Instagram Image Size Cheat Sheet

Instagram videos and photos have varying dimensions depending on the type of post and orientation. Here’s a quick list of the most common Instagram photo and video dimensions:

Preparing your files for upload

To avoid compression (blurriness) and upload failure issues, make sure your file aspect ratio, size and format is one of those listed above. You can use a number of tools to resize, cut or format your media files before upload.

For videos it is important to have the file converted to either MP4-h264 or WEBM. Instagram rejects video files in other formats. Here is a list of free online tools available that can help you resize and reformat your files:

• Ezgif has tools that work both with photos and videos.
• OnlineConvert.com can convert and resize your media files for free.
• CloudCovert and Zamzar can convert your video format to MP4.
• Photoshop and LightRoom are excellent for resizing and cutting photos.

Once your video size has been optimized for Instagram and a proper format is selected, upload it from the PC / Mac with Inssist with a few clicks.

How to upload your video to Instagram from PC

First you need to get an Inssist Chrome Extension at get.inssist.com. Once installed it can upload your video to Instagram in two ways:

• Free Direct Posting, works through Instagram Web API,
• Pro Scheduled Posting, works through Facebook Scheduling API.

Direct video posting to Instagram

With direct video posting you can upload video posts, video stories and IGTVs to Instagram from PC. Locate a [+] icon at the bottom of the Instagram Frame and select the type of file you’d like to upload to Instagram:

For a video post you can set caption, location, hashtags, mentions and other parameters.

Video stories do not support @mentions, music, GIFs and text yet due to limitations in the Instagram Web API. These features may be added to the product in the future once they are supported by Instagram Web API.

Direct posting is available on Inssist Free version. If you’re on PRO version you can also upload a video cover (thumbnail) for your video post to make sure your Instagram grid looks perfect and consistent.

Scheduled posting to Instagram

Scheduled posting to Instagram works through Facebook API and can post videos AND video carousels (multi-media posts). Navigate to Post Assistant on the left, connect your Instagram account to a Facebook Page to setup scheduling then click on “SELECT FILES” to upload your video and create a new post:

You can set caption, location, hashtags, mentions, cover (thumbnail) and tag accounts on your post. Post Assistant can also clone your post to the connected Facebook Page for you.

Once the video is uploaded and parameters are set you can then draft, schedule or post immediately to Instagram.

Why Instagram reduces post quality?

Uploading files larger than 1080px causes Instagram to compress and resize your files down resulting in a fuzziness. Photo compression distorts image details, impacting quality.

The same happens when you upload an image that’s smaller than 320px by 320px. Instagram will expand the image, causing pixelation.

To get the best possible photo in your feed, aim for a square photo or video size of 1080px by 1080px. The compressed version of that will be displayed by Instagram at around 600px by 600px, which will appear flawless on mobile and desktop clients.

Does Instagram retain photo resolution?

As long as your photo width is between 320 and 1080 pixels and aspect ratio is correct, Instagram will keep the original resolution. If the aspect ratio isn’t supported, the photo or video will be automatically cropped.

Make sure to resize your image to a maximum width of 1080 pixels before you upload your image to avoid automatic resizing.

Notes on IGTV

IGTV supports both horizontal and vertical videos. Here are the things to keep in mind when uploading videos to IGTV platform:

• Vertical IGTV videos should have aspect ratios between 4:5 (portrait) and 9:16.
• Horizontal IGTV videos should be between 5:4 and 16:9.
• The 1 minute preview for IGTV (which places a preview snippet in your feed) is cropped to a 4:5 aspect ratio in the home feed. It is cropped to 1:1 square in your profile grid.
• IGTV cover photo should have resolution of 420px by 654px, which is 1:1:55.

Posting Carousels

It is possible to post and schedule carousels to Instagram from PC / Mac with a help of Inssist plugin. Navigate to the Post Assistant module in Inssist to post carousels:

Instagram carousel posts can be square, horizontal, or vertical, and can include photos mixed with videos. Once you’ve selected your first photo or video, all of the following media files will be cropped to the same aspect ratio.

For instance, if the first photo you select is square all of your following content will be cropped to a 1:1 aspect ratio.

Instagram Live Videos and Reels

Both are not yet supported by Instagram on their Web platform and are intended to be shot and uploaded from mobile devices. The optimal sizes for Live Videos and Reels are 1080:1920px and are shot vertically similar to Stories.

Feel free to share a link to this article on your blog to help others with posting to Instagram on PC! 🤗