Key takeaways
- These five dimensions cover the vast majority of social post formats across every major platform without triggering an unwanted crop.
- Platforms recompress and crop images after upload — sizing correctly upfront avoids an unwanted crop.
Social media image sizes: the universal safe set
- 1080 × 1350px — vertical feed posts (Instagram, Facebook)
- 1080 × 1920px — full-screen formats (Stories, Reels, TikTok, Shorts)
- 1080 × 1080px — square posts
- 1200 × 630px — link-preview images
- 400 × 400px — profile pictures
Why platform-specific pages still matter
These universal sizes work safely everywhere, but each platform has its own additional formats (cover photos, banners, thumbnails) with their own exact dimensions — see the per-platform pages for the full spec.
Sizing images before a bulk import
Sizing media correctly before a bulk import avoids a platform recompressing or cropping it unpredictably after upload — worth checking before scheduling a large batch.
image sizesreference
FAQ
- What is a safe universal image size for social media?
- 1080×1350px for vertical posts and 1080×1080px for square posts cover most platforms cleanly.
- Why do platforms recommend different sizes for the same post type?
- Each platform’s app and feed layout differs slightly, so their recommended dimensions optimize for how the image displays in their own interface.
- What happens if I upload the wrong image size?
- Most platforms will crop or letterbox the image to fit their layout rather than rejecting it — sizing correctly upfront avoids an unwanted crop.
- What resolution should I use for social media images?
- Export at the exact pixel dimensions listed above (for example 1080×1350) rather than a larger file — platforms recompress on upload, so extra resolution beyond that doesn’t add visible quality and only slows the upload.
- Should social media images be landscape, square or vertical?
- Vertical (1080×1350) or square (1080×1080) generally get more feed space than landscape (16:9) on most platforms today, so lead with one of those rather than a wide landscape crop.