Two ratios do most of the work in 2026: 4:5 portrait for feed posts and 9:16 for anything vertical. Upload at 1080 px wide minimum, and resize before uploading rather than letting the app crop for you — our image resizer has presets for every size on this page, and the compressor gets files under platform caps without visible loss.
Instagram switched its profile grid to 3:4 thumbnails in 2025, which quietly changed the rules: a 4:5 post still displays fine in feed, but the grid crops it. If your grid is part of your brand, compose with the center 3:4 in mind.
| Surface | Size (px) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Feed post (portrait — use this) | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 |
| Feed post (square) | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 |
| Feed post (landscape) | 1080 × 566 | 1.91:1 |
| Reels / Stories | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
| Grid thumbnail (what the profile shows) | 1015 × 1350 | 3:4 |
| Profile photo (upload) | 320 × 320 | 1:1 |
Reels overlay UI on both edges — username and caption at the bottom, action rail on the right. Before you export, run the video through the safe zone previewer so no text sits under a button.
TikTok
TikTok is uncompromisingly vertical. Everything is 9:16, edge to edge, and anything else gets letterboxed into irrelevance.
| Surface | Size (px) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Video | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
| Photo carousel slide | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
| Profile photo | 400 × 400 (min 200) | 1:1 |
YouTube
The thumbnail is the highest-leverage image on this page — it decides your click-through rate. 1280×720 is the spec, but design it to survive at 168 px wide, because that’s how most people meet it in the sidebar.
| Surface | Size (px) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Thumbnail | 1280 × 720 (max 2 MB) | 16:9 |
| Channel banner (upload) | 2560 × 1440 | 16:9 |
| Banner safe area (all devices) | 1546 × 423 | — |
| Profile photo | 800 × 800 | 1:1 |
| Shorts | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
The banner is brutal: TVs see all 2560×1440, phones see only the central 1546×423 strip. Anything outside that strip — logos, taglines, schedules — will be invisible to most of your audience.
X (Twitter)
| Surface | Size (px) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| In-stream image | 1600 × 900 | 16:9 |
| Profile photo | 400 × 400 | 1:1 |
| Header | 1500 × 500 | 3:1 |
| Max upload | 4096 × 4096 | — |
The header renders behind the round profile photo on the bottom-left, and mobile crops the top and bottom edges. Keep faces and text in the vertical middle, biased right.
| Surface | Size (px) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Feed image | 1200 × 630 | 1.91:1 |
| Feed image (portrait) | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 |
| Stories / Reels | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
| Cover photo (desktop crop) | 820 × 312 | — |
| Cover photo (mobile crop) | 640 × 360 | — |
| Profile photo (upload) | 320 × 320 | 1:1 |
Desktop and mobile crop the cover photo differently — design inside the overlap (roughly the central 640×312) or your edges get eaten on one device or the other.
| Surface | Size (px) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Post image | 1200 × 627 | 1.91:1 |
| Profile photo | 400 × 400 | 1:1 |
| Personal banner | 1584 × 396 | 4:1 |
| Company logo | 300 × 300 | 1:1 |
| Company cover | 1128 × 191 | — |
| Document/carousel page | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 |
| Surface | Size (px) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Standard pin | 1000 × 1500 | 2:3 |
| Square pin | 1000 × 1000 | 1:1 |
| Idea pin / video | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
| Profile photo | 165 × 165 | 1:1 |
Pinterest actively deprioritizes pins taller than 2:3 in feed. The 2:3 rule is closer to law than guideline here.
The 30-second workflow
- Export from your editor at full quality, 2× the target size or larger.
- Resize to the exact dimension from the tables above with the image resizer (every preset on this page is built in).
- If the file is over the platform cap — or you’re putting it on a website — run it through the image compressor. Both run on your device; nothing uploads.