As a Baton Rouge social media and digital marketing agency, we know the importance of attention to detail. Everything you do online is a reflection of your business—including images. Here’s the second installment of our social media image size cheat sheet. We’ve already covered Facebook, now we’re going to talk about the most popular photo sharing social media platform: Instagram. With more than 500 million daily active users it’s never been easier to connect your brand with your customer base. Make sure your Instagram image sizes are formatted correctly to best showcase your brand’s creativity while promoting your message.
Instagram Profile Photo Size
Instagram is a visual-based social media platform. So, ensuring your Instagram profile picture stands out among a sea of competition is imperative for your brand’s identity. You can imagine why it’s important to follow these image guidelines for your profile picture:
- Appear on your profile at 110 x 110 pixels.
- Square photo: make sure to maintain an aspect ratio of 1:1.
Instagram Photo Thumbnail Size
When viewing your Instagram profile page, your most recent photos will appear as a thumbnail in the order of when you posted them. These images expand when you click on them revealing your posts’ captions and comments.
- The thumbnails will appear on the page at 161 x 161 pixels.
- Square photos: make sure to maintain an aspect ratio of 1:1 ratio.
Instagram Posted Photo Size
Instagram is primarily a photo- and video-sharing platform. The media you post shows up in your followers feed. Choosing the right dimensions and resolution for your media is crucial for your brand. 
- Instagram image sizes has been increased to 1080 x 1080 pixels.
- Instagram still scales these photos down to 612 x 612 pixels.
- Appear in feed at 510 x 510 pixels.
- Square or rectangle photos: make sure to maintain an aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 4:5 ratio.
- For portrait (4:5) photos, recommended dimensions are 1080 x 1350 pixels.
- Smaller featured header images appear as 204 x 204 pixels, and larger featured header images appear as 409 x 409 pixels.
Instagram Story Photo and Video Sizes
Instagram allows you to publish “stories” to your feed that appears as a clickable ring over your profile picture. Typically, these stories only last 24 hours. You’ll also have an option to post these stories into “highlights” which appear on your profile page. Instagram stories are a popular way to highlight important events, happenings, or photos you want to showcase. 
- Recommended resolution is 1080 x 1920.
- Minimum resolution is 600 x 1067
- Aspect ratio is 9:16.
- Max file size is 4GB
Get On The ‘Gram With Baton Rouge Social Media
Overall, Instagram can be a fun and approachable way to showcase and grow your business—and Gatorworks can help! Learn more about our social media organic and paid capabilities. You can call us at 225.924.6109 or contact us online. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn to see our own images in action! Keep up with our blog for more social media image cheat sheets.