Optimize Your Instagram Posts with These Perfect Image Sizes

Visual content reigns supreme on Instagram. With over 100 million photos and videos shared to the platform every day, images have become integral for engaging Instagram’s billion monthly active users. But simply posting any image won’t necessarily translate to more likes and comments. To maximize reach and results for your brand, carefully tailoring images to optimize post performance is key.

Understanding Instagram’s recommended image dimensions and resizing visuals can make a major impact. Properly-sized images appear more stunning in feeds and Stories and encourage more shares and saves. Read on to learn ideal proportions for Instagram posts along with tips to resize and refine your images.

Dimensions By Placement

Instagram offers several locations to share images, including the main feed, Stories, Reels and Live. The optimum image size varies for each spot based on how content displays on screen.

Feed Posts Taller, portrait-style images tend to engage viewers most in Instagram’s main feed. But ultra-wide posts that monopolize screen space can frustrate users, making it hard to scroll and see other content.

Recommended feed image sizes:

• 1080 x 1350 pixels (4:5 aspect ratio)

Instagram Stories Intimate, full-screen Stories invite images with taller orientations much like feed posts. But smaller overall dimensions condensed into the Story interface allow you to share more snapshots while retaining quality.

Recommended Instagram Story image sizes:

• 720 x 1280 pixels

Instagram Reels Reels gain impact from widescreen landscape images and video filling users’ screens. The expanded horizontal room invites more visual details to shine through.

Recommended Reels image sizes:

• 1080 x 1920 pixels (9:16 aspect ratio)

Instagram Live Live videos broadcast in the moment, almost like viewing through a smartphone’s camera lens. Keep images cleanly framed in tighter dimensions so your live content remains crisp and clear.

Recommended Live video sizes:

• 720 x 1280 pixels

Tips for Perfectly-Sized Images

Follow these guidelines to expertly resize photographs, illustrations, album art and any visuals for your Instagram posts:

1. Maintain consistent dimensions tailored for each Instagram placement like feed posts, Stories or Reels when designing images. Refer back to size charts to inform framing and cropping.
2. Leverage templates to pre-set correct dimensions so you can drag and drop images to instantly fit various formats.
3. Use an online resizing tool like Canva to scale images precisely to target pixel measurements.
4. Don’t just stretch images unevenly. Preserve proportion and aspect ratio when adjusting height and width.
5. Crop carefully around key subjects when reducing image sizes to keep main focal points prominent.
6. Resize overly small images by adding padded backgrounds to reach minimum recommended dimensions.
7. Export images at higher resolutions (around 72 ppi) before condensing so clarity doesn’t suffer when posting smaller.
8. Compare resized images side-by-side with originals to ensure quality appears consistent across versions.
9. Use the Instagram Creator Studio’s templates and guides for properly scaling graphics and videos tailored to placements in feed, Stories and Reels.
10. Schedule a batch of resized images for upcoming Instagram posts using a planning tool like Later to confirm how changes improve visual appeal.

The Impact of Proper Sizing Overall, taking the time to intentionally rework and scale photographs and other visuals pays dividends on Instagram. Properly sized images look stunning as they fill each placement’s frame. Clean borders and prominent subjects attract more eyes while also allowing surrounding captions and contexts to come through. Photos correctly configured to Instagram’s specifications can achieve up to 30% more engagement. Finally, effective featuring keeps images irresistibly shareable as fans save posts or spread them around the platform.