Instagram post size: resize to a square or a portrait

Instagram post size and what this preset makes

All three sit under Size in the panel, beside the other platform sizes, so switching is one click. The size is exact: whatever photo you start with, the result has that many pixels. For a tall full-screen picture, the Instagram story preset opens on the Story or Reel tile instead.

The square and the 4:5 portrait are both the full 1080 pixels wide and inside the Instagram photo size range above, so by Instagram's help page both keep their full resolution when you post them. Instagram changes its guidance from time to time; the help page we checked, and the day, are listed under this article.

How to resize an image for Instagram

1. Press Select images and choose your photo, or several.
2. Under Size, Instagram post is already picked. Pick Instagram portrait for a taller post.
3. If your photo is not square, choose Fill, Fit or Stretch under When the shape is different.
4. With Fit, pick a Background colour, such as White.
5. Press Resize, then save. The file name ends in _1080x1080.

Save as Original keeps a JPG as a JPG, which suits a photo post. PNG keeps every pixel but usually makes a larger file. An iPhone HEIC photo opens too and is saved as a JPG on Original.

Not happy with the result? Change settings on the done screen takes you back with your settings kept, so you can try Fit instead of Fill, or another background, and press Resize again. New picture starts over with a different photo.

Square post or portrait post?

This page starts on the square, but the Instagram portrait tile, 1080 × 1350, is often the better choice for an upright photo. It is taller than a square, so it keeps more of a standing person or a tall building, and on a phone screen a taller picture fills more of the view.

• Choose the square post for centred subjects: a face, a plate of food, a product, a logo.
• Choose Instagram portrait for upright phone photos, people standing, rooms and anything with strong vertical lines.
• For a landscape photo, either works with Fit: the photo comes out the same width in both, and the square simply has thinner bands.
• Unsure? Resize the same photo twice, once to each tile, and compare the two files before you post.

Resizing never changes your original, so trying both costs nothing. Each file is named with its own size, _1080x1080 or _1080x1350, so you can tell them apart.

Fitting a wide or tall photo into a square Instagram post

Many phone photos are 4:3 or 3:4, and some are much wider. A square takes only part of that shape, so you choose what gives.

Fill: crop to a full square

Fill covers the whole square and cuts the edges that do not fit, keeping the middle of the photo. It looks the cleanest in a feed. If the subject is off to one side, crop it yourself first (see below).

Fit: the whole photo with a border

Fit shrinks the whole photo to fit inside the square and fills the space above and below, or at the sides, with the Background colour. White gives the familiar framed look, Black or Ink suits darker photos, and the + swatch takes any colour you like.

Stretch: avoid it for photos

Stretch pulls the photo into a square, which makes people look wider or thinner than they are. It is there for patterns and textures, not faces.

Choose exactly what stays in the square

Fill always keeps the centre. When the best part of the photo is elsewhere, crop it to a square first with crop image to square: drag the square over what matters and press Crop. Then open this page with the cropped photo. Because it is already square, Fill only changes the size and cuts nothing more.

To keep a landscape photo whole, Fit is the quick way. For more say over the border, such as a colour picked from the photo or an extra margin all round, use make image square first, then bring the square here to reach 1080 × 1080.

Planning a picture that spans several posts in a grid? Split image for Instagram cuts one picture into a grid of tiles.

A batch of posts, privately

Preparing a set? Select up to 100 photos. Every one comes out at exactly 1080 × 1080 with the same Fill, Fit or Stretch choice, and Save all as ZIP saves them together. The button counts them for you, for example Resize 10 pictures.

Each file keeps its original name with _1080x1080 on the end, so it is easy to tell which photo it came from. On the done screen, every row shows a small preview, so you can check the crop of each photo before you post.

• Nothing is uploaded. The photos are resized in your browser, and our server does no picture work.
• It is free, with no account and no watermark on your post. Image tools are not counted in the daily limit, which applies to document conversions only.
• The saved picture carries no location, camera or date details, which is worth knowing before you share a photo publicly.
• It works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox.

Need a size that is not on the list? The full Resize image tool takes any width and height in pixels, or a percent. Our guide to image sizes for each platform lists what the other sites ask for.