A pixelated, poorly cropped image reads as sloppy craftsmanship, the same as a bad cut ruins a piece of timber. Every platform below crops differently, and the difference between a sharp post and a stretched one usually comes down to uploading the wrong pixel count, not the wrong photo.
Meta now prioritizes 4:5 vertical posts over the square crop it pushed for a decade: a portrait image simply takes up more of a phone screen than a square one, and Meta's own 2026 ranking signals favor it. That single shift is why almost every number below skews taller than it used to.
This page gets updated whenever the specs move, not left to go stale. Below is the current, field-tested reference for your digital toolkit, stripped of the fluff.
1. Instagram
- Profile Picture: 320 × 320 px (displays as a circle; keep your core mark centered)
- Feed Posts, Vertical (recommended): 1080 × 1350 px (4:5 ratio)
- Feed Posts, Square: 1080 × 1080 px (1:1 ratio)
- Feed Posts, Landscape: 1080 × 566 px
- Stories & Reels: 1080 × 1920 px (9:16 ratio)
- Stories Safe Area: keep essential content within the center 1080 × 1610 px to avoid interface text covering your work
2. Facebook
- Profile Picture: 320 × 320 px (upload a PNG for crisp logos)
- Cover Photo: 851 × 315 px (keep files under 100KB for maximum loading speed)
- Timeline Posts, Vertical (recommended): 1080 × 1350 px (4:5 ratio)
- Timeline Posts, Square: 1080 × 1080 px
- Timeline Posts, Landscape: 1200 × 630 px
- Stories: 1080 × 1920 px
3. LinkedIn
- Profile Photo: 400 × 400 px
- Personal Cover Photo: 1584 × 396 px
- Company Logo: 400 × 400 px
- Company Page Cover: 1128 × 191 px
- Post with URL Link: 1200 × 627 px
- Square Post: 1080 × 1080 px
4. X (formerly Twitter)
- Profile Photo: 400 × 400 px
- Header Photo: 1500 × 500 px (up to 60px can crop from top and bottom depending on the monitor)
- In-Stream Landscape (recommended): 1200 × 675 px (16:9 ratio)
- In-Stream Vertical: 1080 × 1350 px (4:5 ratio, now common for mobile-first engagement)
- In-Stream Square: 1080 × 1080 px
5. TikTok & YouTube
- TikTok Video & Carousel: 1080 × 1920 px (native 9:16 fills the entire viewport)
- TikTok Profile Photo: 200 × 200 px
- YouTube Video Thumbnail: 1280 × 720 px minimum (16:9 ratio; upload at 1920×1080 or higher where you can)
- YouTube Channel Banner: 2560 × 1440 px (safe area for text and logos is 1546 × 423 px, centered)
6. Threads & Pinterest
Threads rides on Instagram's image pipeline, so nothing here is a new number to learn: reuse Instagram's 1080×1350 for a feed post and 1080×1920 for a full-screen image. Pinterest is the one platform still built around tall pins rather than square or 4:5 crops.
- Threads, Feed Image: 1080 × 1350 px (4:5 ratio, same file works on Instagram)
- Pinterest, Standard Pin: 1000 × 1500 px (2:3 ratio)
- Pinterest, Profile Picture: 165 × 165 px
The Long Game
The Strategy for Lasting Impact
Do not chase every minor layout alteration with panic. Instead, construct a blueprint around sturdy foundations. Establish baseline assets at 1080px wide for mobile feeds, use clean PNG formats for text-based graphics, and routinely check how your imagery renders across desktop and mobile.
The Common Standards
Most modern site platforms and social media crawlers favor these three ratios:
| Ratio | Best For | Common Resolution |
|---|---|---|
| 16:9 | Standard featured images, hero sections, YouTube thumbnails | 1920 × 1080 |
| 4:3 | Older blog layouts, photography-heavy sites | 1200 × 900 |
| 1.91:1 | Social “Open Graph” previews (Facebook, LinkedIn, X) | 1200 × 630 |
Why 16:9 Wins
- Device compatibility: most screens (laptops, TVs, and phones in landscape) are natively 16:9
- The fold: wide enough to be featured without pushing all your text content below the fold
- Social previewing: a 16:9 image rarely crops awkwardly on Facebook or LinkedIn. They’ll just shave a few pixels off the top and bottom to hit their 1.91:1 requirement
Technical Best Practices
Beyond just the shape, keep these golden rules in mind to keep your site fast and pretty:
- Center the action: keep the subject of your photo in the middle. Different platforms crop differently; if your subject is centered, it won’t get cut off in a preview.
- Watch the file size: even a perfect 16:9 image will hurt your SEO if it’s 5MB. Use WebP format whenever possible and keep featured images under 100–200KB.
- The 1200px rule: regardless of ratio, ensure your width is at least 1200px: the minimum required by Google Discover and for high-quality “large” social cards.
The “Hero” Exception
If your featured image is a hero background (an image that spans the entire top of the page with text over it), ratios matter less than focal points. In these cases, use a wider ratio like 21:9 or 3:1 to prevent the image from taking up the entire vertical screen on a laptop.
Pro tip: check whether your site platform forces “hard cropping.” Some will force whatever you upload into a specific ratio, which can lead to some accidental “headless” team photos.
Getting the dimensions right is the easy part. Keeping a consistent posting schedule on top of it is where most small businesses run out of hours in the week. If that’s where you’re stuck, see how social media management works, or get in touch and we’ll take it off your plate.
