Instagram Image Sizes and Dimensions in 2022

Still and moving images are shaping the landscape of the social media in 2022  . Visual content has become a dominating force in online marketing because an increasing number of businesses choose to advertise their products and services online through videos and photos. In 2017 Instagram has grown to have more than 800 million users worldwide, which makes it one large market that provides an almost instant way of reaching huge numbers of potential clients.

In order to make a good impression on your potential customers, you must first make sure that the pictures you present on this image sharing platform are worthy of their attention. The quality of digital images isn't only defined by their aesthetic properties, but also by the overall number of pixels they have. The larger the photo, the better, even though Instagram will display only a portion of its true size.

We've decided to share with you the best ways to optimize your images for posting on this social network. Besides, If you are interested in putting these optimized photos together into a motive photo album, here we introduce a new released product Fotophire Slideshow Maker . It could turn your single pictures into amazing slideshow with effects or music. There are more than 180 templates for you to choose according to your hobby. Back to today's topic, let's have a look at the sizes and dimensions of images that will make your Instagram posts look better.

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Part 1: New Shapes of Images on Instagram

Until recently Instagram allowed its users to post only square-shaped photos. For those of you wondering what a square-shaped photo is, it is a picture that has the same pixel value in width and height boxes. In 2018, however, you can also post horizontally and vertically oriented images on Instagram, but there are certain things you should know about each picture format before you start using it.

1．Square Photos

Most digital cameras don't offer support for square aspect ratio, which simply means that you have to change the shape of your photo before you post it to Instagram if you don't want the platform to randomly crop your picture. Square shaped photos, work well with closeups or images that don't need to depict too much space.

2．Landscape Photos

The name for this shape of a photo comes from landscape painting because this format of the canvas was commonly used for scenes that depict nature. Landscape photos are best suited for Instagram posts in which you want to show as much space as you possibly can. This, of course, doesn't mean that you can't use this shape of a photo for portraits or any other type of scene you want.

3．Portrait Photos

The introduction of vertically oriented images on Instagram is probably the biggest surprise because this photo format is basically a landscape photo rotated for 90 degrees. Portrait photos are perfectly suited for the depiction of standing human figures. In practice, this means that you'll now be able to post pictures on Instagram that highlight the height of people you take pictures of or simply experiment with different types of scenes and see how well they work in Portrait format.

The horizontally or vertically oriented images are commonly produced by Smartphone or DSLR cameras, which means that you can post images on Instagram directly from your camera, without having to worry about aspect ratios and image sizes, too much.

Part 2: Correct Sizes of Instagram Photos

The size of the original picture or a video you are uploading isn't the same as the size of the image displayed on your screen when you view it on Instagram. The platform resizes all content to its standard video and image sizes, which can only be a problem if you are uploading a file that is considerably smaller than the dimensions Instagram is using.

1．Instagram Profile Picture

If you are an experienced social media user, you probably know that a profile picture is like your online ID and that its significance can hardly be measured. A great profile photo can mean the difference between a profile visitor and a profile follower, so plan carefully which photo you are going to make your profile picture.

The size of a profile photo Instagram displays is 110X110 pixels in 1:1 aspect ratio, which basically means that your profile pic is a square. You can, however, use a photo that is much larger than this, but before you set your profile picture, make sure to resize it to the above-mentioned aspect ratio if you want to avoid losing parts of the photo.

2．Instagram Thumbnails

Everything you post on your Instagram account will be stored in your profile and displayed as a small thumbnail on which a follower or a visitor can click on. The display size of thumbnails on Instagram is 161X161 pixels, and they have the same 1:1 aspect ratio as the profile picture.

Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about making your photos or videos perfectly fit into the thumbnail picture other than using the same aspect ratio as the thumbnail, but this isn't too important since the quality of the post is what will draw someone to click on your post.

3．Instagram videos

Chances are that your horizontally oriented video already has a 16:9 aspect ratio, since most Smartphones, and professional cameras use this aspect ratio as default. The maximum size of an Instagram video on a retina display is 1200X673 pixels or 600x336.5 pixels when the video is viewed on a regular display. This means that the size of the video file you upload to Instagram should be at least the same as the size Instagram is demanding or larger. The most important thing here is not to use different aspect ratios because you might end up with a distorted video.

Posting vertically oriented videos on Instagram is possible and the maximum display size is 481X599.484 pixels. However, before you record and upload a vertically oriented video to Instagram try to think of a movie or a TV show that has a vertical orientation. After you realize that there are none, you should understand why you shouldn't upload such a video to your Instagram account.

Check out detailed steps for editing Instagram Video

4．Instagram Ads

You can advertise your brand and its products on Instagram using a photo or video ads. The recommended aspect ratios for image ads are 1.9:1 for landscape pictures and 1:1 for square images. The maximum display size of a landscape photo in an ad is 600X315 pixels, while the size of a square photo is 600x600 pixels. The caption can't contain more than 300 characters.

The specifications for video ads on Instagram are very similar to image ads, since the 1.9:1 and 1:1 aspect ratios are recommended. The size of a file shouldn't exceed 30 MB, and its display size is 600X315 for landscape videos and 600X600 for square videos. The videos can't be longer than 30 seconds and they can't have more than 30fps, while all captions are limited to 300 characters. 

5．Instagram Stories

The ephemeral content has become insanely popular over the course of the last several years and its popularity can only continue to grow in 2018. The size of a picture featured in an Instagram Story depends on the device on which the Story is viewed, which means that there are no standard image values you can use.

In a situation like this, it is best to stick to standard image formats. Use images in Instagram Stories that have a 16:9 aspect ratio and the image size of 1080X1920 pixels.

6．Instagram Photos

The aspect ratio and the size of a picture you upload to Instagram depend on its shape. The maximum display size for a square photo that has a 1:1 aspect ratio is 1080x1080 pixels, although the platform will display the picture in the news feed in 612x612 pixels.

The maximum display size of a landscape photo is 1080X600 pixels and the recommended aspect ratio is 16:9, however uploading a larger photo with the same aspect ratio certainly won't hurt the quality of your photo.

The portrait photos on Instagram have 5:4 aspect ratio and their maximum display size is 1080X1350, while their minimum size is 480X600 pixels. The quality in which the photo will be shown depends on the quality of the screen the device from which the image is viewed has.

Conclusion

Instagram is one of the largest and the most popular social networks today, and using it to promote your brand and its services may help you gain more clients. The sizes of images are just a technicality, but a technicality that can make each Instagram post a smashing success.

We'd love to hear your opinion, so feel free to let us know in the comments which picture size and format you like to use the most on Instagram.