Instagram is a highly visual platform, but it is also notoriously strict about image dimensions. If you upload a photo with the wrong aspect ratio, Instagram’s automated cropping algorithm will chop off the sides, top, or bottom of your image. This can ruin a carefully composed photograph or cut off important text in a graphic.

To ensure your content looks professional and takes up the maximum amount of screen real estate, you need to use the exact Instagram post dimensions. Here is your ultimate cheat sheet for every type of Instagram post.

Table of Contents

1. Instagram Feed Posts

When scrolling through the main feed, Instagram displays three primary aspect ratios. If you upload an image outside of these ratios, it will be forced into one of them.

  • Portrait (4:5): 1080 x 1350 pixels. (Highly Recommended). This is the tallest format allowed in the feed. It takes up the most vertical space on a phone screen, pushing other posts down and commanding more attention.
  • Square (1:1): 1080 x 1080 pixels. The classic Instagram format. It perfectly fills the width of a mobile screen without any cropping.
  • Landscape (1.91:1): 1080 x 566 pixels. Best for wide landscape photography. However, it appears very small in the feed compared to portrait images.

2. Instagram Stories and Reels

Stories and Reels are designed for vertical, full-screen mobile viewing. They do not appear in the standard feed grid.

  • Vertical (9:16): 1080 x 1920 pixels. This is the exact size of a standard smartphone screen. If you upload a horizontal image to a Story, Instagram will add blurry bars or awkward white space to fill the empty top and bottom areas.

3. Instagram Profile Picture

Your profile picture is the first thing users see. Because it displays as a tiny circle in the corner of the feed, you need to ensure your face or logo is large and centered.

  • Size: 320 x 320 pixels. (It will be displayed at 110 x 110 pixels in the feed, but uploading a higher resolution ensures it looks sharp on high-DPI screens).

4. How to Resize Without Cropping

What if you have a wide landscape photo (16:9) that you want to post as a square (1:1), but you don't want to cut off the edges of the scenery? You need to use a "Fit" or "Contain" resize method.

Instead of cropping, this method scales your entire image to fit inside the Instagram frame, filling the empty top and bottom (or left and right) spaces with a solid background color, like white or black. This ensures 100% of your photo is visible to your followers.

You can do this instantly in your browser using our Free Resize for Instagram Tool. Simply upload your image, select the 1:1 or 4:5 format, and download the perfectly fitted image.

Ready to Format Your Photos?
Resize your images for Instagram Posts, Portraits, and Reels instantly without cropping. No app download required, 100% private.
Resize for Instagram

Frequently Asked Questions

The best image size for an Instagram post is 1080 x 1350 pixels (4:5 aspect ratio). This portrait format takes up more vertical screen space on mobile devices, pushing surrounding posts down and maximizing your visibility in the feed.
Instagram supports several photo size ratios: 1:1 (Square, 1080x1080 px), 4:5 (Portrait, 1080x1350 px), and 1.91:1 (Landscape, 1080x566 px). For Instagram Stories and Reels, the required ratio is 9:16 (1080x1920 px).
Yes, but it is not recommended. If you upload a wide 16:9 image, Instagram will automatically crop it into a 1.91:1 landscape ratio (1080x566 pixels) or force you to manually crop it into a square or portrait, which cuts off the sides of your photo.
To resize an image for Instagram without cropping, you need to use a "fit" or "contain" algorithm. This scales your image to fit inside Instagram's exact dimensions and fills the empty space with a background color, ensuring zero part of your image is cut off. You can do this for free using our Resize for Instagram tool.