Instagram Image Size, Best Aspect Ratio and Resolution in 2024

Instagram image size, aspect ratio and resolution

For each social network, there are certain standards for the size of pictures, videos and text size. If we stick to them, our content will be the quality we need. However, if you do not follow these standards, then after loading a larger image than is required, it will become fuzzy. In this article, you will find all the standard image sizes for Instagram. In addition, here are all the permissions and other parameters for video.

In this article you will learn about:

What size should photos be for Instagram (Portrait, Square Photos, Landscape);
What is the best size for Instagram video (Portrait, Square Photos, Landscape);
Size and dimensions for Instagram Stories;
What is the best size for IGTV Videos;
Bonus! Ways how to make your photos and videos more attractive and popular.

Instagram Image Size 1: Photo Posts

Each Instagram user can face the difficulties in his/her account. For example, uploading images for a large avatar, important elements on the thumbnail can be cropped. There is a tip that is suitable for all users who use their Instagram profile only to keep in touch with friends.

Instagram Vertical Photos – Portrait

Standard photo, which is suitable in most cases on Instagram

Keep in your mind only one standard size of images: 1024 x 512. It is universal, so it can be used in other social networks in your profiles as well.

Instagram Square Photos

If you want to publish a picture with the highest image quality, use the size of 1936 × 1936. It is the ultimate for all accounts. If you increase this threshold, the system will compress them, and you will not be happy with the final result. If you are creating an advertising on Instagram, you should give your preference to photos with an aspect ratio of 1:1 – 1080 × 1080 pixels.

Best size for advertising on Instagram

Instagram Horizontal Photos – Landscape

At the moment, I recommend that you make the height of your horizontal photo on Instagram at least 1080px. Thereby, when Instagram compresses the file, the quality should remain pretty high.
It is possible that over time Instagram will make changes about uploading photos and their dimensions.

In this case, you will not have any problem with your published images. This size is considered to be the most common on Instagram.

The size of avatars on Instagram

Regarding the Instagram avatar, your image should be sharp. After uploading to the server, the system will make it of a rounded shape with a size of about 100 pixels. Therefore, you should upload an image (if it is a square) with dimensions of 110 × 110 pixels.

All uploaded photos and pictures to Instagram should be in JPEG (jpg), PNG, GIF format. If you try to upload images with a different extension, the Instagram download module simply will not see such a file in your computer’s folder.

A way to quickly find the best posts and analyze any profiles

For quick analysis of any Instagram profile I can recommend the user-friendly and useful tool – popsters.com (supports 12 popular Social networks and of course works with Instagram).

This tool easily helps you to find most popular and commented posts on any Instagram profile (you will be able to analyze your accounts or anyone else’s). Compare different Instagram profiles, analyze your competitor’s or accounts in which you plan to publish advertising posts. And when you create your posts, adapt them to the content style of that group. And many other possibilities for analytics.

This article may be useful too:
How to see Instagram stats of any profiles.

Main sizes for Instagram pictures

Thanks for the infographics medium.com/@mikemurphyco/253-instagram-sizing-cheatsheet-f070ea77c6e1

Also you will not be able to upload an image larger than 30 MB.

How to Make High Quality Photos on Instagram

High Quality Photos on Instagram- What You NEED To Know!

Watch this video on YouTube

Instagram Image Size 2: Instagram Video Posts

The optimal size for a standard video application is considered to be 864 pixels wide and 1080 pixels high, with a 4:5 aspect ratio. This parameter is optimized for the most screens of your subscribers’ devices. Widescreen videos look great on YouTube or Facebook, but most Instagram users use mobile devices.

Instagram Square Videos

They should have an aspect ratio like 1:1. And it’s best to go with a size as close to 1080px by 1080px.

Instagram Horizontal Videos – Landscape

Recommend aspect ratio for your horizontal videos is 16:9. As for size, if your aspect ratio is 16.9, your video should be around 1080px by 607px.

Instagram Vertical Videos – Portrait

It’s best to go with as close to 1080px by 1350px as possible.

Requirements for Instagram videos

Video clip in standard feed:

Length – from 3 till 60 seconds;
Format – MP4 or MOV;
Video can be square, portrait or landscape. The recommended size of each such file is slightly higher;
The minimum frame rate of 30 FPS (frames per second);
Maximum file size – 4 Gb.

Video in Stories:

Length – maximum 15 seconds;
Format – MP4 or MOV;
Video should be vertical (non-landscape) with a 9:16 aspect ratio;
The minimum frame rate is 30 FPS and the minimum resolution is 720 pixels;
Maximum file size – 4 Gb.

Video Broadcast (Live):

Length – up to 60 minutes;
Format – MP4 or MOV;
Video should be vertical (non-landscape) with a 9:16 aspect ratio;
The minimum frame rate is 30 FPS and the minimum resolution is 720 pixels;
Maximum file size – 4 Gb.

Instagram Image Size 3: Instagram Stories

In Instagram Stories, you can use GIF pictures, animations and videos. At the same time, several standards must be adhered to. The optimal image size for Instagram Stories is 1080 × 1920. You can make ordinary photos, slides, or animations/videos. When publishing them, you can add “gifs”, stickers, emoticons, inscriptions etc. There is also a limit of the characters number for publication. The maximum of them is 2000. Nevertheless, the best practice is to use less than 200-300 characters.

Photos in Instagram Stories

The so-called Stories have also become available on Instagram. The standards are the same as for ordinary images. Determine in advance, what they should be according to the aspect ratio (1: 1, 1: 3, etc.) and create pictures using the sizes described above. Here is a lot more wiggle room for Instagram Stories in aspect ratio, recommend using an aspect ratio of 9:16 with a size of 1080px by 1920px.

Options for Stories on Instagram

Videos are very popular on Instagram. These are both advertising content, and simple videos which are shoot by users for their friends. 25% of all Instagram posts make up videos. Therefore, it is necessary to know the parameters of your files you prepared to upload. There are frames for the duration of the recording: minimum – 3 seconds, maximum 60 seconds. If you do not fit into these requirements, the uploading will not happen. If you want to make a publication with a longer material, you can record a series of short videos and post them consistently.

Video files must be processed with a fixed frame rate H.264 codec. This regards to those videos, which you have shot separately and would like to post on your Instagram profile. The codec for audio is AAC only. As in other video hosting services (YouTube), your account can be banned for copyright infringement. For example if the background music will be the one, which is not permitted to add. However, this is not a problem. There is a great amount of free music archives on the Internet. For example, in the same library of YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music .

Free YouTube music library

Video files in the Stories should not exceed 4 GB. Although with the limitation of the length, it became difficult to achieve this. The minimum size of a square video is 600 × 600 pixels. And for videos with a vertical arrangement – 600 × 750 px.

№	Parameter:	Characteristics:
1	Duration	from 3 till 50 seconds
2	Codecs	H.264, ACC
3	The minimum size	600х600 px
4	Vertical videos	600х750 px
5	Size	not bigger than 4GB

If you are creating videos with a mobile device, you may not care about codecs, since Instagram supports all files created this way.

Instagram Image Size 4: IGTV Videos

On Instagram, after the Stories, another novelty appeared – IGTV. Very often, we can hear such things about this fact: they tore off Stories from the Snapbook, now is the turn for YouTube. As you might guess, the new publication format is the analogue of the popular YouTube video service. Each user can post his/her video on Instagram, with a duration from 15 seconds to 10 minutes. The size of your IGTV videos should be between 1080px by 1920px (for a 9:16 aspect ratio) and 1920px by 1080px (for a 16:8 aspect ratio)

Page with loading video in IGTV

More popular bloggers can shoot videos up to an hour. So far, there is no data from the developers on how exactly you need to be popular in order to get a bonus in IGTV.

Sections in IGTV

This module is divided into 4 video categories:

For you – in this section the system determines the video on which you are interested. The more you visit this section, the more precisely it will be able to offer interesting things;
Subscriptions – shows videos of channels for which you are a follower;
Look further – previously unreviewed videos;
Popular – the most viewed videos on IGTV.

Many people do not understand why Instagram is trying to make a second YouTube, because it will be difficult to outshine such a video giant. However, everything is quite simple. Over the past few years, mobile devices have become much more common than even portable PCs. For this reason, Instagram can achieve success by developing its video hosting site – IGTV. Standards for this video category: aspect ratio – 4:5, 9:16. You can publish videos in MP4 format. The standard movie size is 650 Mb. For bloggers with a large number of subscribers – 5.4 GB.

IGTV is an analogue of a channel on YouTube. You also become a competent view blogger. In addition, you receive a free editor for processing publications. The rules for posting content on Instagram are just as tough as on popular video hosting. Therefore, before placing the video, it will be better to get acquainted with them.

Tips and tricks for content standards and sizes

Often the frameworks that are asked by Instagram does not fit into our preferences. Also for many people it is not very convenient to check every time is the size of the video file correct or not. There is no big need for that. As there are applications on the Internet that will help you to prepare a publication without knowing the sizes and standards. For example, InstaSize Editor is an editor and application that will help you to post images and videos of the desired format without your intervention.

This application is available on the Google Play page. It has built-in tools for editing images which don’t exist on Instagram. There are plenty of other applications where you do not need to think about the size of publications. For example, NoCrop.

No Crop application window

You can make sure if it is effective or not, having looked at responses which users leave in comments. It will help you automatically select the size for the upload photo for Instagram. Alternatively, it will provide you with several layout formats to choose from.

Maximum and minimum size of photos and videos on Instagram

The maximum resolution of the source file that Instagram can give us is 1080 × 1080 px (if convert it into centimeters, the maximum photo size will be rounded to 29 x 29 cm). Snapshots of this resolution are most often used by commercial accounts. The service is able to crop a part of the photo automatically in case when the size of the picture for Instagram exceeds the specified upper threshold (1936 × 1936 px). If you share an image with a low extension, then Instagram will increase its width to 320 pixels.

To add photos with the maximum resolution, you need to follow some rules: you need a high-quality camera that needs to be customized for a given ratio, and your application needs to be updated to the latest developed version.

The most important thing to remember when adding to Stories is the proportions of the picture – 9:16. The maximum size of the photo for Stories – 1080 px :1920 px, the minimum – 600 px:1067 px. If the photo or video does not match the proportions, the picture will be cropped to the specified size. To protect yourself from such situations, simply reduce the image putting your fingers on the screen one to one.

Now you know how to change, upload and adjust the size of the photo for Instagram. Use these simple techniques to make your profile play with new colors. Let your pictures collect a huge number of likes.

Thanks to it-doc.info

Useful articles on a similar topic: