How to make an Instagram grid

How the Instagram profile grid works in 2026

Your profile shows posts three across, newest first. Since January 2025 the thumbnails are 3:4 portrait rectangles rather than squares, and Instagram keeps a feed photo at full resolution up to 1080 x 1440 pixels, which is exactly that 3:4 shape. Up to three pinned posts sit at the top, ahead of everything else.

In June 2026 Instagram added grid reordering: long-press a post on your profile, choose Reorder grid and drag posts into the order you want. Changes are visible to everyone straight away, and pinned posts stay fixed at the top. That makes a puzzle feed far more forgiving than it used to be.

Choose a grid layout

A grid does not have to be one giant picture. The common layouts:

• Banner (3 x 1): one wide image across a single row. Quick, and good for announcements.
• Puzzle (3 x 2 or 3 x 3): one picture across several rows, the classic grid that turns your profile into a poster.
• Row themes: each row of three tells one story, such as a trip, a product or a series of portraits.
• Checkerboard: alternate two kinds of post, for example photos and quote graphics.
• Colour story: consecutive posts that share a palette, so the grid looks planned without being split.
• Seamless carousel: the same idea inside one post, with a wide panorama split across up to 20 carousel slides.

Do the size math

Each tile should be 1080 pixels wide, and 1440 tall for 3:4 tiles or 1080 for squares. Three columns are always 3240 pixels wide, so a 3 x 1 banner is 3240 x 1440, a 3 x 2 grid 3240 x 2880 and a 3 x 3 grid 3240 x 4320, which is itself exactly 3:4. For square tiles, a 3 x 3 grid is 3240 x 3240.

A smaller source still works, but tiles narrower than 1080 pixels look soft on large screens. The aspect ratio calculator helps you plan the shape, and the image resizer gets the exact pixels.

Split the image into tiles

The free Instagram grid maker does the cutting: add a photo, choose one to four rows of three and square or 3:4 tiles, and download numbered tiles in posting order. It runs in your browser, so the photo is not uploaded anywhere.

Before you split, look at where the cuts fall. Instagram leaves thin gaps between thumbnails, so keep faces, eyes and small text away from the seams, and avoid fine lines that must match perfectly across two tiles. Remember that each tile also appears on its own in followers' feeds, so every piece should be worth looking at.

Post the tiles in the right order

Order is where most grids go wrong. Follow these rules:

• Post the highest-numbered tile first and tile 1 last, because the newest post appears at the top left.
• Post all the tiles in one session, so nothing else slips in between.
• Mind pinned posts: they take the first places in the grid, so unpin them or pin exactly three (a full row) to keep the puzzle aligned.
• Write a caption for each tile, or put one caption on the last tile that explains the whole picture.
• If something lands out of place, use Reorder grid instead of deleting and reposting.
• Every later post shifts the puzzle by one place; posting in threes keeps the rows intact.

Make an image worth splitting

A grid only works with a large, detailed picture. Tall images with a clear subject, plenty of background and something interesting in every tile work best: a landscape with you in it, a poster-style design, a product on a long backdrop.

AI image generators make it easy to create one at the right shape. In Luren AI you can pick a tall portrait aspect ratio and a high-resolution model such as Nano Banana Pro, which renders at 2K or 4K, then describe a scene designed for splitting, for example 'a tall vertical scene with a woman standing on a cliff in the lower third and a dramatic sunset sky filling the top two thirds'.