Social media image sizes: a cheat sheet for Instagram, LinkedIn, X, Facebook and YouTube

A post that looks perfect in your design tool can lose the top of a head on Instagram, the punchline on LinkedIn and the logo on X. Same image, three different crops.

Every platform shows images in a slightly different shape, and every one of them changes its layout from time to time. The goal is not to memorise numbers. It is to design so that small changes never cut off the part that matters.

Here are the sizes that work today, and the habits that keep them working.

The sizes

Instagram

• Feed, square: 1080 × 1080
• Feed, portrait: 1080 × 1350 (takes up more of the screen, usually the better choice)
• Stories and Reels: 1080 × 1920
• The profile grid shows posts as tall rectangles, so keep the subject in the centre of any feed image.

LinkedIn

• Image post: 1200 × 1200 or 1080 × 1350
• Link preview: about 1200 × 627
• Document (carousel) posts: export each page at the same size, for example 1080 × 1350

X (Twitter)

• Single image in the feed: 1600 × 900 (16 by 9)
• Link card: about 1200 × 628

Facebook

• Feed image: 1080 × 1080 or 1080 × 1350
• Link preview: 1200 × 630
• Stories: 1080 × 1920

YouTube

• Thumbnail: 1280 × 720, under 2 MB
• Shorts: 1080 × 1920

Platforms adjust these quietly. Before a campaign, post a test to a private account or check the platform's help pages.

Safe zones matter more than sizes

Tall formats are where things go wrong. On Stories, Reels and Shorts the top of the screen holds the profile name and the bottom holds captions, buttons and the reply bar. Keep text and faces out of roughly the top and bottom eighth of a 1080 × 1920 frame, and away from the right edge where the like and share buttons sit.

On feed images, previews and the profile grid crop from the edges inward. Put the subject and any text in the middle.

Design one idea, then adapt it

The slow way is to make five separate images. The faster and more consistent way:

1. Start from the tallest format (1080 × 1920). It forces you to decide what matters, because there is the least room at the sides.
2. Build the 4:5 version (1080 × 1350) by tightening the top and bottom.
3. Build the square by tightening again.
4. Build the wide versions (1600 × 900, 1200 × 628) by extending the background sideways, not by shrinking the subject.

Keep the type, colours and placement of the logo identical across all of them. Recognition comes from repetition.

Text: count it

Each platform also limits the words around the image: the caption length shown before "more", the characters in a headline field, the length of a YouTube title before it is cut. Write to the visible limit, not the maximum. If the hook is not in the first line people see, most of them will not see it.

Export settings

• PNG for graphics with flat colour and text; JPEG or WebP for photographs.
• sRGB colour, so the brand colours look the same on phones.
• Name files by platform and size (launch-instagram-1080x1350.png). Future you will be grateful.

How Wonib helps

Wonib's Social posts tool knows the common post types for each platform and size. It writes the post, makes the picture in your brand, builds the design in your brand's font, checks the finished post once, and gives you PNG and SVG files ready to publish. Copy comes with its character count against each platform's limit, so you can see at a glance what will be cut. Try it on your brand for a day.

Questions people ask

What is the best Instagram post size right now?

Portrait, 1080 × 1350. It fills more of the screen than a square, and it suits the tall rectangles of the profile grid when the subject sits in the centre.

Why do my images look blurry after uploading?

Usually because the platform compressed or resized them. Upload at the exact size, in sRGB, and avoid fine text and thin lines near the edges.

What size is a LinkedIn carousel?

LinkedIn carousels are uploaded as a document (a PDF). Export every page at the same size, such as 1080 × 1350, and keep the text large.