Social media
Social Media Image Sizes in 2026: A Practical Cheat Sheet
Social platforms do not display the image you upload. They crop it, scale it, re-compress it, and overlay interface elements on top. Preparing an image at the platform’s recommended dimensions is the only way to keep control of the result. This guide lists the sizes worth remembering, explains the areas that get covered, and shows how to produce several versions from one source file.
Platform specifications change without much notice. The dimensions below are the long-standing recommendations for each placement; check the platform’s current help center before a paid campaign or a major launch.
The sizes worth memorizing
| Platform | Placement | Pixels | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed, portrait | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | |
| Feed, square | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 | |
| Stories and Reels | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | |
| Profile photo | 320 × 320 | 1:1 | |
| Feed | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | |
| Link preview | 1200 × 630 | 1.91:1 | |
| Page cover | 851 × 315 | about 2.7:1 | |
| Event cover | 1920 × 1080 | 16:9 | |
| X | Post image | 1600 × 900 | 16:9 |
| X | Header | 1500 × 500 | 3:1 |
| X | Profile photo | 400 × 400 | 1:1 |
| Feed, landscape | 1200 × 627 | 1.91:1 | |
| Feed, portrait | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | |
| Company page banner | 1128 × 191 | about 5.9:1 | |
| YouTube | Video thumbnail | 1280 × 720 | 16:9 |
| YouTube | Channel banner | 2048 × 1152 | 16:9 |
| Standard pin | 1000 × 1500 | 2:3 | |
| TikTok | Video frame | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
Two patterns are obvious. Vertical 4:5 and 9:16 formats dominate feeds and stories, and 16:9 remains the language of video thumbnails and event covers. A single square export is a compromise that fits everywhere and excels nowhere.
Safe areas are as important as dimensions
A correctly sized image can still lose its subject to the interface.
Stories and Reels (1080 × 1920). The top of the frame holds the account name and progress bar, and the bottom holds the caption, music, and action buttons. Keep essential text and faces out of roughly the top and bottom 15 percent, and away from the right edge where the action buttons sit. The central 1080 × 1350 area is the part you can rely on.
TikTok (1080 × 1920). The right side carries interaction buttons and the bottom carries the caption. A centered subject with generous margins survives better than an edge-to-edge composition.
YouTube thumbnails (1280 × 720). The duration stamp sits in the bottom-right corner, and the title and channel name appear nearby in some surfaces. Keep logos and short text in the upper two-thirds and leave the bottom-right clear.
Facebook and LinkedIn covers. Desktop and mobile crops differ. A cover that reads well at 851 × 315 may lose its edges on a phone. Put the important element in the center and treat the sides as expendable.
Profile photos. These are displayed as circles on most platforms. Keep the subject centered and leave breathing room at the corners; a logo that fills the square will lose its outer edges to the circular mask.
Start from one high-resolution source
The best workflow is to keep a single master image and derive each platform version from it. Do not screenshot an existing post to make a new one; that adds interface chrome and a generation of compression.
- Choose the highest-resolution original you have. If the master is smaller than the target dimensions, do not upscale it. A soft 1080-pixel image enlarged to 1920 pixels looks worse than a clean 1080-pixel image displayed at its native size.
- Crop to the target ratio before resizing. Cropping after resizing throws away the work and can shift the subject.
- Resize to the exact pixel dimensions. The image resizer covers the difference between exact dimensions, percentage, and longest-side limits.
- Export as JPEG for photographs or PNG for graphics with flat color and text.
- If a byte limit applies, compress last, using the compressor.
Batch-crop with the presets
The crop for social tool exists to remove the arithmetic from this process.
- Open the tool and add the source images. Everything is processed in the browser.
- Choose a preset: 1:1, 4:5, 9:16, or 1200 × 630 for link previews.
- The crop is centered. It takes the largest area of the source that fits the target ratio and discards the overflow.
- Set an optional output size if the platform requires exact pixels. Without it, the crop keeps the source resolution within the chosen ratio.
- Run the batch and inspect one result. Centered cropping is fast and predictable, but it cannot know where the subject is.
- Download individual files or the whole set as a zip.
If the subject is off-center, a centered crop will cut it. Crop that image manually in the editor first, or reframe the shot so the subject sits near the middle. No automatic preset can reliably find a face, a product, or a horizon.
Format and quality choices
JPEG is the safe default for photographs. PNG is better for graphics with sharp text or large flat areas, but the file is larger and some platforms may re-encode it anyway. WebP is smaller, but not every scheduler or upload field accepts it; check before building a batch around it.
Platforms re-compress uploads, so there is no benefit to exporting at the maximum quality setting. A JPEG at a moderate quality that looks clean at 100 percent is enough. Over-sharpening before upload is a common mistake: the platform’s own downscaling can turn halos into visible ringing.
Keep text large. A caption baked into an image at 30 pixels will be unreadable after the platform displays it in a feed at a fraction of its uploaded size. If the text matters, make it a major element or leave it out of the image entirely.
A note on aspect ratio and faces
The 4:5 portrait format uses more vertical space in a feed than a square, which is why it has become the default for people and products. The 9:16 format fills a phone screen but crops aggressively on desktop previews. If the same creative must work in both, compose for 4:5 and extend the background for 9:16 rather than cropping the 9:16 version down and losing the subject’s head.
For anything with a person in it, check the crop at the final ratio before exporting the batch. A centered crop of a group photo often removes the person at the edge.
A short pre-publish checklist
- The image matches the placement’s recommended pixels and ratio.
- Essential content sits inside the safe area.
- The subject is centered enough to survive a circular or square crop.
- Text is readable at the size the feed will display it.
- The file is a supported format and within the platform’s upload limit.
- The exported file was inspected at 100 percent, not just in a thumbnail grid.
Producing five versions from one master takes a few minutes with presets. Producing them by hand, one upload at a time, is where the mistakes creep in.