Photos for Instagram: size, aspect ratio, quality and carousels

Look up photos for Instagram and you’ll mostly find shooting tips and resizing sites; Instagram’s official numbers are rare, and older articles have them out of date. Everything here comes from the Instagram Help Center as of November 2026.

1 / 5Size and aspect ratio

1. 01
   1080 pixels

   Instagram uploads photos at the best quality possible, up to a width of 1080 pixels. Larger photos are sized down to 1080, and anything narrower than 320 is enlarged to 320.

2. 02
   Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 to 3:4

   If a photo is 320 to 1080 pixels wide with an aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 3:4, it keeps its original resolution. Photos with other ratios get cropped.

3. 03
   Ready-made sizes

   Square — 1080×1080, portrait — 1080×1350 (4:5) or 1080×1440 (3:4), landscape — 1080×566 (1.91:1). Older articles say 4:5 is the tallest you can go; now it’s 3:4, the standard shape of a phone camera shot.

4. 04
   Instagram’s recipe

   To keep a photo at 1080 pixels, Instagram suggests the latest app version, a width of at least 1080 pixels, an aspect ratio of 1.91:1 to 3:4 and a phone with a good camera.

5. 05
   Arranging your grid

   You can reorder posts on your profile grid by hand: tap and hold a post › Reorder grid. It doesn’t work on the Reels, reposts or tagged tabs.

2 / 5Quality

1. 06
   Upload quality

   Menu › Your app and media › Media quality › Upload at highest quality. Instagram warns that higher-quality uploads can take longer.

2. 07
   Saving mobile data

   The same section has the opposite switch, Use less cellular data. It mostly limits video preloading and changes nothing on Wi-Fi.

3. 08
   Editing in the app

   Under Edit you can adjust brightness, contrast, warmth, saturation, shadows, sharpness and perspective, and tap a filter a second time to set its strength with a slider.

4. 09
   Cropping

   Edit › Adjust: pinch to zoom, then move the photo within the frame — the grid helps.

3 / 5Carousels

1. 10
   Up to 20 slides

   You can share up to 20 photos and videos in a single post.

2. 11
   One orientation

   Square, portrait or landscape — the orientation applies to the whole carousel, though you can reposition each photo within its frame.

3. 12
   Filters and captions

   Apply a filter to every slide at once or to each one separately. Use a single caption for the post or a separate caption for each slide.

4. 13
   Music

   You can add music to a photo-only carousel and pick the part of the song you want. If the carousel has a video, music can’t be added.

5. 14
   After posting

   You can reorder or delete slides and edit captions and tags, but you can’t add new slides. Likes and comments count for the whole post, and a video inside a carousel isn’t treated as a reel.

4 / 5Profile photo and alt text

1. 15
   How to change it

   Edit profile › Edit picture or avatar: take a new photo or pick one from your gallery or Facebook. Your profile photo is visible to everyone, on or off Instagram.

2. 16
   Make it fit the circle

   Profile photos show as a circle, so pick a square photo and keep the key part in the middle — the circle crops the corners. Your logo or face should still read at a small size.

3. 17
   An avatar on the flip side

   You can add your avatar to the other side of your profile photo, and visitors can swipe between the two.

4. 18
   Alt text

   Instagram writes a description of each photo for people with visual impairments, and you can replace it: before posting — More options › Write alt text; afterwards — ⋯ › Edit › Edit Alt Text. Only people using a screen reader hear it.

5 / 5Your own photos work best

1. 19
   Originals get recommended

   Since April 2024, when Instagram finds identical content it recommends only the original and labels copies with a link to the creator. Accounts that repost other people’s content without meaningful changes drop out of recommendations.

2. 20
   Rights

   According to Instagram, the surest way not to break copyright is to post only your own photos. Someone else’s photo can still infringe even if you credited them, edited it or found it online — so get the creator’s written permission.

✓The bottom line

Prepare your Instagram photos at 1080 pixels wide with an aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 3:4: square 1080×1080, portrait 1080×1350 or 1080×1440, landscape 1080×566. Anything wider or taller gets cropped. A carousel holds up to 20 slides in one orientation, and a profile photo needs its key part in the middle. Your own photos work best.

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