagram expects for a feed post.
- Fraction
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- Closest common ratio
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- Reduced by
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Custom Ratio — pick a preset or type your own
- New size
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- Total pixels
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- CSS
aspect-ratio: —;
The 4:5 ratio is locked in. Edit New Width and the feed post height recalculates instantly; edit the height and the width follows. Sizes round to whole pixels, because platforms do not accept fractional ones.
Recently used sizes
Saved in this browser only. Click a size to load it back into the calculator.
Why 4:5 is the tallest post Instagram allows
A square post is 1080 wide and 1080 tall. Push the height to 1350 and the image grows by a quarter without gaining a single pixel of width, because 1350 ÷ 1080 = 1.25. That extra height is what the feed actually rewards: a taller image occupies more of the screen as a viewer scrolls, so it is on display for longer before the next post arrives.
Instagram stops there on purpose. Beyond 4:5 the feed would be close to full-screen and would compete with Stories, so anything taller is trimmed back to 4:5 on upload. A 9:16 file posted to the feed does not fail; it loses its top and bottom without asking.
The three feed shapes, plus the rest of Instagram
Read the third column first. Two of the three feed rows are crops of a taller original rather than shapes you would choose to design in.
| Placement | Pixels | Ratio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed post, portrait | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | Tallest allowed; most vertical space in the feed |
| Feed post, square | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 | Safe default; unchanged in the profile grid |
| Feed post, landscape | 1080 × 566 | 1.91:1 | Shortest shape; the grid crops it hard |
| Feed video | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | Same three shapes accepted as stills |
| Story | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | Full-screen vertical; a separate placement |
| Reel cover | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | Cropped to 4:5 in the profile grid |
| Profile picture | 320 × 320 | 1:1 | Uploaded square, displayed as a circle |
How to work out a feed size
The feed arithmetic is short because the width is fixed. Everything follows from dividing the height by the width and comparing the result against the three accepted ratios.
- Fix the width at 1080 px, the width Instagram renders at natively.
- Divide 4 by 5 to get the ratio as a single number: 0.8.
- Multiply the width by it to get the height: 1080 × 1.25 = 1350 px.
- Compare against the other two options — 1080 px for square and about 566 px for landscape — and pick the one that suits the image.
- Trim anything outside the central 1080 × 1080 square if the post will matter in the grid.
Worked example
A photograph arrives at 4000 × 3000, a 4:3 landscape. It is not one of the three accepted shapes, so Instagram would crop it to a square and discard a quarter of the width. Standing the question on its head instead: a 4:5 crop of the middle would be 3000 × 3750 from the original, which after scaling to a 1080-wide canvas becomes 1080 × 1350. The choice is not how to shrink the file; it is which part of the frame the post is about.
The profile grid is not the feed
A post is shown twice in two different shapes. In the feed it appears at the ratio you uploaded. In the profile grid it is cropped to a square thumbnail, centred on the middle of the image, regardless of what you designed.
That second crop is where 4:5 posts go wrong. A portrait image with a headline near the top and a caption near the foot loses both in the grid: what survives is the band across the middle. A post can look deliberate in the feed and accidental in the grid on the same afternoon.
- Design the middle square, not the whole rectangle. If 1080 × 1080 cut from the centre still reads, the post works in both places.
- Keep a face, a product or a logo inside that central square. Vertical texture at the top and bottom is safe to lose.
- Put a headline at the vertical centre rather than near the top edge. Centre-high still survives the crop; the top fifty pixels do not.
- Check the grid after posting. The profile view is the only place the second crop is visible before it is published.
Instagram post upload limits
The width and the ratio matter most; the file-size ceiling is generous enough that it rarely becomes the deciding factor.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Recommended resolution | 1080 × 1350 px for portrait |
| Aspect ratios accepted | 4:5, 1:1 and 1.91:1 |
| Tallest accepted ratio | 4:5 — taller files are cropped to it |
| Working minimum width | 320 px; below this the app upscales |
| Formats for stills | JPG, PNG |
| Formats for video | MP4, MOV |
| Maximum file size | Depends on format and is rarely the limit |
Instagram Feed post size FAQ
Is 1080 × 1350 better than a square post?
For screen space, yes. A 4:5 image is a quarter taller than a square at the same width, so it occupies more of the feed and stays in view longer. A square is still the safer choice when the same image will be reused on other platforms.
What happens if I upload a 9:16 image to the feed?
Instagram crops it down to 4:5 without asking, taking the surplus from the top and bottom. A Story-shaped file therefore loses its extremes the moment it is posted to the feed, which often removes a headline placed at the top of the frame.
Why does my post look different on my profile?
Because the grid crops every post to a centred square. The feed shows the ratio you uploaded and the profile shows a square thumbnail, so a portrait post is seen in two shapes and only the middle band is common to both.
Should I design the whole image or just the square?
Design both, but rank them. Compose the full 4:5 rectangle for the feed and confirm the central square still makes sense on its own, since that is the version most people see first in the grid.