Image Sizes for Every Social Media Platform — 2026 Cheat Sheet

Social media platforms change their image specifications constantly, and they rarely announce it. You upload a perfectly designed graphic, and it gets cropped, stretched, or compressed into something that looks like it was made in MS Paint. This cheat sheet reflects the actual dimensions that work as of March 2026, tested across platforms.

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Instagram

Instagram is the pickiest platform about image dimensions. Get these wrong and your carefully designed post gets auto-cropped.

Format	Dimensions	Aspect Ratio
Square post	1080 x 1080 px	1:1
Portrait post	1080 x 1350 px	4:5
Landscape post	1080 x 566 px	1.91:1
Story / Reel	1080 x 1920 px	9:16
Profile picture	320 x 320 px	1:1
Carousel	1080 x 1080 px or 1080 x 1350 px	1:1 or 4:5

What actually gets the most engagement: 1080 x 1350 (portrait) takes up more screen real estate in the feed than square images. Multiple studies from Later and Hootsuite show 20-30% higher engagement for portrait posts compared to square. Use portrait as your default unless the content genuinely works better as a square. File format: JPEG for photos, PNG for graphics with text. Keep files under 8MB. Instagram compresses everything aggressively regardless, but starting with a higher-quality source produces a better result after their compression.

Facebook

Format	Dimensions	Aspect Ratio
Feed post (link preview)	1200 x 630 px	1.91:1
Feed post (photo)	1200 x 1200 px	1:1
Cover photo	820 x 312 px (desktop) / 640 x 360 px (mobile)	~2.63:1
Event cover	1200 x 628 px	1.91:1
Profile picture	170 x 170 px (displays as circle)	1:1
Story	1080 x 1920 px	9:16

The cover photo trap: Facebook's cover photo displays at different dimensions on desktop and mobile. Design for 820 x 462 to ensure nothing critical gets cropped on either device. Keep text and logos in the center 640 x 312 safe zone.

X (Twitter)

Format	Dimensions	Aspect Ratio
Single image in tweet	1600 x 900 px	16:9
Two images in tweet	700 x 800 px each	7:8
Header/banner	1500 x 500 px	3:1
Profile picture	400 x 400 px	1:1

The preview crop: X crops images in the feed to roughly 16:9. If your image is taller than that, the platform's algorithm decides what to show — and it is often wrong. For images with important content at the top or bottom, stick to 16:9 and put key elements in the center.

LinkedIn

Format	Dimensions	Aspect Ratio
Feed post	1200 x 627 px	1.91:1
Article cover	1200 x 644 px	~1.86:1
Company cover	1128 x 191 px	~5.9:1
Profile picture	400 x 400 px	1:1
Profile banner	1584 x 396 px	4:1

LinkedIn compresses images less aggressively than Instagram, so your graphics will look closer to the original. Upload PNGs for text-heavy content like infographics.

Pinterest

Format	Dimensions	Aspect Ratio
Standard pin	1000 x 1500 px	2:3
Long pin	1000 x 2100 px	1:2.1
Square pin	1000 x 1000 px	1:1
Story pin	1080 x 1920 px	9:16

What works: Tall pins (2:3 ratio) dominate Pinterest. They take up more visual space in the feed, which drives more clicks. The 1000 x 1500 standard pin is your go-to for almost everything.

YouTube

Format	Dimensions	Aspect Ratio
Thumbnail	1280 x 720 px	16:9
Channel banner	2560 x 1440 px (safe area: 1546 x 423 px center)	~16:9
Profile picture	800 x 800 px	1:1

Thumbnail tip: YouTube thumbnails should be high-contrast with large, readable text. If someone cannot understand your thumbnail on a phone screen at 1 inch wide, redesign it. Keep file size under 2MB (YouTube's hard limit).

TikTok

Format	Dimensions	Aspect Ratio
Video / Image post	1080 x 1920 px	9:16
Profile picture	200 x 200 px	1:1

TikTok is the simplest — everything is 9:16 vertical. If your content is horizontal (like a screenshot or landscape photo), add a blurred background or solid color bars rather than uploading it raw. Horizontal content gets crushed in a vertical feed.

Quick Resizing Workflow

Rather than manually calculating dimensions for each platform, resize your images with MyPDF to the exact pixel dimensions you need. Upload once, export at multiple sizes.

For batch resizing — say, creating the same announcement graphic for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X — start with the largest dimensions (1600 x 900 for X) and resize down. Scaling up from a small image destroys quality; scaling down preserves it.

If you need to convert between formats (PNG to JPEG for smaller file size, or JPEG to PNG to preserve text sharpness), MyPDF's image converter handles that without quality loss.

Related Tools

• Resize Image — Resize to exact platform dimensions
• Convert Image — Switch between JPEG, PNG, and WebP
• Compress Image — Reduce file size for upload limits
• Image to PDF — Create PDF lookbooks or media kits