Image Sizes for Social Media 2024: Complete Guide

Why Social Media Image Sizes Matter

Every social media platform displays images at specific dimensions. When you upload a photo that does not match, the platform crops it — and the crop is rarely where you want it. Your carefully designed banner gets its headline cut off. Your product photo loses the product. Your team headshot becomes a forehead shot.

Beyond cropping, undersized images get stretched and look blurry, while oversized images load slowly and may be compressed aggressively by the platform's own processing. Getting the dimensions right from the start means your content looks sharp, loads fast, and conveys exactly what you intended.

Use our Image Resizer to quickly resize any image to the exact dimensions you need.

Instagram Image Sizes

Instagram is image-first, so getting these right is especially important:

• Profile photo: 320x320 pixels. Displayed as a circle, so keep important content away from the corners.
• Square post: 1080x1080 pixels. The classic Instagram format.
• Portrait post: 1080x1350 pixels (4:5 ratio). Takes up more screen real estate in the feed than square posts, increasing engagement. This is the recommended format for most posts.
• Landscape post: 1080x566 pixels (1.91:1 ratio). Rarely used because it appears small in the feed.
• Stories and Reels: 1080x1920 pixels (9:16 ratio). Full-screen vertical format.
• Carousel images: Same as post sizes. All images in a carousel should use the same dimensions to avoid awkward cropping.

Pro tip: Instagram compresses images during upload. For the sharpest results, export your images as JPG at 100% quality and let Instagram handle the compression. If you upload an already-compressed image, it gets compressed again.

Facebook Image Sizes

• Profile photo: 170x170 pixels on desktop, 128x128 on mobile. Displayed as a circle.
• Cover photo: 820x312 pixels on desktop, 640x360 on mobile. The safe area that displays on both is roughly 820x312, but design for the mobile crop.
• Feed post (shared image): 1200x630 pixels. This is also the recommended size for link previews (Open Graph images).
• Stories: 1080x1920 pixels (9:16).
• Event cover: 1200x628 pixels.
• Group cover: 1640x856 pixels.

Facebook aggressively compresses large images. To minimize compression artifacts, keep file sizes under 1 MB when possible. PNG files under 1 MB are uploaded without recompression; JPG files are always reprocessed.

Twitter/X Image Sizes

• Profile photo: 400x400 pixels. Displayed as a circle.
• Header/banner: 1500x500 pixels (3:1 ratio).
• In-stream image (single): 1200x675 pixels (16:9 ratio). This fills the timeline width on most devices.
• In-stream image (two images): Each at 700x800 pixels.
• In-stream image (four images): Each at 700x800 pixels.
• Card image (link preview): 800x418 pixels (1.91:1 ratio).

Twitter/X has a 5 MB limit for photos and 15 MB for GIFs. Images larger than 4096x4096 pixels are resized down automatically.

LinkedIn Image Sizes

• Profile photo: 400x400 pixels (recommended minimum; LinkedIn accepts up to 8 MB).
• Background/banner: 1584x396 pixels.
• Feed post image: 1200x627 pixels for landscape, 1080x1080 for square.
• Company page logo: 300x300 pixels.
• Company cover: 1128x191 pixels.
• Article cover image: 1200x644 pixels.

LinkedIn is a professional platform, so image quality matters. Blurry profile photos and pixelated banners undermine credibility. Always upload at the recommended size or higher.

YouTube, Pinterest & TikTok

YouTube

• Channel profile: 800x800 pixels.
• Channel banner: 2560x1440 pixels (safe area for all devices: 1546x423 centered).
• Video thumbnail: 1280x720 pixels (16:9). This is critical — thumbnails drive click-through rates. Use our Image Resizer to hit these dimensions precisely.

Pinterest

• Standard pin: 1000x1500 pixels (2:3 ratio). Taller pins stand out in the feed.
• Profile photo: 165x165 pixels.
• Board cover: 222x150 pixels.

TikTok

• Profile photo: 200x200 pixels minimum.
• Video: 1080x1920 pixels (9:16). Same as Stories on other platforms.

Tips for Resizing Images Across Platforms

Managing images for multiple platforms is repetitive work. Here are strategies to streamline it:

• Start with the largest size. Design your image at the largest required dimensions (e.g., 2560x1440 for a YouTube banner) and scale down from there. Scaling up introduces blur; scaling down is always safe.
• Design with safe zones. Platform banners are cropped differently on mobile and desktop. Keep text and key visuals in the center and leave generous margins.
• Use templates. Create templates in your design tool (Canva, Figma, Photoshop) for each platform size you regularly use. This eliminates guesswork.
• Batch resize. If you need the same image at five different sizes, resize all variants at once rather than one at a time. Our Image Resizer supports quick resizing to any custom dimensions.
• Check on actual devices. What looks good on your monitor may crop differently on a phone. Always preview your images on mobile before publishing.
• Export in the right format. JPG for photographs, PNG for graphics with text overlays or transparency. For web use, consider WebP — check our Image Format Converter for easy format switching.

Social media platforms update their image specifications periodically. Bookmark this guide and check back for updates, or use our Image Resizer whenever you need to hit specific dimensions fast.