Instagram story size
An Instagram story fills the screen at 1080 by 1920 pixels, the 9:16 shape, and Meta's minimum is 600 by 1067 in a JPG or PNG up to 30 MB. Drop a photo here and it comes out at exactly 1080 by 1920, cropped from the centre. Switch to Reel cover for 420 by 654.
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What the platform recommends
Story
- Recommended size
- 1080 x 1920
- File types
- JPEG
- Maximum file size
- 30 MB
- Source
- www.facebook.com
- Read at the source on
Reel cover
- Recommended size
- 420 x 654
- File types
- JPEG
- Maximum file size
- No limit published
- Source
- help.instagram.com
- Read at the source on
Why this size?
A story is full screen, so a photo that is not 9:16 does not fill it on its own. Cropping it to 1080 by 1920 yourself decides what stays.
A phone portrait at 3024 by 4032 only loses 180 pixels from each side. A landscape photo keeps just its middle 1080 of 2560.
Posting to the feed instead of a story? Instagram post size.
These numbers move, so check the date
A passport size has been the same for decades.
A platform's recommended image size can change in a product update nobody announces, which is why every size here shows the date somebody read it at the platform's own help page rather than presenting it as timeless.
If that date looks old and the size matters to you, the link beside it goes straight to the page it came from.
That is one click to confirm, against the alternative of trusting a number copied between blog posts since 2019.
Why your photo gets cropped
Platform sizes are shapes as much as sizes, and a photograph is rarely already that shape.
The box is filled and the overflow comes off the long edges evenly, because the alternative is stretching the picture and a stretched face is the one result nobody wants.
If the centre is not the part you want to keep, open the crop tool, drag the frame to the right region, and come back. The crop stays applied while you set the size.
What happens to your photo?
Your selected photo is processed in your browser, without an image upload to a server. The page may download code and codecs needed for editing.
Save your result before closing the tab; unsaved edits are kept in memory rather than in an online account.
Common questions
Where does 1080 by 1920 come from?
Not from Instagram's help centre, which publishes no story image size. It is Meta's recommended resolution for ads in Stories, which Meta describes as the full-screen vertical format of Stories, the same screen your own story fills.
The same page gives a minimum of 600 by 1067 and 30 MB for a photo.
What is the safe zone on a story?
Meta's current safe zone page gives no pixel figure. It says to keep the top, bottom and sides of a 9:16 story free of text and logos, because the profile icon and replies sit over them.
On phones taller than 9:16 the story may be zoomed to fill the screen, which crops outside the safe zone.
Is a reel the same size as a story?
Not necessarily. Instagram's reel page accepts any shape from 1.91:1 to 9:16, with a minimum resolution of 720 pixels, so a reel can be square or landscape.
A reel made at 1080 by 1920 fills the screen the way a story does.
What size is a reel cover?
Instagram recommends 420 by 654 pixels, about 1:1.55, and says you cannot edit the cover after uploading.
A 1080 by 1920 frame made into a cover loses about 46 pixels from the top and bottom at cover size, so keep faces and titles away from those edges.
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