Stop guessing. Stop stretching. Stop cropping your logo in half.
We’ve all been there. You spend an hour crafting the perfect Instagram post, hit upload, and watch in horror as the platform butchers your carefully designed graphic. Or worse—your client’s headshot gets cropped right at the forehead in their new LinkedIn banner.
Social media platforms are picky about dimensions. And they’re not exactly generous about telling you when something’s wrong—they just… crop. Compress. Distort.
So I put together this reference guide. No fluff, no endless scrolling—just the exact pixel dimensions you need, organized by platform, ready to use.
Jump to Platform
Instagram Image Sizes
Instagram has evolved way beyond simple square photos. Between feed posts, Stories, Reels, and carousels, you’re juggling multiple aspect ratios constantly.
Feed & Carousel Posts
| Portrait (Recommended) | 1080 × 1350 px | 4:5 |
| Square | 1080 × 1080 px | 1:1 |
| Landscape | 1080 × 566 px | 1.91:1 |
| Native Photo (NEW) | 1080 × 1440 px | 3:4 |
Stories & Reels
| Stories | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Reels | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Reels Cover | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
Profile
| Profile Picture | 320 × 320 px | 1:1 |
Facebook Image Sizes
Facebook recommends using the highest resolution images possible. Think of these as minimums, not targets.
Feed Posts
| Vertical (Best engagement) | 1080 × 1350 px | 4:5 |
| Square | 1080 × 1080 px | 1:1 |
| Landscape | 1080 × 566 px | 1.91:1 |
Stories & Reels
| Stories | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Reels | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
Profile & Cover Photos
| Profile Picture | 196 × 196 px | 1:1 |
| Cover Photo (Personal) | 851 × 315 px | 2.7:1 |
| Cover Photo (Page) | 1200 × 628 px | 1.91:1 |
| Event Cover | 1920 × 1005 px | 1.91:1 |
| Group Cover | 1640 × 856 px | 1.91:1 |
LinkedIn Image Sizes
LinkedIn rewards polished, professional visuals. Blurry images here signal “amateur hour” faster than anywhere else.
Feed Posts
| Portrait | 1080 × 1350 px | 4:5 |
| Square | 1080 × 1080 px | 1:1 |
| Landscape | 1080 × 566 px | 1.91:1 |
| Link Preview Image | 1200 × 627 px | 1.91:1 |
| Article Cover | 1920 × 1080 px | 16:9 |
Profile & Company Page
| Personal Profile Photo | 400 × 400 px | 1:1 |
| Personal Cover Photo | 1584 × 396 px | 4:1 |
| Company Logo | 300 × 300 px | 1:1 |
| Company Cover | 1128 × 191 px | 5.91:1 |
| Company Main Image | 1128 × 376 px | 3:1 |
X (Twitter) Image Sizes
X expanded character limits to 25,000, but engagement still drops after about 100 characters. Same goes for images—make them count.
Feed Posts
| Single Image (Landscape) | 1200 × 628 px | 1.91:1 |
| Single Image (Square) | 1200 × 1200 px | 1:1 |
| Multiple Images (2-4) | 1200 × 600 px | 2:1 |
| In-Feed Video | 1600 × 900 px | 16:9 |
Profile
| Profile Photo | 400 × 400 px | 1:1 |
| Header/Banner | 1500 × 500 px | 3:1 |
TikTok Image Sizes
Yes, TikTok is video-first, but their Photo Mode carousel feature has made image content increasingly viable.
Video & Photo Content
| Video Content | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Photo Carousel | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Stories | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
Profile
| Profile Photo | 200 × 200 px | 1:1 |
YouTube Image Sizes
YouTube’s image requirements affect both discoverability and click-through rates. Thumbnails especially deserve extra attention.
Video Content
| Standard Video | 1920 × 1080 px | 16:9 |
| Video Thumbnail | 1280 × 720 px | 16:9 |
| Shorts | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Shorts Thumbnail | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
Channel Branding
| Profile Photo | 800 × 800 px | 1:1 |
| Channel Banner | 2560 × 1440 px | 16:9 |
Pinterest Image Sizes
Pinterest is a vertical-first platform. Vertical pins dominate, and the algorithm seems to prefer them too.
Pins & Carousels
| Standard Pin | 1000 × 1500 px | 2:3 |
| Square Pin | 1000 × 1000 px | 1:1 |
| Tall/Long Pin | 1000 × 2100 px | 1:2.1 |
| Idea Pin/Story | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
Profile
| Profile Photo | 280 × 280 px | 1:1 |
| Board Cover | 600 × 600 px | 1:1 |
| Profile Cover | 1920 × 1080 px | 16:9 |
Threads Image Sizes
Meta’s text-focused platform still leans heavily on visual content. Since it’s built on Instagram’s infrastructure, the specs are similar.
Feed Posts
| Single/Carousel Photo | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Video Post | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
Profile
| Profile Photo | 320 × 320 px | 1:1 |
Google Business Profile
If you do any local SEO work, GBP images matter more than most people realize. Businesses with optimized photos see significantly more direction requests and website clicks.
Business Listing Photos
| Cover Photo | 1024 × 576 px | 16:9 |
| Logo | 720 × 720 px | 1:1 |
| Business Photos | 720 × 720 px | 1:1 |
| Post Images | 1200 × 900 px | 4:3 |
Snapchat Image Sizes
Stories & Ads
| Story Image/Video | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Story Ads | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
Profile
| Profile Photo | 320 × 320 px | 1:1 |
Bluesky Image Sizes
The decentralized alternative is still evolving, but here’s what works:
Feed Posts
| Standard Post | 1:1, 9:16, 3:4, or 4:5 | — |
| Recommended Width | 1080 px minimum | — |
Profile
| Profile Photo | 400 × 400 px | 1:1 |
| Banner | 1500 × 500 px | 3:1 |
Universal Best Practices
Before you start batch-creating content, a few things worth keeping in mind:
Always design for mobile first. Over 80% of social media consumption happens on phones. What looks great on your 27-inch monitor might be illegible on an iPhone.
Keep critical content centered. Platforms crop unpredictably across devices. Logos, faces, and key text should live in the middle 80% of your image.
Vertical outperforms landscape almost everywhere. The 4:5 ratio (1080 × 1350) has emerged as the most versatile format—it works well on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn feeds and adapts easily to Stories with minimal cropping.
File format matters. JPEG works for photographs, PNG for graphics with text or transparency. But increasingly, modern formats like AVIF and WebP offer dramatically better compression without sacrificing quality.
A Note on Image Optimization
Getting dimensions right is only half the battle. If you’re uploading a 5 MB PNG when the platform compresses everything anyway, you’re just slowing down load times for no benefit.
It’s actually why I built ImageSmasher—a simple desktop tool to batch convert images to AVIF and WebP before uploading. The file size reductions are significant—we’re talking 60-80% smaller files with no visible quality loss. For anyone managing multiple social accounts or client content, the time savings add up fast.
Quick Reference: The “Universal” Sizes
If you want a simplified approach, these three sizes will cover most scenarios with minimal cropping:
| VERTICAL (Feed posts) | 1080 × 1350 px | 4:5 |
| SQUARE (Safe fallback) | 1080 × 1080 px | 1:1 |
| FULL VERTICAL (Stories) | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
Wrapping Up
Social platforms will keep changing their specs. Instagram just shifted to rectangular feeds. YouTube keeps tweaking thumbnail requirements. By this time next year, half these numbers might be different.
But the fundamentals stay consistent: high resolution, centered content, vertical orientation, and mobile-first thinking.
Bookmark this page. Reference it when you need to. And stop letting platforms mangle your carefully crafted content.
Questions? Running into an edge case I didn’t cover? Drop a comment below or reach out—I’m always happy to dig into the specifics.
thanks …handy quick guide