Looking for the ideal social media image sizes and post dimensions?
In this article, I'll break down ALL the major post types from each of the most common social networks.
So you can optimize your social media accounts and get more engagement from your followers.
Let’s get started!
NOTE: All image sizes listed here are followed by the aspect ratio in parenthesis to help you find the right-sized images.
Feel free to skip ahead:
- Common Facebook image sizes
- Common Instagram image sizes
- Common LinkedIn image sizes
- Common X (Twitter) image sizes
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Google Business
- Threads
- Bluesky
- How to use social media images to optimize engagement
Common Facebook image sizes
Image posts
- Square: 1200 x 1200 px (1:1)
- Landscape: 1200 x 630 px (1.91:1)
- Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px (4:5)
Video posts
- Landscape: 1280 x 720 px (16:9)
- Portrait: 720 x 1280 px (9:16)
- Square: 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)
Profile picture
- 2048 x 2048 px (1:1)
Facebook will display profile pictures at 176 x 176 on computers and 196 x 196 on smartphones. Still, it’s recommended that you upload a 2048 x 2048 image for the best resolution if a user clicks to expand your profile picture.
Cover photos
- 851 x 315 px (16:9)
Your cover photo will display at 851 x 315 on desktop and 640 x 360 on mobile, but the recommended upload size is 851 x 315 for the best resolution.
Facebook ads
- Square: 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)
- Vertical: 1080 x 1350 px (4:5)
Carousels
- 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)
Anything other than a 1:1 aspect ratio for Carousels is not recommended. They may become distorted or appear with black sidebars.
Stories
- 1080 x 1920 px (16:9)
Stories on Facebook and other social media are optimized to fill an entire mobile screen, so they should always be oriented in portrait mode with a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Reels
- 1080 x 1920 px (16:9)
Common Instagram image sizes
Profile picture
- 320 x 320 px (1:1)
Image posts
- Square: 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)
- Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px (4:5)
- Landscape: 1080 x 566 px (1.91:1)
Video posts
- Square: 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)
- Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px (4:5)
- Landscape: 1080 x 566 px (1.91:1)
Stories
- 1080 x 1920 px (9:16)
Reels
- 1080 x 1920 px (9:16)
Carousels
- Square: 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)
- Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px (4:5)
- Landscape: 1080 x 566 px (1.91:1)
You’ll notice that many Instagram post types allow you to choose between square, portrait, and landscape images. Most of your followers will view your content on mobile, which means a portrait image with a 4:5 aspect ratio will take them longer to scroll past, resulting in more face-to-face time with your post! For that reason, we recommend using portrait images whenever possible on Instagram.
Common LinkedIn image sizes
Profile picture
- 400 x 400 px (1:1)
Like other social media, your LinkedIn profile picture appears small on your followers’ screens. However, if they click on it, you can upload a larger 1:1 image for better resolution.
Profile banner
- Personal profile: 1584 x 396 px (4:1)
- Company page: 1128 x 191 px (5.9:1)
- Event page: 1600 x 900 px (16:9)
Carousels
- 1200 x 1500 px (4:5)
Videos
- Landscape: 1920 x 1080 px (16:9)
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920 px (9:16)
If your audience is younger, they're more likely to use LinkedIn on their phones, meaning you’ll get more engagement from vertical videos. However, LinkedIn is more likely to get desktop users than most other social media channels because people use it at work!
Image posts
- 1200 x 627 px (1.91:1)
Images must be more than 200 px wide or they'll appear as a thumbnail instead of in the body of your post!
Common X (Twitter) image sizes
Image posts
- Landscape: 1600 x 900 px (16:9)
- Square: 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)
- Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px (4:5)
Videos
- Landscape: 1280 x 720 px (16:9)
- Square: 720 x 720 px (1:1)
- Vertical: 720 x 1280 px (9:16)
GIF posts
- 1280 x 1080 px maximum size (no larger than 15 MB file size)
For best results, use GIFs between 1:1 and 3:1 aspect ratio.
Profile pictures
- 400 x 400 px (1:1)
Profile Banners
- 1500 x 500 px (3:1)
Remember that X is mostly used for extremely short-form content! When posting pictures and videos, you should always get to the point extremely quickly!
YouTube
Video posts
- 1920 x 1080 px (16:9)
YouTube Shorts
- 1080 x 1920 px (9:16)
Profile picture
- 800 x 800 px (1:1)
Channel banner
- 2560 x 1440 px (16:9)
TikTok
Video post
- 1080 x 1920 px (9:16)
Profile picture
- 200 x 200 px (1:1)
Even though TikTok is growing extremely quickly right now, it only has 1 post type: videos! Optimize all your TikTok videos for mobile by using a 9:19 aspect ratio.
Google Business
Photos section
- 720 x 720 px (1:1)
Updates
- 1200 x 900 px (16:9)
Cover photo
- 1024 x 576 px (16:9)
Videos
- 1280 x 720 px (16:9)
Image pins
- 1000 x 1500 px (2:3)
Video pins
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920 px (9:16)
- Square: 600 x 600 px (1:1)
Pinterest does not recommend uploading landscape videos!
Profile picture
- 165 x 165 px (1:1)
Threads
Image posts
- Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px (4:5)
- Square: 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)
Video posts
- 1080 x 1920 px (9:16)
Profile picture
- 320 x 320 px (1:1)
Bluesky
Image posts
Bluesky simply states that their maximum image resolution is 2000 x 2000 px.
They do NOT crop images that are too large – they'll just be compressed.
For best results, choose an image that comes in below that resolution with your desired aspect ratio.
Cover image
- 1500 x 500 px (3:1)
Video posts
- Landscape: 1920 x 1080 px (16:9)
- Square: 1080 x 1080 px (1:1)
- Vertical: 1080 x 1920 (9:16)
Bluesky has not posted guidelines about what size video is best for their platform, but user testing indicates that videos will be compressed to smaller sizes for both desktop and mobile. Use these guidelines for the highest quality possible, but keep in mind that your videos will be compressed.
GIF posts
As long as your GIF is under 5 MB, it will appear correctly on Bluesky.
Profile picture
- 400 x 400 px (1:1)
As you’ll notice, the guidelines for Bluesky are much looser – especially when it comes to videos. This social network is still young, so things are bound to change. The guidelines above will help you get the optimal results in the meantime.
How to use social media images to optimize engagement
Want to know how to use the RIGHT images to improve your engagement on social media?
Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as just posting random images and hoping people will Like and comment. It takes effort and planning!
Here's some practical advice about how to find or create the best images to optimize your social channels and get a massive boost in engagement!
Find or create high-quality images
Rule #1 of social media: If it isn’t high quality, DON’T POST IT!
This is ESPECIALLY true for images.
Images that aren’t visually appealing, high-resolution, or relevant have a better chance of HURTING your engagement instead of helping it.
That’s why your #1 priority needs to be keeping the quality of your images high.
Don't have original high quality images on hand?
You can use Post Planner to easily and quickly find high-quality images that relate to the content you’re posting. Just find a relevant Content Stream and fiind the highest-performing images in your industry.
Post Planner allows you to add these images to your posting calendar so they’ll AUTOMATICALLY post at the right time. All you have to do is select the images you want to add. Then, create your caption and schedule.
You won’t always be able to source the perfect image for your post. For those situations, Post Planner’s Content Studio is the perfect resource to design your own images (even if you’re deficient in creative skills like me).
You can source high-quality stock images for free and add and customize your own text, making this a great tool for customizing images for your social posts.
Use appropriately-sized images
If you post images that are way different than the optimal sizes, they could end up looking bad.
How bad?
- Stretched images
- Grainy images
- Images with black borders on the top or sides
- Tiny pictures
I don’t know about you, but the last time I followed someone on Instagram that posted grainy pictures was NEVER.
Fortunately, Post Planner’s Content Studio allows you to resize any image you’re working with to any resolution and aspect ratio you want.
So if you’re posting a landscape Facebook image post, you would just type in 1200 x 630 in the “Crop Size” box. You'll now have a perfectly sized image for your Facebook post!
This way, you can guarantee that the quality of your awesome images shines through instead of being messed up in the ways we discussed above.
Use images to tell a story
We frequently emphasize the importance of social media’s SOCIAL aspect because that’s why people are on these social networks. They want to be social!
The social aspect of these online networks means you have to treat your audience like real people who have real interests – not just people to throw marketing campaigns at repeatedly.
In other words, you can’t just throw a high-quality image of some random cityscape on your Instagram post about business techniques. Your image needs to actually tie into your post and help the viewer see themselves as part of the story you’re telling!
This may all sound vague, so let’s get down to how to do this:
1. Make sure every image relates directly to the content of your post
2. Research influencers in your industry to see what kind of images they use and how much engagement they produce (Post Planner’s Content Streams are perfect for this research).
3. When using content types that allow multiple images (like Carousels), make sure all the images tell a single story instead of just being a collection of 10 random images.
4. Your content and images should generally carry a consistent tone, voice, and message. Over time, your brand will develop a unique voice and story that helps your followers relate to you.
Vary your images and posting styles
While you should be working hard to develop a consistent tone and message, that doesn’t mean that you should only ever post the same types of content repeatedly.
If you do, your followers will get bored and will likely move on to other pages (or just keep scrolling when they see your content appear).
You can fix this problem by varying your content type to keep things fresh and interesting:
- Try mixing in GIFs if you normally post images
- Use a combination of videos and images (even in the same Carousel)
- If your posts are normally all business, try posting some lighter material like jokes, memes, or other crowd-pleasing content.
The difficult part about varying your content (and the reason many people fail to do it properly) is that it’s very hard to find enough varied content to keep your page stocked with it.
This is where Post Planner comes in. Using Post Planner’s Content Streams, this becomes a very straightforward process:
1. Find or create Content Streams related to your niche
2. Pick content that has already performed well with audiences similar to yours
3. Add that content to your calendar after making necessary changes (such as to the caption or images)
4. Let Post Planner do the hard work of posting the content at the right time!
Automating your content schedule frees your time up to look for more content or perform high-yield activities like engaging with your audience!
Post images regularly
Here’s the hard part: one of the most effective strategies for using images to boost your engagement on social media is to post them REGULARLY!
How regularly?
The exact schedule varies depending on the social media channel and your audience (the best way to determine your optimal schedule is through experimentation). However, posting to EACH of your social media channels 5X per week or more is ideal in most situations.
If you’re on 8 social channels, that means you need to find content for a MINIMUM of 40 posts per week. Many of those should have images attached!
Using Post Planner as outlined above is a CRUCIAL step toward optimizing your posting schedule and finding enough content to fill your calendar, but here are some more strategies to help you post images more regularly:
- Recycle your best posts. In Post Planner, you can go to the History tab and look at your engagement number to find your best posts. It'll also tell you if each post is set to recycle automatically. If not, edit the post and click the Recycle button to have Post Planner add it back into your calendar at the appropriate times.
- Post the same content to multiple social channels simultaneously. This saves time and gets more bang for your buck with each post. In Post Planner, you can choose which social media each post will go to and even edit each channel’s post individually to optimize your post for all networks (you can use Post Planner’s AI to help perfect your captions).
- Create posts in bulk. You can select multiple pieces of sourced content on Post Planner and add ALL of them to your posting calendar across multiple social networks in seconds. If you pick 6 pieces of sourced content and you post them to 5 social channels, that means you just created 30 posts in a few clicks!
FAQ
What aspect ratio is best for social media?
It depends on the social network and the post type! For example, a Facebook profile picture is 1:1, but an Instagram portrait image post is 4:5. Check our post above for a quick reference about the ideal aspect ratio for each social network and post type!
Ready to get more Likes?
Images are more and more becoming the foundation of social media, but they can also cause social media managers headaches!
Use the list above to help you find the perfect image size for ALL your social media images!
If you’re having trouble filling your posting calendar up with high-quality images, I highly recommend giving Post Planner’s free account a try to see just how much it can improve your social media images while saving you TONS of time.
Best of luck!
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