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Social media image sizes

The exact pixel dimensions each platform renders a post at — not a rounded guideline. These are the sizes ReachXpand's own publishing engine crops to before it uploads, so they are kept current as part of the product.

PlatformPlacementRatioPixels
InstagramSquare feed post1:11080 × 1080
InstagramPortrait feed post (best reach)4:51080 × 1350
InstagramLandscape feed post1.91:11080 × 566
InstagramStory / Reel9:161080 × 1920
FacebookSquare feed post1:11080 × 1080
FacebookPortrait feed post4:51080 × 1350
FacebookLink / landscape post1.91:11200 × 628
FacebookStory9:161080 × 1920
LinkedInSquare post1:11200 × 1200
LinkedInPortrait post4:51200 × 1500
LinkedInLandscape / link post1.91:11200 × 627
X (Twitter)Landscape post16:91200 × 675
X (Twitter)Square post1:11200 × 1200
X (Twitter)Portrait post4:51080 × 1350
ThreadsSquare post1:11080 × 1080
ThreadsPortrait post4:51080 × 1350

Export at these dimensions rather than above them. A platform that has to shrink your file re-compresses it, and that is where the softness in uploaded text comes from.

Pick the ratio before you design, not after

The single most expensive mistake in social design is making one image and cropping it five ways afterwards. Every platform crops from the centre, and the centre is where headlines, faces and logos live. A square designed properly and then trimmed to 9:16 loses the left and right thirds — which on a poster is most of the sentence.

Decide the placement first, then design inside that frame. If the same idea has to run in three places, export it three times.

Which ratio for which job

  • 4:5 portrait (1080 × 1350) — the default for Instagram and Facebook feeds. It is the tallest a feed post is allowed to be, so it occupies the most phone screen.
  • 1:1 square (1080 × 1080) — the safe universal. Slightly less screen than 4:5, but it survives being posted anywhere.
  • 9:16 vertical (1080 × 1920) — Stories and Reels. Full screen, no crop, but the top and bottom are covered by the interface.
  • 1.91:1 landscape — link previews and wide feeds. This is also the Open Graph shape, which is why 1200 × 628 turns up everywhere.
  • 16:9 (1200 × 675) — X and video thumbnails.

Story safe zones

A 1080 × 1920 Story is not 1080 × 1920 of usable space. Roughly the top 250 pixels carry the profile row and the close button, and roughly the bottom 250 carry the reply bar, the sticker and whatever the app is promoting that month.

Keep anything that has to be read — a headline, a price, a logo, a swipe instruction — inside the middle 1080 × 1420 band. Use the outer strips for background only.

Profile pictures and cover images

These are upload recommendations rather than render specs: every platform resizes them, and most display a profile picture as a circle, so anything near the corners is cut.

PlatformPlacementRecommended upload
InstagramProfile picture320 × 320 (shown as a circle)
FacebookPage profile picture360 × 360 (shown as a circle)
FacebookPage cover851 × 315
LinkedInCompany logo300 × 300
LinkedInCompany cover1128 × 191
X (Twitter)Profile picture400 × 400 (shown as a circle)
X (Twitter)Header1500 × 500
YouTubeChannel art2560 × 1440, safe area 1546 × 423
YouTubeVideo thumbnail1280 × 720

Profile and cover dimensions last reviewed 21 September 2026.

File format and weight

  • JPEG for photographs — quality 85–92 is the sweet spot. Below 80 the artefacts show up around text.
  • PNG when the image is mostly flat colour and type, such as a quote card or a chart.
  • Under 1 MB wherever you can. Every platform re-compresses regardless, and a smaller source that is already clean survives that better than a huge one.
  • sRGB, not CMYK or Adobe RGB. A colour profile mismatch is why a brand gold sometimes uploads looking washed out.

Questions

What size should a social media post image be?
For a square post, 1080 × 1080 pixels works on every platform. If you only ever export one size, export that. For Instagram and Facebook specifically, 1080 × 1350 (the 4:5 portrait) is the better default because it occupies more of a phone screen than a square does.
Why does my image look blurry after uploading?
Almost always because the platform enlarged it. Instagram renders feed images at 1080 pixels wide; upload anything narrower and it is scaled up and re-compressed. Upload at exactly the target width rather than below it, and export as JPEG at high quality or PNG.
What is the safe zone on a Story?
A 1080 × 1920 Story has roughly 250 pixels at the top and 250 at the bottom covered by the profile row, the caption and the interface. Keep text and logos inside the middle band or they will sit under a button.
Should I crop for each platform or upload one image everywhere?
Crop per platform. The same square posted to Instagram, LinkedIn and X is cropped differently by each one, and the crop is applied to the centre — which is exactly where a headline usually sits. Exporting a version per aspect ratio is the difference between a designed post and a damaged one.
Which aspect ratio gets the most reach?
Taller images take up more screen on a phone, so 4:5 portrait generally outperforms 1:1 square on Instagram and Facebook, and 9:16 fills the screen entirely on Stories and Reels. Landscape is the right choice on X, LinkedIn and YouTube, where feeds are wider.
Do these sizes change?
The post sizes here are the ones our own publishing engine crops to, so they are kept current as part of the product rather than as an article. Profile and cover dimensions change more often than post dimensions — the review date under that table is when they were last checked.

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Or stop resizing altogether

ReachXpand designs the post once and exports it at the right size for every platform you publish to — including the Story crop that keeps your headline inside the safe zone.

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