Social media image sizes: 2026 cheat sheet
Updated 2026 · ~4 min read · by kizura
Every platform crops and compresses images differently. Uploading the right dimensions keeps your photos sharp and stops awkward cropping. Here are the sizes that work well in 2026, plus the fastest way to hit them.
Why exact sizes matter
If you upload an image with the wrong aspect ratio, the platform crops it — often cutting off heads or text. Too few pixels and the platform's compression makes it blurry. Matching the recommended size means your image displays exactly as you intended.
| Placement | Size (px) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Square post | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 |
| Portrait post | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 |
| Story / Reel | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
| Profile photo | 320 × 320 | 1:1 |
YouTube
| Placement | Size (px) | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Thumbnail | 1280 × 720 | 16:9 |
| Channel banner | 2560 × 1440 | 16:9 |
| Video (1080p) | 1920 × 1080 | 16:9 |
Facebook · X · LinkedIn · TikTok
| Placement | Size (px) |
|---|---|
| Facebook shared post | 1200 × 630 |
| X (Twitter) post | 1600 × 900 |
| LinkedIn shared image | 1200 × 627 |
| TikTok video | 1080 × 1920 |
| Open Graph / link preview | 1200 × 630 |
Platforms tweak these over time, but staying within these dimensions is safe and looks clean everywhere.
How to resize quickly
Our resize & crop tool has one-tap presets for the most common sizes (square, story, YouTube, Open Graph), or you can type exact pixels. If your source image is too small to fill a large format cleanly, upscale it first, then resize. Everything runs in your browser — no upload.
Ready to fit any platform? Open the resize tool.
The 2026 size table (and the safe way to read it)
Platforms tweak these numbers occasionally, but the aspect ratios below have been stable for years — get the ratio right and a small spec change costs you nothing.
| Platform / slot | Pixels | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram feed (portrait) | 1080×1350 | 4:5 |
| Instagram Story / Reel cover | 1080×1920 | 9:16 |
| Facebook link/share image | 1200×630 | 1.91:1 |
| X (Twitter) in-stream image | 1600×900 | 16:9 |
| LinkedIn shared image | 1200×627 | 1.91:1 |
| YouTube thumbnail | 1280×720 | 16:9 |
| YouTube channel banner | 2560×1440 | 16:9 (huge safe-zone caveats) |
| Pinterest pin | 1000×1500 | 2:3 |
| TikTok video / photo | 1080×1920 | 9:16 |
Common recommended upload sizes as of 2026. When in doubt, upload slightly larger at the same ratio — platforms downscale gracefully but never upscale.
Safe zones: why correctly-sized posts still get cropped
Dimensions are only half the job. Feeds overlay UI on your pixels — profile chips, captions, action buttons — and preview crops differ from full views. Three rules prevent most disasters: keep text and faces inside the middle ~80% of the frame; on 9:16 stories leave roughly the top 250 px and bottom 300 px free of anything important (that is where usernames and reply boxes live); and on YouTube banners design around the small “TV-safe” centre (1546×423) because phones crop the rest. The crop tool has preset ratios for every row in the table above, so you can frame with the final crop visible instead of guessing.
Surviving platform re-compression
Every network re-encodes your upload, and you cannot opt out — you can only give the re-encoder good material. Upload at the recommended size (not 4× larger: extreme downscales plus their compressor is where mush comes from), export JPG q85+/WebP q85+ so their pass is the first lossy generation not the third, and avoid fine textures or 1-pixel lines that block-based compression eats first. If your source is small — an old photo you want to post big — upscale it first and then downscale to spec; counter-intuitively, that round trip through more pixels survives platform compression visibly better than posting the small original, because the encoder gets clean edges to work with.