The ultimate guideline for your posts to be perfect!

Now that Instagram has surprised everyone with the feed’s new look getting rid of their classic square images for a new aspect ratio, it’s time to collect all the major social media platforms sizes so your publications are perfect for your audience! We are only in January and they might change over the course of the year but, don’t worry! I will keep an eye on and update this guide so you always use the right measures.

Let’s start with the culprit: Instagram. Even though we already knew this day would eventually come, everybody was taken by surprise when they released the new feed for most users. The user profile feed is not a square grid anymore but a rectangle that uses a 3:4 aspect ratio. Most users now have weird feeds with stretched images, cut-offs, and distortions. To avoid this in the future, I recommend to start posting using only a 4:5 ratio -which is also the recommended size by Instagram as it is not possible to upload content using a 3:4 ratio- but keeping all the important information within the 1:1 square ratio just in case Instagram decides to roll back their update. So, in pixels, how do you measure your posts now?

• The 4:5 ratio translates to 1080 x 1350 pixels, 1080 being the width and 1350 the height. This size is the ideal for both regular posts and carousels

• The feed’s rectangle uses a 3:4 aspect ratio, which means is 1015 x 1350 pixels. Keep in mind this will affect both static posts and Reels covers.

• The 1:1 I recommend using inside the 4:5 is the classic 1080 x 1080 pixels

• Your Stories should use the same ratio as always, which is 9:16 or 1080 x 1920 pixels. There are rumours that your Stories Highlights will become part of the feed, so start preparing for Story covers that use a 3:4 ratio!

• The same size as usual goes for Reels, make sure you post them with a 9:16 ratio or 1080 x 1920 pixels at least but don’t forget about the cover at a 3:4 ratio.

After all those changes coming to Instagram this 2025, at least our favourite app TikTok -well, my favourite social media app, ngl- will stay the same for now. If you need a refresher on TikTok’s recommended sizes or you want to start your TikTok account, here is what you need to know:

• TikTok is mainly a video platform, so you should always record your videos using a 9:16 ratio or 1080 x 1920 pixels minimum

• TikTok added Stories to the content you can upload and it is also recommended for them to be 1080 x 1920 pixels and a maximum of 15 seconds long

• Last year, TikTok added the option to upload photos as carousels that can be of any size and ratio but I recommend using the platform’s favourite 9:16 so the photos would fill the screen or at least a 4:5 ratio

It’s true that LinkedIn is a very forgiving social media platform when it comes to post sizes. However, if you are a professional or a business trying to grow on LinkedIn, there are certain image sizes that perform better than others, so I recommend following them to maximise your publications reach:

• If you want to use an image to add to your post, try to use either a 1:1 ratio or 1200 x 1200 pixels or the same as Instagram, 4:5 ratio or 1080 x 1350 pixels

• When you add a link to a publication on LinkedIn, make sure to use a preview image that is at least 1200 x 627 pixels 

• The carousels in LinkedIn work as document posts where the pages inside the document become kind of images when posted. You can use any ratio and size however keep in mind that you will need to upload them as PDF, PPT, PPTX, DOC or DOXC format with a maximum of 300 pages and can’t be heavier than 100 Mb

• Like any other social media platform these days, LinkedIn also allows videos as content. The recommended ratio is either 9:16 -which is a vertical format- or 16:9 -horizontal- with a maximum length of 10 minutes

Even though a lot of Pinterest users have complained that the platform is filled with AI-generated images, it is still a good platform to find inspiration, share ideas, and create collections with mood boards or this year’s favourite concept, vision boards. Pinterest has been around for a long time but it’s always good to have a little refresher on the recommended sizes for your publications:

• For your regular pins, it is still recommended to keep a 2:3 aspect ratio with a minimum of 1000 x 1500 pixels, always as a vertical format however you can go further than 1000 x 2100 pixels for larger pins that can make a bigger impact and therefore engagement

• Like every other social media platform, video also arrived to Pinterest and it is a growing format to post. Luckily, you can use the same aspect ratio -9:16- and pixel size -1080 x 1920- as Instagram and TikTok

Lastly, I bring you Facebook. I know, there are not many users left on this social media platform, but just in case you have an audience there or want to run some Facebook ads for your business, these are the recommended sizes you should use:

• For links added to your post, keep the image size at 1200 x 630 pixels

• Regular images added to a publication can be of any size and aspect ratio, however, to catch the users’ attention is recommended to use the 4:5 ratio or 1080 x 1350 pixels as Instagram

• Facebook also has videos -obviously- which can be added as regular posts or as Reels. The recommended ratio is 16:9 for regular posts and 9:16 for Reels with a minimum resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels or 1920 x 1080 pixels for the horizontal format. Keep in mind you can’t upload videos longer than 240 minutes

• When it comes to video ads, they can have any ratio from 1:1 to 4:5 and 9:16 or 16:9

• And, once again, Facebook has Stories which uses the same format as Instagram, that being a 9:16 ratio or 1080 x 1920 pixels   

I know there are other social media platforms that haven’t made the list, such as X -or Twitter-, Snapchat, Threads… But I wanted to focus on the major ones for this guide so it didn’t feel too overwhelming! You can always contact me for help with your social media content or choose one of my social media design packages so we can start working together!

And, if you have made it this far, I have a little present for you! If you sign up for my newsletter -I will not spam you or send you irrelevant content- you can get this Social Media Size Guide as a PDF for free with a little extra bonus! How cool am I, right? :)