2026-05-07 · 4 min read
Social media image sizes: a reference that admits what it does not know
Current dimensions for the major platforms, with an explanation of which numbers are stable, which drift, and how to work when a spec changes.
Every size reference on the internet is out of date somewhere, including this one. Platforms change layouts without announcement. What follows is a working set of dimensions plus, more usefully, the reasoning that lets you adapt when they shift.
The stable core
A handful of ratios have been stable for years because they are tied to hardware rather than fashion.
Vertical full-screen — stories, reels, shorts — is 9:16, which is the shape of a phone. That is 1080 × 1920 in practice. It will not change while phones are phones.
Video thumbnails are 16:9, which is the shape of video. 1280 × 720 is the working size.
Link preview cards are around 1.91:1, which is 1200 × 630. This is the Open Graph convention and it is honoured by most platforms that unfurl links.
Square is square. 1080 × 1080.
The current working set
Instagram: square 1080 × 1080, portrait 1080 × 1350, story 1080 × 1920.
Facebook: feed and link card 1200 × 630, page cover 1640 × 856, story 1080 × 1920.
X: timeline image 1600 × 900, header 1500 × 500.
LinkedIn: feed post 1200 × 627, company cover 1128 × 191, personal background 1584 × 396.
Pinterest: 1000 × 1500, a 2:3 ratio the whole layout is built around.
YouTube: thumbnail 1280 × 720 under 2 MB, channel banner 2560 × 1440.
What drifts, and how to notice
Cover and banner crops change most often, because they depend on layout decisions that platforms revisit. Feed image sizes are more stable, because they are tied to the width the app renders at.
The practical defence is margin. Keep logos and text away from the edges of any banner, and it will survive a layout change that would have decapitated a tightly composed one.
Upload larger, not smaller
Platforms re-encode what you send. If you upload at exactly the display size after compressing hard, your image is compressed twice at the smallest possible dimensions, and it shows.
Upload at the recommended pixel dimensions with quality around 85 and let the platform do its own reduction from a good source.
One shoot, several outputs
The efficient workflow is not to pick one size but to process the same originals repeatedly with different targets and focal points. Portrait for the feed with a top-weighted crop, vertical for stories with a different one, square for the grid. Each pass takes seconds once the files are loaded.
Verify anything that matters
For a campaign with real budget attached, check the platform's own current guidance before you export. A reference page — any reference page — is a starting point and not an authority on what a platform did last week.
Full reference table
| Platform | Placement | Pixels | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square post | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 | |
| Portrait post | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | |
| Landscape post | 1080 × 566 | 1.91:1 | |
| Story / Reel | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | |
| Feed / link card | 1200 × 630 | 1.91:1 | |
| Page cover | 1640 × 856 | 1.91:1 | |
| Event cover | 1920 × 1005 | 1.91:1 | |
| X | Timeline image | 1600 × 900 | 16:9 |
| X | Profile header | 1500 × 500 | 3:1 |
| Feed post | 1200 × 627 | 1.91:1 | |
| Company cover | 1128 × 191 | 5.9:1 | |
| Profile background | 1584 × 396 | 4:1 | |
| Standard pin | 1000 × 1500 | 2:3 | |
| TikTok | Video cover | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
| YouTube | Thumbnail | 1280 × 720 | 16:9 |
| YouTube | Channel banner | 2560 × 1440 | 16:9 |
Checked May 2026. Cover and banner crops are the entries most likely to have moved since.
Safe areas matter more than dimensions
For every banner in that table, the stated size is the file you upload and not the region that is reliably visible. Profile pictures overlap covers. Mobile layouts trim the sides. Television apps crop differently again from browsers.
There is no published safe rectangle that holds across every surface, so the working practice is margin: keep logos, names and any text within the central 60% of a banner, and it will survive a layout change that would have decapitated a tightly composed design.
File size and format
Every platform re-encodes what you upload, which makes format choice less consequential than it looks. JPEG at quality 85 is the reliable default for photographs; PNG is worth it only for graphics with hard edges and text, where JPEG's artefacts would be visible before the platform's own encoder had its turn.
The one hard limit worth remembering is YouTube's 2 MB ceiling on custom thumbnails, which a 1280 × 720 JPEG clears easily and a PNG exported from a design tool frequently does not.
Producing a full set efficiently
The efficient pattern for a shoot destined for several platforms is one import and several passes: portrait 4:5 with a top-weighted crop, square 1:1 for grids, vertical 9:16 for stories with the focal point adjusted, and 16:9 for anything video-adjacent.
Each pass is a settings change rather than a re-import, and naming each output with a pattern that includes the dimensions — {name}-{width}x{height} — means the resulting folder is self-describing when you come to schedule the posts.