The optimal image size for the Instagram Reels format

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Instagram Reels – Meta's counter-offensive to TikTok – are short, entertaining videos that are often accompanied by music and/or special effects. They are generally played in portrait format (9:16) in the Reels feed and should therefore be produced as full-screen as possible.

However, since they are displayed in 4:5 in the normal news feed, you also have to make sure to place important content in the middle.

The same applies to the preview image of your reel, as it is displayed square in the profile feed and in portrait format in the reels feed. Here you have the choice of selecting an image from the video or uploading a thumbnail you have created yourself.

Instagram image sizes for reels:


Different image sizes for Instagram Reel formats in the feed
The optimal image size for the Instagram Live format
The Instagram Live format allows you to communicate with argentina whatsapp phone number your followers in real time and establish a direct exchange. This is especially useful if you work as an influencer, coach or shop owner.

Live videos are always displayed in portrait format, so the appropriate image size is obvious.

Instagram image size for live videos:

Portrait format: 9:16; 1080 x 1920 px

The optimal image size for the IGTV format
The IGTV format allows you to upload videos to Instagram that are longer than a minute. This is useful, for example, if you were live on Instagram and want to save your live video to your profile. Since this is basically a matter of getting a different format, this also brings with it the answer of the correct image size:

Instagram image size for IGTV:

Portrait format: 9:16; 1080 x 1920 px

Note: The app for IGTV is no longer available.

Produce different formats in one go
With the different formats and their different image sizes, you may now be wondering how you can produce the content as efficiently as possible.

For pictures: Take photos portrait! It is also recommended that you set the aspect ratio in your camera (app) to the optimal aspect ratio for Instagram (= 4:5). If you don't have this option, set it to 4:3. If you want to take a picture for the story, set it to 9:16. If your camera does not support 9:16, set it to 16:9 (landscape format) and hold the camera portrait.

For videos: If you only want to use videos for a specific format, set the aspect ratio of your camera (app) accordingly. To be able to use multiple formats with one recording, record the video in landscape format (16:9) and 4K resolution (4096 x 2160 px). Make sure that your main content is always on about a quarter (approx. 1080 px) of the total width of the video. Thanks to the high resolution, you can subsequently cut a landscape format video into a portrait format video without much effort and use it on your channels. This way, for example, you can record a YouTube video, Reel, TikTok and YouTube short in one go and don't have to start multiple recordings.