Instagram aspect ratios and image sizes: a photographer’s reference
Checked against Instagram’s current behavior in September 2026
The feed accepts anything from 1.91:1 at the widest to 3:4 at the tallest. Export 1080 pixels wide or more. If you want one number to remember, use 3:4 at 1080 × 1440.
3:4 is the only ratio that is simultaneously the tallest the feed allows and the exact shape of the profile grid cell. Everything else involves giving something up in one place or the other.
On this page
The feed: accepted range and sizes
Divide width by height. Anything landing between 0.75 and 1.91 posts whole. Outside that, Instagram trims to the nearest shape it can render.
| Ratio | Decimal | Pixels | Use it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3:4 portrait | 0.75 | 1080 × 1440 | Default choice. Tallest in feed, exact fit in grid. |
| 4:5 portrait | 0.80 | 1080 × 1350 | The long-standing safe option, still fine. |
| 1:1 square | 1.00 | 1080 × 1080 | A deliberate square look, or a carousel of mixed shapes. |
| 1.91:1 landscape | 1.91 | 1080 × 566 | The widest allowed. Small in feed, badly cut in grid. |
3:4 became natively supported on 28 May 2025. A guide that calls 4:5 the tallest accepted shape was written before that and is worth distrusting on everything else too.
Every other surface
The feed is one of several places your image appears, each with its own shape. The grid one is the trap, because it applies to a post that already passed the feed.
| Surface | Ratio | Pixels | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Profile grid cell | 3:4 | — | Crops width off the sides of anything wider than 0.75. |
| Stories | 9:16 | 1080 × 1920 | Keep text clear of the top and bottom for the interface. |
| Reels | 9:16 | 1080 × 1920 | The grid shows a 3:4 slice of the cover. |
| Profile picture | 1:1 | 320 × 320 | Displayed as a circle, so keep the subject centered. |
What your camera actually shoots
This is the table most size guides leave out, and it is the one that explains why you are here. Very little camera equipment produces a ratio Instagram is happy with vertically.
| Source | Ratio | Horizontal | Vertical |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full frame and APS-C, 35mm film | 3:2 | 1.50 — fine | 0.67 — too tall, cropped |
| Micro Four Thirds, most compacts | 4:3 | 1.33 — fine | 0.75 — exactly the limit |
| iPhone main camera | 4:3 | 1.33 — fine | 0.75 — exactly the limit |
| Medium format 6×7 | 7:6 | 1.17 — fine | 0.86 — fine |
| Panorama, 65mm film | ~3:1 | 3.00 — too wide, cropped | — |
| Phone screenshot | 9:16 | — | 0.56 — too tall, cropped |
The pattern: shoot horizontally and Instagram is relaxed; shoot vertically and you are at or over the limit almost immediately. A vertical frame off any full-frame camera is already outside the range before you have made a single decision.
When your ratio falls outside
You have three options, and they are genuinely different choices rather than better and worse versions of the same thing.
- Let Instagram crop. Fastest. You lose the edges of the frame and Instagram decides which edges.
- Crop it yourself. You keep control of the composition and still lose the parts you cut. Right when the photo has room to lose.
- Change the canvas, not the photo. Put the whole frame on a 3:4, 4:5 or 1:1 canvas and fill the leftover space with a border. Nothing is cut; the photo sits smaller within the post.
The third option is what 7rats does. Pick the ratio, pick a border color, set the margin, export at the photo’s native resolution. It runs entirely on your iPhone or iPad - no accounts, no uploads, free to use. See how it works.
Pixel sizes that matter
Only one number really counts: 1080 wide. That is what the feed serves, so it is the floor you should never export below.
Exporting larger is worth doing - the downscale starts from more detail - but the returns flatten quickly, and nothing you upload arrives intact. A 6000-pixel export and a 2000-pixel export both become a 1080-wide JPEG. Exporting smaller than 1080 is the one clear mistake: Instagram upscales it, and you get the softness of an enlargement plus the compression on top.
Common questions
What is the best aspect ratio for Instagram?
3:4. It is the tallest shape the feed accepts, so it takes the most screen as someone scrolls, and it is the exact shape of the grid cell, so nothing is trimmed there either. No other ratio is optimal in both places at once.
What size should an Instagram photo be in pixels?
1080 wide is the number that matters. Export at 1080 or larger, never smaller. The matching heights are 1440 for 3:4, 1350 for 4:5 and 1080 for square.
Is 4:5 still the tallest ratio allowed?
No. Instagram added native 3:4 support on 28 May 2025, and 3:4 is taller. Any guide naming 4:5 as the tallest accepted shape predates that change.
Which ratio does a full-frame camera shoot?
3:2 — 1.5 horizontally, 0.667 vertically. Horizontal sits inside the accepted range and posts uncropped. Vertical is taller than the 0.75 limit, so it gets cropped.
What happens if my photo is outside the range?
Instagram crops it to the nearest shape it can display. To avoid that, put the whole photo on a canvas that is already an accepted shape and let a border fill the leftover space.