No. 05 Social media image sizes
One image, every size
Pick a size, then pad the image so all of it shows or crop it to fill the frame. Saved at exactly the pixels the platform asks for.
Drop, paste or choose a screenshot
PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF, AVIF or SVG. You can also press Ctrl+V (⌘+V on a Mac) anywhere on the page.
Pad or crop?
Pad keeps the whole screenshot and adds background around it, so nothing important is lost. It suits wide or tall interface shots that would lose their edges in a square. The margin is a share of the frame's shorter side, and the light or dark wash fills the space with the screenshot's own colours.
Crop fills the frame edge to edge and trims what does not fit. Use the position sliders, or drag the preview, to choose what stays in view, and zoom in to focus on one part of the screen.
The file is always saved at exactly the size in the table, ready to upload. If your image is smaller than the target, it is enlarged and the status line warns you, because enlarged text looks soft. Start from a larger or Retina screenshot when you can.
Common social media image sizes
| Use | Size (px) | Ratio | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|---|
| Link preview (Open Graph) | 1200 × 630 | 1.9:1 | The image shown when a link is shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp and most chat apps. |
| X large link card | 1200 × 600 | 2:1 | X's summary card with a large image, which uses a 2:1 image. |
| X post image | 1600 × 900 | 16:9 | A single 16:9 image in a post shows without cropping in the timeline. |
| X header | 1500 × 500 | 3:1 | The banner across the top of an X profile. |
| Instagram square post | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 | The classic square feed post. |
| Instagram portrait post | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | The tallest feed post (4:5), which takes up the most room in the feed. |
| Instagram landscape post | 1080 × 566 | 1.91:1 | The widest feed post Instagram allows (1.91:1). |
| Story, Reel or TikTok | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | Full-screen vertical (9:16) for Instagram and Facebook Stories, Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts covers. |
| Facebook Page cover | 851 × 315 | 2.7:1 | Meta's suggested upload size for a Page cover photo; phones crop the sides. |
| LinkedIn shared image | 1200 × 627 | 1.91:1 | Link and image posts in the LinkedIn feed. |
| LinkedIn profile background | 1584 × 396 | 4:1 | The background banner on a personal LinkedIn profile (4:1). |
| YouTube thumbnail | 1280 × 720 | 16:9 | A custom video thumbnail (16:9). |
| YouTube channel banner | 2560 × 1440 | 16:9 | The channel banner; only the centre 1546 × 423 shows on every device. |
| Pinterest pin | 1000 × 1500 | 2:3 | A standard 2:3 pin, the shape Pinterest suggests for the home feed. |
| Full HD 16:9 | 1920 × 1080 | 16:9 | Slides, video frames and presentation screens. |
These are the sizes recommended in each platform's own help pages and developer documentation as of October 2026. Platforms change their layouts without notice, so check the current guidance before an important campaign.
Questions
What size is an Open Graph image?
1200 × 630 pixels is the size most sites use for link previews. It is close to 1.91:1, the ratio Facebook and LinkedIn crop link images to, and large enough to stay sharp on high-density screens.
Why does my story text get covered?
Stories and Reels place the profile name at the top and reply or caption controls at the bottom. Keep text out of the top and bottom 250 pixels of a 1080 × 1920 image; the safe-area guide shows those bands.
Should I upload PNG or JPEG?
For screenshots and text, PNG stays sharpest. Most platforms recompress uploads anyway, so for photo-heavy images a high-quality JPEG gives a smaller file with no visible difference.