Resizing Images for Social Media: Platform-by-Platform Guide
Resizing Images for Social Media: Platform-by-Platform Guide
Every social media platform has different image dimension requirements. Using the wrong dimensions means the platform crops your image — and it decides what to cut, not you. A group photo with someone's face at the edge gets their head cut off. A product photo with text at the bottom loses the text. Resizing to the exact platform dimensions before uploading puts you in control.
Feed posts (square): 1080x1080 pixels. The classic Instagram square. Works for any feed post. Use 1:1 aspect ratio.
Feed posts (portrait): 1080x1350 pixels. Taller than square — takes up more screen space as users scroll, increasing visibility. Use 4:5 aspect ratio.
Stories and Reels: 1080x1920 pixels. Vertical full-screen format. Use 9:16 aspect ratio. Leave safe zones at top and bottom for the platform's UI elements.
Feed posts: 1200x630 pixels. The standard link preview and feed post size. Use 1.91:1 aspect ratio. Text and important elements should be centered to survive mobile cropping.
Cover photos: 820x312 pixels. The banner at the top of your Facebook page. Note that mobile devices crop the top and bottom of cover photos, so keep critical content in the center band.
Event covers: 1200x628 pixels. Similar to feed posts but used for event headers.
X (Twitter)
Post images: 1200x675 pixels. Use 16:9 aspect ratio for images attached to tweets.
Header images: 1500x500 pixels. Use 3:1 aspect ratio. Like Facebook covers, mobile cropping affects the top and bottom — keep content centered.
Banner images: 1584x396 pixels. The personal profile banner. Use 4:1 aspect ratio.
Feed posts: 1200x627 pixels. Similar to Facebook feed post dimensions.
Company logos: 300x300 pixels. Square format for company page icons.
YouTube
Video thumbnails: 1280x720 pixels. Use 16:9 aspect ratio. This is the image viewers see before clicking your video.
Channel banner: 2560x1440 pixels. The banner appears differently on different devices — the safe area for text and logos is the center 1546x423 pixels, which is visible on all devices.
Standard pins: 1000x1500 pixels. Use 2:3 aspect ratio. Vertical pins take up more screen space and perform better in Pinterest's feed.
How the Resizer Handles Different Aspect Ratios
The tool scales your image to fill the target dimensions completely, which may crop some edges. This "cover" scaling ensures the output has exactly the target dimensions with no empty space. If your image has a very different aspect ratio from the target, significant cropping may occur — crop the image closer to the target ratio first, then resize.
Tips for Better Results
Start with a large image. Downscaling produces better results than upscaling. If your source image is smaller than the target dimensions, the result will be blurry. For best quality, start with an image at least as large as the target.
Keep content centered. Platforms crop from the edges on mobile. Keeping important content centered ensures it survives cropping on all devices.
Use presets over custom dimensions. The presets use the current recommended sizes for each platform. Custom dimensions are useful for non-standard use cases but require you to know the exact requirements.
Try the Social Media Image Resizer to resize for any platform.