The Ultimate Instagram Image & Video Size Guide for 2024
April 1, 2024
By
David Olsen
The ultimate guide on Instagram image and video sizes for 2024.
Let’s be real; we all want our Instagram posts to look amazing. Whether you’re a brand, agency, social media manager, content creator or you just care about having the perfect Insta aesthetic, we’ve got all the answers on the best Instagram image and video size recommendations for 2024.
Instagram changes all the time and there are so many post types available now; from the Instagram feed to Instagram Stories, Reels, and all the different Instagram ad sizes. So, how can you stay up to date, all while continuing to produce the best quality content you can? After all; no one wants to spend their time painstakingly planning and creating awesome thumb-stopping video content only to have it uploaded as a big blurry old mess!
The good news? All it takes to optimize your Instagram content is a little know-how.
Are you ready to start learning? Keep scrolling and get ready to embrace picture-perfect Instagram content and fully optimized Instagram ads that will stop the thumbs of your target audience and boost your results on the platform.
Best Instagram Image Sizes For 2024
Without further ado, here are the best Instagram image sizes for 2024. Think of this as your ultimate Instagram cheat sheet! Keep in mind that some size options and ad placements have multiple variations available.
Choosing the right one is often about personal preference. Sometimes you might feel that a certain placement works better with the content you’ve chosen. At other times, you might just want a file format that can be easily replicated for your other channels, like TikTok, Facebook, or even LinkedIn.
Instagram Post Sizes
First up will be your Instagram post sizes. Here are all the basic image specs you’ll need to keep in mind when posting on the platform, including photo sizes and aspect ratios.
Square Instagram posts: 1080 x 1080 pixels (1:1)
Portrait Instagram posts: 1080 x 1350 pixels (4:5)
Landscape Instagram posts: 1080 x 566 pixels (16:9)
When it comes to Instagram feed posts, most businesses will choose square posts because they look good on the feed and take up plenty of space. It’s also ideal when you’re repurposing a piece of content to work seamlessly on other channels, such as Facebook or LinkedIn. Another advantage of the square format is that your posts will appear on the tiny square on the Instagram feed just as they are in your post. Whereas, with portrait or landscape photos, your image may be altered slightly to fit into the square feed thumbnail.
Portrait posts – or vertical posts – are great when it comes to images of people, tall buildings, or objects. They also take up the most real estate on the Instagram feed – so they could stand out more to your audience.
Landscape posts aren’t typically recommended for Instagram but can work for wide shots such as landscapes, architectural images, and videos that have been shot in this format.
When you’re posting an Instagram carousel, it’s important to note that the other images or videos in your carousel post will default to the same format you chose for the first image. So if you have a series of images and the first post you have chosen is a square, the rest of the images in that carousel will also be posted as squares.
Instagram Profile Photo
When it comes to optimizing your Instagram profile picture, opt for a clear and simple image. Even though the recommended specifications are listed in a square format, it is important to note that Instagram profile photos are displayed as a circle.
Most businesses and content creators will choose something very simple, such as their face, or their logo, or even a simplified version of their logo. Others might show their product or an icon to represent what they do, such as a computer to signify an IT company.
Instagram profile photo dimensions: Display size is 110 x 110 pixels, but the image should be uploaded at 320 x 320 pixels.
Instagram Stories
When it comes to Instagram Stories, you should use vertical images or videos. You can use square or landscape videos or images, but you’ll end up with a whole lot of dead space so we don’t recommend this. You can always use those assets for feed posts if you prefer.
The Instagram Stories specifications are as follows;
Instagram Stories dimensions: 1920 x 1080 pixels (9:16)
Are you preparing your Instagram ads but are confused about all the different ad placements? Not to worry; we’ve got you. There are a couple of different image placement options you’ll be faced with. In-feed ads on Instagram can be one of three different resolutions and aspect ratios.
Square Instagram posts: 1080 x 1080 pixels (1:1)
Portrait Instagram posts: 1080 x 1350 pixels (4:5)
Landscape Instagram posts: 1080 x 566 pixels (16:9)
Instagram Ad Image Sizes – Stories
The Instagram Stories ad image sizes and aspect ratios are as follows.
Instagram Stories ad dimensions: 1920 x 1080 pixels (9:16)
You can also upload landscape and square-sized assets to be used as Story ads, but they won’t be optimized correctly so keep in mind that your ad results might be affected.
Instagram Ad Image Sizes - Explore
Instagram’s Explore ads are a great discovery feature, especially for people who aren’t familiar with your brand. Here are the recommended ad dimensions.
Instagram Explore ad dimensions: 1080×1080 pixels (1:1) is recommended
Want to know the ideal Instagram Reel and video sizes and video resolutions for 2024? Keep reading! You want your Instagram Reels and in-feed videos to come out beautifully, in the correct format and resolution. Otherwise, all those hours you spent planning, shooting, and editing your Instagram Reelscould all be for nothing.
Instagram In-Feed Video Sizes
First up; Instagram video sizes. Here are all the basic video specs you’ll need to keep in mind when posting on Instagram.
If you’re doing a regular Instagram feed video post, you can upload either an image or a video. We’ve already run through the image post specifications, and the video sizes and aspect ratios are the same.
Instagram in-feed video dimensions:
Square videos (1080 x 1080 pixels) or 1:1
Horizontal videos (1080 x 1350 pixels) or 16:9 (recommended)
Portrait videos (1080 x 608 pixels) or 5:4
Recommended video file type: .MP4, or .MOV.
Video resolution: HD or 1080 pixels
Instagram video length: Between 15 to 60 seconds
Instagram Reel Video Sizes
Instagram Reels are all the rage right now and allow for a seamless user experience. When uploading your Instagram Reel, be sure to select a good cover photo so the Reel will display well on your feed.
Instagram Reel video dimensions: 1080 × 1920 pixels, or 9:16 aspect ratio
Recommended video file type: .MP4, or .MOV.
Instagram Reel video length: Between 5 and 90 seconds
Instagram Story Video Sizes
Instagram Stories use the same dimensions as Instagram Reels and Instagram Live, however, the duration for Reels can be longer.
Instagram Story video dimensions: 1080 × 1920 pixels, or 9:16 aspect ratio
Recommended file type for Instagram Stories: .MP4, or .MOV.
Instagram Stories video length: Between 5 and 60 seconds, but can be spread across multiple Stories in 60 second chunks.
Instagram Ad Video Sizes
When running Instagram video ads, you have a few different options available to you, and the correct size will depend on the ad placement you have selected. For example, if you choose Instagram Stories as your placement, you should use the Instagram Stories ad specifications above, and so on. However, some video formats are better than others.
Recommended aspect ratio: 9:16, but ratios from 16:9 to 4:5 are accepted
Video ad resolution:1080 x 1080 pixels is recommended
Max file size: 250MB
Video length: 1 to 60 seconds
Recommended file type: .mp4, .mov, or .gif., however additional file types are supported
Collaborate effortlessly, save time and spend less
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Creating amazing Instagram posts isn’t just about sizing or resizing your images and videos. It’s also about making small adjustments to optimize your Instagram posts, so that they have a better chance of performing well, therefore allowing you to engage better with your audience.
You could create the most amazing piece of content, but if the size is not suitable, or you don’t use the right hook, caption, or hashtags, it could end up missing the mark.
Here are the top ways you can easily optimize your Insta posts and boost your engagement, leads, and conversions.
Schedule Your Instagram Content
If you’re a social media marketer or brand owner, why wouldn’t you want to make life easier? Scheduling your Instagram content means that you (or your team) won’t need to waste weekends or hurriedly post content at an inconvenient time. Scheduling your posts also means that your content will be far more strategic and you’ll be able to easily plan posts further in advance.
Scheduling tools like Sked Social allow you to plan and schedule your posts in advance, collaborating with your team along the way to make any necessary tweaks or adjustments. You can add all your assets in a content library that can be easily accessed by your team. Then you can find and add hashtags, location tags, and user tags, and conduct your image and video editing all in one place.
Best of all; if you’re sharing your Instagram content across other channels, like TikTok or Facebook, you can easily do that in Sked Social, tweaking your post as needed to suit your different social media channels.
So, what are you waiting for? Get started today by signing up for Sked’s 7-day trial.
Any good social media marketer understands that, while each social network is different, sometimes it makes sense to reuse and repurpose your content across platforms. For instance, you might want to copy an Instagram Reel and post it across TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Cross-platform posting can make your life so much easier and ensures that you get more life out of your content.
Tools like Sked Social allow you to do this easily. Instead of sharing and uploading content across different mobile devices or platforms, you can easily schedule content with just the one tool, working across multiple social media platforms at once. You can easily use Sked from your desktop or mobile device, both iOS and Android.
You can effortlessly mix up the captions, tags, and hashtags if needed before posting on different social networks. And, if you have chosen the incorrect size, Sked Social will recognize this and display an error message for you, so you’ll never post the wrong size asset on any given platform.
So, what are you waiting for? Get started by signing up for Sked’s 7-day trialtoday.
Even though Instagram is clearly all about the visuals, your post copy matters, too. Be sure to utilize industry-specific SEO keywords and hashtags in your post copy. And, if you’re posting a Reel, use a compelling hook and captions to engage your audience further.
So, how do you know what the right keywords and hashtags are for your brand? Easy. Search for keywords that your audience might be using to find you in Instagram’s search bar. You want to use keywords related to your industry AND possibly your location, too. So, if you’re a business selling chicken burgers in San Francisco, you want to include keywords like “burgers San Francisco” and hashtags like #burgerssanfranscisco. If you’re a service-based business you might want to be less specific with your location but include your speciality. For instance, if you’re a marketing company that focuses on women entrepreneurs, research keywords and hashtags using this information.
Plan Your Instagram Feed
New Instagram users will judge your Instagram profile based on the first images they see on your profile. And, while you don’t necessarily have to have a perfectly cohesive Instagram feed these days, a cohesive feed does look more professional. Luckily, Sked Social’s Visual Planner can help you plan out your Instagram feed to perfection.
Your feed doesn’t necessarily need to move seamlessly through all colors of the rainbow, but aim to group similar colors together like light and dark colors.
Remember; you can also utilize the “pinned posts” feature to bring your Instagram posts and Reels back to the top of the feed whenever you like, making the overall feed look more put together.
Refine Your Strategy With Social Media Insights
Did you know that Sked Social’s clever reporting features can help generate in-depth competitor insights that can give your business a huge advantage? Sked Social offers in-depth insights for each of your social media channels. You can use it to generate easy-to-read reporting templates that can be shared with your team at a moment’s notice.
But Sked offers much more than that. It also provides you with competitor insights that can help you to refine your Instagram marketing strategy, allowing you to steal your competitor’s secrets, and optimize your strategy accordingly.
Are You Ready To Optimize Your Instagram Posts For Success?
Understanding the size requirements for Instagram is crucial when it comes to building your profile and generating engagement on the platform. If you want to build a killer Instagram marketing strategy that will stand the test of time, it’s important to understand exactly how to refine your posts.
Sked Social is the ultimate Instagram marketing tool. It can help brands and social media managers to seamlessly schedule content (the right way), conduct reporting, and tweak their content so that it meets their own brand guidelines as well as Instagram’s size specifications. It can also help you stay up-to-date with any new social media post types that might be released in the future.
What’s more; Sked’s reporting features are constantly improving, and allow you to unlock critical insights about what your competitors are up to. Sked Social has powerful capabilities that can help you streamline your social media workflows, become more dynamic, enhance your creativity, and connect with your target audience.
Is it time to level up your Instagram content and leverage the immense power of a social media scheduling and reporting tool like Sked Social? Sked can be used across all your social media channels, from TikTok to LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, and more.
Ready to schedule your next post? Sked Social is the Social Media Management platform for Instagram. Get started by signing up for Sked’s 7-day trial today or learning more about our pricing.
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