What is the best Instagram post size in 2026?

1080 x 1440 pixels (3:4) fills the feed and the 3:4 profile grid without cropping. 1080 x 1350 (4:5) is the long-standing standard and still looks good, with a thin strip cropped at the sides in the grid.

What size should a YouTube thumbnail be?

16:9, with YouTube now recommending 3840 x 2160 pixels and accepting a minimum width of 640. Files must stay under 2 MB from a phone or 50 MB from a computer, so 1280 x 720 remains a safe choice.

Is one image size enough for every platform?

Nearly. A 1080 x 1920 vertical works for Stories, Reels, TikTok and Shorts, and a 1080 x 1350 portrait works in most feeds. Thumbnails, link previews and headers still need their own landscape sizes.

Guide · 4 min read

Best image sizes for social media in 2026

By the Luren AI team · Updated October 16, 2026

Use 1080 x 1350 pixels (4:5) or 1080 x 1440 (3:4) for Instagram and Facebook feed posts, 1080 x 1920 (9:16) for Stories, Reels and TikTok, a 16:9 image for YouTube thumbnails (1280 x 720 works, 3840 x 2160 is now recommended), and 1200 x 627 (1.91:1) for LinkedIn link images. The rule that holds everywhere: upload at least 1080 pixels wide, in the platform's own aspect ratio, so nothing gets cropped or upscaled.

Quick reference

The sizes below are the ones each platform documents or that fill its feed without cropping:

Instagram feed post: 1080 x 1440 (3:4) or 1080 x 1350 (4:5); square 1080 x 1080 still works.
Instagram Stories and Reels: 1080 x 1920 (9:16).
TikTok video: 1080 x 1920 (9:16).
YouTube thumbnail: 16:9; YouTube recommends 3840 x 2160, and 1280 x 720 remains a safe choice.
YouTube Shorts thumbnail: 2160 x 3840 (9:16).
Facebook feed: 1080 x 1350 (4:5); Stories 1080 x 1920 (9:16).
X: 1600 x 900 (16:9) or 1080 x 1350 (4:5) for post images; header 1500 x 500; profile photo 400 x 400.
LinkedIn: 1200 x 627 (1.91:1) for link images; 1080 x 1080 or 1080 x 1350 for feed images; background photo 1584 x 396.

Instagram

Instagram keeps a feed photo at full resolution when it is between 320 and 1080 pixels wide and its aspect ratio is between 1.91:1 (landscape) and 3:4 (portrait), which at 1080 pixels wide means a height between 566 and 1440 pixels. Photos outside that range are cropped to fit, and wider ones are scaled down to 1080.

Since January 2025 the profile grid shows posts as 3:4 portrait thumbnails instead of squares. That makes 1080 x 1440 the size that fills both the feed and the grid with no crop. The long-standing 4:5 size (1080 x 1350) still looks good and loses only a thin strip at the sides in the grid, while square posts lose much more.

Stories and Reels are 9:16 at 1080 x 1920. Instagram accepts Reels between 1.91:1 and 9:16, with a minimum resolution of 720 pixels and at least 30 frames per second. On the profile grid a Reel appears as a 3:4 crop from the middle, so keep faces and text near the centre.

TikTok

TikTok is a full-screen vertical feed, so 9:16 at 1080 x 1920 is the standard for videos. TikTok's own advertising tips note that most top-performing videos are 720p or higher; 1080p is the sensible target, since uploads are compressed and 4K adds little. Keep text and faces away from the bottom of the frame and the right-hand edge, where the caption, username and buttons sit.

YouTube

YouTube's help centre now recommends 3840 x 2160 pixels for custom video thumbnails, at 16:9, with a minimum width of 640 pixels, in an image format such as JPG or PNG. The file limit is 2 MB when you upload from a phone and 50 MB from a computer, so the classic 1280 x 720 is still the practical choice for phone uploads.

Shorts thumbnails are vertical: 2160 x 3840 recommended, 9:16, with a minimum height of 640 pixels. Thumbnails are seen small, so favour big faces, few words and strong contrast.

Facebook

Meta recommends vertical 4:5 images for the Facebook feed. Its ads guide lists 1440 x 1800, and 1080 x 1350 is the common upload size. Stories use 9:16 at 1080 x 1920, and Meta suggests keeping roughly the top and bottom 14 percent (about 250 pixels) free of text and logos so the interface does not cover them.

For Pages, the profile picture displays at 176 x 176 pixels on computers and 196 x 196 on phones, so upload at least 320 x 320. Facebook suggests 851 x 315 for a Page cover photo.

X and LinkedIn

Since 2021, X shows a single image in its original shape on mobile and centre-crops only very tall or very wide pictures. Landscape 16:9 (1600 x 900), square and 4:5 portrait all display well. X recommends 400 x 400 for profile photos and 1500 x 500 for the header, and warns that the top and bottom of a header can be cut off on some screens.

LinkedIn's own guidance for custom link images is 1.91:1, or 1200 x 627 pixels. For images posted directly to the feed, square 1080 x 1080 and portrait 1080 x 1350 take up more of a phone screen. Profile photos should be at least 400 x 400 and the background photo 1584 x 396.

How to get every size right

A few habits save most of the cropping and blurriness people blame on the platforms:

Create in the final aspect ratio from the start instead of cropping later. AI image generators such as Luren AI let you pick a vertical, portrait or landscape ratio before you generate.
Use the image resizer for exact platform sizes, with Fit to keep the whole picture or Fill to crop to the frame.
Work out unusual sizes with the aspect ratio calculator.
Save photos as JPG and graphics with text as PNG, in the sRGB colour space.
Keep files light with the image compressor, especially for thumbnails with size limits.
Planning a puzzle feed? The Instagram grid maker splits one image into 3:4 tiles.