Instagram Photo Resizer

These are the sizes this Instagram picture resizer exports, and what each is for:

• Portrait post, 4:5: 1080×1350. The classic tall feed format and a safe default.
• Portrait post, 3:4: 1080×1440. The tallest shape Instagram keeps without cropping, and the shape most phone cameras shoot.
• Square post, 1:1: 1080×1080. The original Instagram format.
• Landscape post, 1.91:1: 1080×566. The widest ratio the feed accepts.
• Story or Reel, 9:16: 1080×1920. Full-screen vertical.
• Profile picture: 320×320, shown as a circle.

Instagram's Help Center says photos between 320 and 1080 pixels wide keep their original resolution when the aspect ratio is between 1.91:1 and 3:4, which at 1080 pixels wide means a height between 566 and 1440. Narrower photos are enlarged to 320 pixels wide, and wider ones are sized down to 1080 (Instagram Help). Upload at least 1080 pixels wide to get the full resolution. Meta's ad specs recommend 1440 pixels wide for feed and Story ad images (Meta Ads Guide: Feed, Stories), so larger files work too, as long as the shape is right.

The resizer gives you two ways to get a photo into an Instagram shape:

• Fill (crop) scales the photo until it covers the whole frame, then trims the edges evenly from the center. Use it when your subject is in the middle and you're happy to lose a bit of background.
• Fit (pad) scales the photo until all of it fits, then fills the empty space with a color you pick. Use it when nothing can be cut, like a wide group shot, a screenshot or artwork, or when you want a clean border.

For a profile picture, use Fill and make sure the face or logo is centered. Instagram shows it as a circle, so the corners won't be seen anyway.

Each part of Instagram uses a different shape. Here's what to keep in mind for each.

• The photo is too small. Instagram enlarges anything narrower than 320 pixels, and photos under 1080 pixels wide are shared at their lower resolution (Instagram Help).
• The shape is outside Instagram's range. Taller than 3:4 or wider than 1.91:1 and Instagram crops it to a supported ratio, often not where you'd choose.
• It's a screenshot of a photo. Every re-save loses detail. Resize the original instead.
• The file is huge. Instagram sizes anything wider than 1080 pixels down for you. Export at the target size so you control the result, rather than uploading a 50-megapixel original.
• Your phone is saving data. If the Instagram app has a data-saving or upload-quality setting, make sure it allows high-quality uploads.

Meta's ad specs list JPG and PNG for Instagram images (Meta Ads Guide), while Instagram's publishing API, which scheduling tools use, takes JPEG only (Meta for Developers). For photos, a high-quality JPG is the best choice: it's smaller, uploads faster and looks the same on a phone. Pick PNG for graphics with sharp text, flat colors or logos, where JPG can leave faint smudges around edges.

Meta's ad specs cap images at 30 MB. A 1080-pixel-wide image from this tool is well under that.

If you schedule posts with ViralFarm, you don't have to resize every image by hand. Before it publishes to Instagram, ViralFarm checks each image against Instagram's limits, converts it to the format Instagram's API needs, and warns you when a photo falls outside the feed's ratio range and will be center-cropped to fit.

You can schedule Instagram feed posts, carousels, Reels and Stories, plus the same content to TikTok, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Threads, Facebook, YouTube and X. ViralFarm's AI can also build the carousel for you from a link or a topic.