Instagram image sizes & video formats

Hardly any other social media app is as important for visual marketing as Instagram. With more than a billion users worldwide and almost 30 million users in the UK, Instagram is no longer just an app for holiday and party photos. There are many ways to address a large audience and generate reach on Instagram through images, videos, stories, and live broad­casts. When it comes to high-quality content, however, optimal sizes and formats are also important. Find out which Instagram photo sizes & video re­quire­ments there are in this overview article.

It started out in a simple yet striking way: Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger developed a photo app in 2010 that allowed users to upload square pictures in a 1:1 format and with 640 pixels. Designed to be a location sharing app called Burbn, the de­velopers listened to demand and focused entirely on the picture-sharing function. Instead of offering a lot of mediocre features, IG focused on high-quality visual content that could be edited with filters and easily shared. Users agreed with the de­velopers and their number exploded over the course of four years to reach 300 million. Billions of people use the app today.

More than 10 years after the first version, IG offers numerous new image and video functions that are geared towards com­pet­it­ors and Instagram al­tern­at­ives, such as Snapchat, Pinterest, and TikTok. Due to its reach and con­nec­tion with other social media channels, the app is now not only in­dis­pens­able for private users, but also for social media marketing for artists and companies. In order to get Instagram followers, you need to know your own target group and the content that they demand. The clear re­quire­ments that Instagram places on images and videos are par­tic­u­larly important here.

The photos in an Instagram feed are the most classic of all Instagram features. With feed posts, you provide users with regular content, generate con­tinu­ous in­ter­ac­tions, increase en­gage­ment and reach, and you can also post ad­vert­ise­ments. The optimal image size depends on which format you want to use. Instagram offers three types of images: square, landscape, and portrait.

The following re­com­men­ded values for Instagram image sizes must be observed:

• Square: 1080 x 1080 pixels as the minimum re­com­men­ded size with an aspect ratio of 1:1.
• Landscape/Ho­ri­zont­al: 1080 x 560 pixels as the minimum re­com­men­ded size with an aspect ratio of 1.91:1. The ideal size is 1080 x 608 or 1200 x 628 pixels.
• Portrait/Vertical: 1080 x 1350 pixels as the minimum re­com­men­ded size with an aspect ratio of 4:5.

In general, it is advisable to post pictures with the highest possible res­ol­u­tion within the framework of the spe­cific­a­tions. This will guarantee ideal image quality on different displays. In addition, Instagram’s aspect ratio spe­cific­a­tions must be observed, because images will be com­pressed, stretched, or cropped if they are too large or too small.

Similar to Facebook picture sizes, an Instagram profile picture is displayed in a circle. Important content must therefore be as centred as possible, and an aspect ratio of 1:1 must be used. There are various re­com­mend­a­tions for an optimal size. Instagram saves profile pictures with 320 x 320 pixels, so you should upload profile pictures with at least 320 x 320 pixels. A higher res­ol­u­tion of 1080 x 1080 pixels is ideal for a sharp display.

You can also post videos to a feed, just like images. Depending on the format (square, landscape, or portrait), the sizes differ:

• Square and carousel: 600 x 600 pixels as the minimum re­com­men­ded res­ol­u­tion. Optimal res­ol­u­tion 1080 x 1080.
• Portrait: 600 x 750 pixels as the minimum re­com­men­ded res­ol­u­tion. Optimal res­ol­u­tion 1080 x 1350.
• Landscape: 600 x 315 pixels as the minimum re­com­men­ded res­ol­u­tion. Optimal res­ol­u­tion 1080 x 608.

The file size must not exceed 4 GB. Videos can be a maximum of 60 seconds long and display 30 frames per second.

Instagram stories are among the most popular, new Instagram tools. They allow users to post as many photos and videos as they want. Stories are composed of pictures or videos that last for a short while and are then deleted from a profile after 24 hours, to then be archived for account users only. If you create stories as ‘high­lights’, you can also make them per­man­ently ac­cess­ible.

The aspect ratios to use range from 1.91:1 to 9:16. The optimal image and video size for stories is an aspect ratio of 9:16 and an image size of 1080 x 1920 pixels. The maximum length is 15 seconds.

Carousel posts are even more suc­cess­ful than in­di­vidu­al images or videos in a feed. These posts are made up of several pictures or videos in a single post that users can view by swiping. Carousel posts are par­tic­u­larly in­ter­est­ing for marketing purposes because they generate reach and in­ter­ac­tion. The image sizes and formats cor­res­pond to the spe­cific­a­tions for photo and video posts in a feed, meaning square, landscape, and portrait.

IGTV was in­tro­duced by IG in 2018 and is available both as a separate app and as an Instagram function. It allows users to post videos of up to 60 minutes. In-app videos should be vertical, have a ratio between 4:5 and 9:16, and an optimal size of 1080 x 1920 pixels.

IGTV videos in an Instagram feed cor­res­pond to the aspect ratios of images and videos, but they should ideally have an aspect ratio of 4:5 and a size of 1080 x 1350 pixels. An appealing IGTV cover thumbnail is also important, ideally with a size of 420 x 654 pixels and an aspect ratio 1:1.55 or 9:16.

Reels are the latest IG function and are based on short videos from TikTok. Reel videos can last for a maximum of 30 seconds and can be uploaded in a ratio of 4:5 to 9:16 with a res­ol­u­tion of 1080 x 1350 to 1080 x 1920.

Instagram Live is part of IG Stories. Videos stay online for 24 hours and are displayed in 9:16 with 1080 x 1920 pixels.