Social Media Image Sizes 2026: The Complete Cheat Sheet

Every platform crops, scales and recompresses your images in its own way. Upload the wrong size and you get blurry photos, awkward crops, or a rejected file. Here are the image sizes that work on every major platform in 2026 — in pixels and aspect ratios — plus how to keep quality high after the platform recompresses your upload.

Cheat sheet: all social media image sizes at a glance

• Instagram post: 1080×1440 (3:4) or 1080×1350 (4:5) · story/reels: 1080×1920 (9:16)
• Facebook post: 1200×630 (link) / up to 1080×1350 (photo) · cover: 820×312
• X (Twitter) post: 1600×900 (16:9) · header: 1500×500 · max 5 MB
• LinkedIn post: 1200×627 (link) / 1200×1200 (square) · cover: 1584×396
• YouTube thumbnail: 1280×720 (16:9) · max 2 MB
• TikTok photo post: 1080×1920 (9:16) · profile: 200×200

Instagram image sizes: the post size changed

Instagram reworked the profile grid to taller 3:4 tiles, so the current recommended post size is 1080×1440 pixels (3:4). The classic portrait 1080×1350 (4:5) still displays fine in the feed, but the grid preview crops it slightly. Squares and landscape photos are also grid-cropped to 3:4 — keep faces and text near the center.

• Feed post (new): 1080×1440 (3:4) — fills the grid preview exactly
• Feed post (classic portrait): 1080×1350 (4:5)
• Square: 1080×1080 (1:1) · landscape: 1080×566 (1.91:1)
• Story & Reels: 1080×1920 (9:16) — keep text away from the top/bottom edges
• Profile picture: upload at least 320×320 (shown as a small circle)

Facebook image sizes: posts and cover photo

For link previews Facebook uses 1200×630 (1.91:1). Regular photo posts can go portrait up to 4:5 for more screen space. The cover photo displays at 820×312 on desktop but crops to roughly 640×360 on phones — keep anything important inside the central area that survives both crops.

X (Twitter) image sizes and upload limits

A single image displays best at 1600×900 (16:9); X shows most ratios between 16:9 and 3:4 without cropping in the timeline. The header is 1500×500. Image uploads are capped at 5 MB (GIFs up to 15 MB) — large PNG screenshots often exceed this, so convert them to JPEG or WebP first.

LinkedIn post image size

LinkedIn recommends 1200×627 (1.91:1) for link previews. Native image posts display well as 1200×1200 squares or 1080×1350 portraits. Keep files under 5 MB. Company/profile cover images are 1584×396 — a wide strip that crops on mobile, so center the content.

YouTube thumbnail size: 1280×720 and the 2 MB limit

Thumbnails must be 16:9, ideally 1280×720 pixels and at least 640 wide, and the file must stay under 2 MB. Detailed thumbnails exported as PNG frequently blow past that limit — compressing to JPEG at quality 80–90 keeps the crisp look and gets you far below 2 MB.

TikTok image sizes

Photo posts (carousels) are full-screen vertical: 1080×1920 (9:16). Images in other ratios get letterboxed or cropped. The profile picture should be at least 200×200 pixels.

Keep quality high: compress before you upload

Every platform recompresses your upload — that's why images sometimes look worse after posting. You can't skip their compression, but you can give it a clean input: resize to the recommended pixels in any editor, then compress smartly yourself so the platform's encoder has less work to do. With Scrunch you can drop a whole batch of images, convert them to JPEG or WebP at quality ~80, and get files that stay under every platform limit — all in your browser, nothing is uploaded to a server.

FAQ

Did the Instagram post size change?

Yes. With the profile grid moving to 3:4 tiles, the recommended feed post is now 1080×1440 (3:4). Older 4:5 and square posts still work — they're just cropped in the grid preview.

Why do my images look blurry after uploading?

Platforms rescale and recompress every upload. The usual causes are uploading at the wrong pixel size (forcing a rescale) or uploading a file so heavy the platform compresses it aggressively. Upload at the recommended dimensions with a reasonable file size and most of the blur disappears.

Can I still post square photos on Instagram?

Yes — 1080×1080 squares still upload and display in the feed. On your profile grid, though, the preview is cropped to 3:4, so the left and right edges of a square photo are hidden there.