Social Media Image Sizes 2026 — The Complete Cheat Sheet

Instagram has gotten more complex over the years. What started as a square-only app now supports multiple aspect ratios across different content types:

Feed post (square) — 1080 × 1080 px (1:1). Still the classic look. If you upload a higher resolution, Instagram downscales to 1080px on the longest edge.

Feed post (portrait) — 1080 × 1350 px (4:5). This is the maximum vertical space Instagram gives you in the feed. It takes up more screen real estate than square, so engagement tends to be slightly higher. Going taller than 4:5 triggers a crop.

Feed post (landscape) — 1080 × 566 px (1.91:1). Rarely used because it looks tiny in the feed compared to portrait and square.

Story / Reel — 1080 × 1920 px (9:16). Full screen vertical. Keep important content away from the top 250px (username overlay) and bottom 250px (interaction buttons).

Carousel — all images in a carousel must share the same aspect ratio. The first image sets the ratio for the set. 1080 × 1080 or 1080 × 1350 are the common choices.

Profile photo — 320 × 320 px, displayed as a circle. Upload at 320 × 320 minimum; Instagram won't upscale a smaller image.

For more detail on Instagram specifically, see the full Instagram image sizes guide.

Feed post — 1200 × 630 px (1.91:1) for link shares; 1080 × 1080 or 1080 × 1350 for standalone photos. Facebook crops differently in different placements (feed, right column, marketplace), so the 1.91:1 ratio for link previews and 1:1 for photo posts is the safest bet.

Cover photo — 820 × 312 px on desktop, 640 × 360 px on mobile. These crop differently, so design for an 820 × 360 canvas and keep critical content within the centre 640 × 312 area that's visible on both. This is one of the trickiest social media images to get right because desktop and mobile show substantially different crops of the same image.

Event cover — 1920 × 1005 px (1.91:1). Same aspect ratio as the link share preview but larger resolution.

Group cover — 1640 × 856 px (1.91:1). Facebook groups use a slightly different cover size than pages.

Profile photo — 170 × 170 px on desktop, 128 × 128 on mobile. Displayed as a circle. Upload at 170 × 170 minimum for clarity.

Story — 1080 × 1920 px (9:16), same as Instagram.

In-stream image — 1600 × 900 px (16:9) is the sweet spot. X crops to 16:9 in the timeline preview; clicking opens the full image. Single images up to 4096 × 4096 are supported. If you upload a square or portrait image, X adds letterboxing in the timeline preview but shows the full image when clicked.

Header/banner — 1500 × 500 px (3:1). Keep text and important elements in the centre; the left side is partially covered by the profile photo on desktop.

Profile photo — 400 × 400 px, displayed as a circle.

Card image (link preview) — 800 × 418 px for summary_large_image Twitter Cards. This is what shows up when you share a link. If your site's OpenGraph image is smaller than this, the preview will look blurry.

Feed post — 1200 × 1200 (1:1) or 1200 × 627 (1.91:1). LinkedIn supports vertical images but the feed preview crops them aggressively, so square or landscape tends to work better here. Document posts (PDF carousels) display at 1:1.27 ratio.

Company page cover — 1128 × 191 px. Extremely wide and short — not much vertical space to work with. Use it for a simple brand bar, not a detailed graphic.

Personal profile cover/banner — 1584 × 396 px. More space than the company cover but still a very wide aspect ratio.

Profile photo — 400 × 400 px, displayed as a circle.

Article cover image — 1200 × 644 px (1.86:1). This appears at the top of LinkedIn articles and in the feed preview.

Video / photo carousel — 1080 × 1920 px (9:16). TikTok is vertical-first. Photo carousels (up to 35 images) use the same 9:16 aspect ratio. TikTok's photo carousels have become increasingly popular for static content — tips, recipes, informational slides — and they use the same full-screen vertical format as videos.

Profile photo — 200 × 200 px minimum, but upload at at least 400 × 400 for clarity on high-DPI screens.

Thumbnail — 1280 × 720 px (16:9). This is one of the most important images in all of social media — a good thumbnail is the primary driver of click-through rate. YouTube explicitly recommends 1280 × 720 at a minimum of 640px wide. Keep text large enough to read on mobile. Avoid putting anything important in the bottom-right corner — that's where the video duration stamp overlays. YouTube compresses thumbnails aggressively, so upload at maximum quality (under 2 MB file size limit).

Channel banner — 2560 × 1440 px. The safe area for text and logos is the center 1546 × 423 px, which is visible across all devices. TV displays show the full 2560 × 1440; desktop shows a wide horizontal strip; mobile shows the narrowest center crop.

Profile photo — 800 × 800 px, displayed as a circle.

Standard pin — 1000 × 1500 px (2:3). Taller pins get more real estate in the Pinterest feed. The 2:3 ratio is optimal; pins taller than 1:2.1 get truncated in the feed with a "See more" overlay.

Idea pin / story pin — 1080 × 1920 px (9:16). Same full-screen vertical format as Instagram and TikTok stories.

Profile photo — 165 × 165 px, displayed as a circle.

All major platforms accept JPG and PNG. For photographs, JPG is the right choice — smaller files, faster uploads. For graphics with text, logos, or sharp edges, PNG preserves crispness better. None of the major platforms accept HEIC directly in their web uploaders — convert to JPG first.

WebP is accepted by Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn but not universally — Twitter/X still doesn't accept WebP uploads as of mid-2026. Stick with JPG for maximum compatibility across all platforms.

File size limits vary by platform: Instagram caps at 30MB for photos, X at 5MB for images in tweets (16MB for DMs), LinkedIn at 10MB, Pinterest at 32MB per image. If your image exceeds the limit, the image compressor can bring it down without visible quality loss.

Colour space should be sRGB for all social media. Images in Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB colour spaces can look desaturated on screens because most displays and web browsers assume sRGB. If you're exporting from Lightroom or Photoshop, make sure the colour space dropdown says sRGB — it's easy to miss when you're batch exporting and the default might be Adobe RGB.

What happens if I upload the wrong size?
The platform will resize and/or crop your image to fit. This often chops off edges, compresses text to the point of unreadability, or adds letterboxing bars. Uploading at the correct dimensions avoids all of this and gives you full control over how the image appears.

Should I use PNG or JPG for social media?
JPG for photographs. PNG for graphics with text, logos, or flat colours. JPG is lossy but the compression artefacts are invisible in photographs. PNG preserves sharp edges but produces larger files.

Do these sizes change often?
Instagram and Facebook tweak their dimensions roughly once a year. LinkedIn and YouTube change less often. The 9:16 story format has been stable across all platforms for several years now. This guide is current as of mid-2026.

Can I resize images for multiple platforms at once?
The image resizer lets you set exact pixel dimensions, so you can create each platform-specific version from a single source image. Start with your highest-resolution source and resize down for each platform.

Why do my images look blurry after posting?
Every platform re-compresses uploads. Starting with higher resolution (at least the recommended dimensions) and lower existing compression (JPG quality 92+) minimizes quality loss from the platform's recompression.