The Instagram grid maker cuts one photo into 1080 × 1440 posts for the profile grid, numbered in the order to post them, or a panorama into carousel slides. It runs in your browser.
Make an Instagram gridThe short answer
Make Instagram photos 1080 px wide. For the height, pick the shape:
- 1080 × 1440 (3:4) for the tallest feed post, and the only shape the profile grid shows without cutting anything off.
- 1080 × 1350 (4:5) for the classic tall post. The grid trims a thin strip from each side.
- 1080 × 1080 (1:1) for a square. The grid cuts an eighth off each side.
- 1080 × 1920 (9:16) for Reels and Stories.
The reason 3:4 matters is the profile grid. In January 2025 Instagram switched profiles from square thumbnails to taller 3:4 rectangles, and every post is now shown there through a 3:4 window.
Feed post sizes
Instagram stores feed photos at up to 1080 px wide. According to its help centre, a photo between 320 and 1080 px wide keeps its resolution; a wider one is scaled down to 1080 px, and a narrower one is enlarged to 320 px. So there is no benefit in uploading a 4000 px wide photo: it ends up at 1080 either way, but you control the resizing if you do it first.
| Shape | Pixels | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| 3:4 portrait | 1080 × 1440 | Filling the most screen, grid posts that join up |
| 4:5 portrait | 1080 × 1350 | Portraits, and anything also posted elsewhere |
| 1:1 square | 1080 × 1080 | Product shots, quotes, older grid designs |
| 1.91:1 landscape | 1080 × 566 | Wide scenes, though they show small in the feed |
Instagram's help page still lists 1.91:1 to 4:5 as the range it keeps uncropped. Since the 2025 grid change the app also takes 3:4 photos as they are, which Instagram's head Adam Mosseri confirmed at the time. If a scheduling app refuses 3:4, use 4:5; it's accepted everywhere.
How the profile grid crops each shape
The grid shows the middle of each post at 3:4 and cuts whatever doesn't fit. Your post itself isn't changed; people see the whole thing when they tap it. For a post of width W and height H, the visible part is:
Wider than 3:4: visible width = H × 3 ÷ 4, centred. Taller than 3:4: visible height = W × 4 ÷ 3, centred.
| Post | What the grid shows | What's cut off |
|---|---|---|
| 1080 × 1440 (3:4) | All of it | Nothing |
| 1080 × 1350 (4:5) | Middle 1012 × 1350 | About 34 px from each side |
| 1080 × 1080 (1:1) | Middle 810 × 1080 | 135 px from each side, a quarter of the width |
| 1080 × 566 (1.91:1) | Middle 425 × 566 | Over 60% of the width |
| 1080 × 1920 (Reel, 9:16) | Middle 1080 × 1440 | 240 px from the top and bottom |
Two practical rules come out of this. Keep text and faces in the middle three quarters of a square post, and on a Reel cover keep them out of the top and bottom eighth. For a picture split across several posts, use 3:4 pieces, because any other shape loses a strip at every join.
Carousel sizes
A carousel holds up to 20 photos and videos. The first slide sets the shape for all of them: if it is 4:5, every later slide is shown at 4:5 too, and anything of a different shape gets cropped or padded. So make all the slides the same size before you upload.
- 1080 × 1350 is the safe choice for carousels.
- 1080 × 1440 gives a little more height, and its first slide shows whole in your grid.
In the profile grid, only the first slide appears, cropped like any other post. A panorama split across slides therefore shows only its left end on your profile, so start it with something worth seeing.
Reels and Stories
Reels and Stories are full-screen, 1080 × 1920 (9:16). In the feed a Reel can show cropped closer to 4:5, and in the grid it shows at 3:4, so the top and bottom of the frame are the parts most often hidden. Captions, buttons and your profile name also sit over the bottom of a Reel while it plays. Keep the important part of a cover image in the middle.
Sizes for a split grid
A picture split across your grid is three posts wide. To cut it into 3:4 posts with nothing lost, the whole picture needs these sizes:
| Grid | Posts | Whole picture | Each post |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 row | 3 | 3240 × 1440 | 1080 × 1440 |
| 2 rows | 6 | 3240 × 2880 | 1080 × 1440 |
| 3 rows | 9 | 3240 × 4320 | 1080 × 1440 |
| 4 rows | 12 | 3240 × 5760 | 1080 × 1440 |
A photo smaller than that still works, but each post is enlarged and looks softer. A typical 12-megapixel phone photo is 4032 × 3024 px. Taken upright (3024 × 4032), it gives three rows of posts about 1008 px wide, enlarged by 7%, which is hard to see. A landscape photo of the same phone is plenty for one or two rows.
The posts must go up in reverse, because the newest post lands at the top left. For a three-row grid you post the bottom-right piece first and the top-left piece last, nine posts in a row with nothing in between. The grid maker numbers the files in that order and shows a preview of your profile with the 3:4 crop applied. Unpin any pinned posts before you start, because they always sit at the front of the grid.
Why Instagram photos look soft
- The photo was under 1080 px wide. Instagram enlarges it, and enlarging adds no detail.
- You uploaded a screenshot. A screenshot of a photo keeps only the screen's pixels. Share the original instead.
- The upload quality setting is off. In the app's settings, under data usage and media quality, turn on uploading at the highest quality; on mobile data the app can lower it to save data.
- The file was squeezed twice. Every save as JPG loses a little. Crop and resize once from the original, at a high quality setting, then upload.
If you only need one post at an exact size, crop image has 4:5 and 1:1 presets and a free box you can type 3:4 sizes into, and resize image sets the width to exactly 1080 px.
Sources
- Instagram Help Center: Image resolution of photos you share on Instagram. Widths from 320 to 1080 px kept; wider photos scaled to 1080
- Routenote: Instagram introduces a new aspect ratio for photos. 3:4 uploads, confirmed by Adam Mosseri
- Kapwing: Instagram’s new grid layout, size and dimensions. Tested 3:4 centre crop of the profile grid
- Buffer: Instagram’s accepted aspect ratio ranges. 3:4 to 1.91:1 for photos