Best Image Sizes for Every Social Media Platform (2026)
An up-to-date reference of the right pixel dimensions for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Threads in 2026 — covering posts, stories, reels, ads, banners, and avatars.
If you're posting images or videos to social media, the dimensions matter more than people realize. Wrong-aspect uploads get auto-cropped in unflattering ways. Low-resolution uploads look blurry on retina displays. Overly large uploads waste bandwidth and sometimes get re-compressed badly by the platform.
Here's the up-to-date reference for 2026 — what each platform actually wants, and what we recommend exporting at.
Instagram still defaults to square, but supports portrait and landscape posts.
- Square post: 1080 × 1080 (1:1)
- Portrait post: 1080 × 1350 (4:5) — gets the most feed real estate
- Landscape post: 1080 × 566 (1.91:1)
- Stories / Reels: 1080 × 1920 (9:16)
- Profile picture: 320 × 320 (displayed circular)
- IGTV cover: 420 × 654
Tips: portrait (4:5) takes more screen space than square, so it gets more attention in the feed. Reels and Stories require 9:16 — uploading anything else gets letterboxed.
Resize images for Instagram using our free tool.
TikTok
TikTok is video-first, but image uploads (Photo Mode) are now common.
- Video: 1080 × 1920 (9:16) — same as Reels
- Photo Mode posts: 1080 × 1920 (9:16) recommended; 1080 × 1080 also works
- Profile picture: 200 × 200 minimum, displayed circular
- Cover image: 1080 × 1920
YouTube
- Thumbnail: 1280 × 720 (16:9), under 2 MB. This is the single most important dimension to get right — thumbnails drive click-through.
- Channel banner: 2560 × 1440, with a "safe area" of 1546 × 423 in the center where text should live (the rest gets cropped on smaller screens).
- Profile picture: 800 × 800
- Video: 1920 × 1080 (1080p) or 3840 × 2160 (4K)
- Shorts: 1080 × 1920 (9:16)
Tip: YouTube re-encodes thumbnails. Upload at exactly 1280 × 720 to avoid double compression.
Crop a thumbnail to 16:9 with our visual cropper.
X (formerly Twitter)
X's image rendering has changed multiple times. As of 2026:
- Single-image post: 1600 × 900 (16:9) recommended for landscape; 1200 × 675 also good
- Two-image post: 700 × 800 each
- Three or four-image post: 1200 × 600 each
- Header: 1500 × 500
- Profile picture: 400 × 400 (displayed circular)
- Video: 1920 × 1080 (16:9), 9:16 also supported
Tip: X used to crop wide images aggressively. Today it shows them in full, but very wide aspects (3:1+) still get cropped in the feed. Stick to 16:9 or 4:5.
- Feed post (single image): 1200 × 630 recommended; 1080 × 1080 for square
- Stories: 1080 × 1920 (9:16)
- Cover photo: 851 × 315 desktop / 640 × 360 mobile (Facebook stretches to fit)
- Profile picture: 360 × 360 minimum
- Event cover: 1920 × 1005
- Link preview: 1200 × 630 (1.91:1) — same as Open Graph default
LinkedIn images are typically larger than other platforms; they want professional-quality.
- Feed post: 1200 × 1200 (square) or 1200 × 627 (landscape)
- Cover image: 1584 × 396
- Profile picture: 400 × 400 (displayed circular)
- Company logo: 300 × 300
- Article header: 1200 × 644
Tip: LinkedIn aggressively compresses uploaded images. Upload high-quality originals — they'll be downsampled less than smaller files would be.
Pinterest has the most distinct aspect requirements — vertical wins.
- Standard pin: 1000 × 1500 (2:3) — taller pins get more attention
- Square pin: 1000 × 1000
- Story pin: 1080 × 1920 (9:16)
- Profile picture: 165 × 165
- Cover image: 800 × 450
Tip: Pinterest favors pins between 2:3 and 1:2.1 aspect ratios. Anything wider than 1:1 underperforms.
Threads
Threads borrows from Instagram but is its own grid.
- Post (square): 1080 × 1080
- Post (portrait): 1080 × 1350 (4:5)
- Post (landscape): 1080 × 566
- Profile picture: 320 × 320
Email and newsletter platforms
While not "social," these come up constantly:
- Mailchimp/Substack header: 1200 × 400 typical; resize to display width
- Gmail / Outlook inline image: 600 px wide is the safe maximum (older email clients clip beyond this)
- Email signature: Logo at 100–200 px wide, under 30 KB
Universal best practices
A few rules that apply across every platform:
- Always export at 2× the displayed size. Phones are retina (2×–3× density). A 540-pixel display at 2× density wants 1080 pixels. Most platforms now upscale on retina screens, so a too-small upload looks fuzzy.
- Use the highest-quality original you have. Platforms compress on upload — you don't want to be compressing twice.
- Match the aspect ratio exactly. Off-aspect uploads get cropped, sometimes badly. Use our cropper to lock to 1:1, 4:5, 9:16, or 16:9 before uploading.
- Watch your file size. Most platforms cap at 10–30 MB per image; uploads near the cap often get aggressively re-compressed. Aim for 200–500 KB for posts, 1–2 MB for high-detail content.
- Test on mobile. The vast majority of social viewing is mobile. Open your post on a phone before pinning.
Quick reference table
| Platform | Best Post Size | Vertical/Story | Cover/Banner |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1080 × 1350 (4:5) | 1080 × 1920 | — | |
| TikTok | 1080 × 1920 | 1080 × 1920 | — |
| YouTube | 1280 × 720 (thumb) | 1080 × 1920 | 2560 × 1440 |
| X | 1600 × 900 | — | 1500 × 500 |
| 1200 × 630 | 1080 × 1920 | 851 × 315 | |
| 1200 × 1200 | — | 1584 × 396 | |
| 1000 × 1500 (2:3) | 1080 × 1920 | — | |
| Threads | 1080 × 1350 | — | — |
A practical workflow
- Take or design at the highest resolution (4K or larger if possible).
- Resize to the platform-specific dimensions using our free image resizer.
- Crop to the correct aspect ratio with our visual cropper.
- Compress to roughly 300–500 KB using our compressor — most platforms re-encode anyway, but smaller uploads survive better.
- Convert to WebP for upload if the platform accepts it (Instagram, Facebook, X, LinkedIn all do).
Do this once and you'll never wonder again whether your post will look right. Bookmark this page — we update it as platforms change requirements.