Social media image sizes, ready to use
Pick the shape you need and the editor opens at exactly that size. No cropping afterwards, no guessing, no account. Images only — we do not do video, so nothing here will waste your time.
What each one is for
| Format | Pixels | Ratio | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram & Facebook Story | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | Full-screen vertical. Also the right shape for Reels covers, TikTok posts and WhatsApp Status. |
| Instagram Post (portrait) | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | The tallest shape Instagram allows in the feed, so it takes up the most screen as people scroll. The default here for that reason. |
| Square Post | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 | The safe one. Never badly cropped anywhere, which is why it is still the most used shape on the internet. |
| Pinterest Pin | 1000 × 1500 | 2:3 | Pinterest lays out in columns, so taller pins occupy more of the screen. 2:3 is the shape Pinterest's own layout is built around. |
| YouTube Thumbnail | 1920 × 1080 | 16:9 | Wide. Works as a video cover, a blog header or a link preview. |
| Link Preview | 1200 × 630 | 1.91:1 | The shape that shows up when someone pastes your link into Facebook, LinkedIn, X or Slack. Roughly 1.91:1 is what those previews crop to. |
| Phone Wallpaper | 1170 × 2532 | 9:19.5 | Taller than a Story, and the text sits low so your lock screen clock does not land on top of it. |
| LinkedIn Cover | 1584 × 396 | 4:1 | Very wide and very short. Keep it to a few words: anything longer gets shrunk to nothing, and your profile picture covers the left end. |
| X Header | 1500 × 500 | 3:1 | Also wide, with a little more height to work with. The avatar usually sits over the lower left. |
| YouTube Banner | 2560 × 1440 | 16:9 | The full canvas. Only the middle area is guaranteed to show on every device, so keep anything that matters well away from the edges. |
The ratio matters more than the pixels
Platforms resize whatever you give them. What they will not do is change the shape: if your image is the wrong ratio it gets cropped, and the crop usually takes the top and bottom, which is where people put the text. Getting the shape right is most of the job, and the pixel count only decides how sharp it is.
About the YouTube thumbnail size
Most size guides still say 1280 × 720. YouTube's own help page now recommends 3840 × 2160 and sets the minimum at 640 pixels wide. We export at 1920 × 1080, which is comfortably above the minimum, correct at 16:9 and sharp on any screen. A card made of flat colour and text gains nothing from 4K and would triple the file size for no visible difference — if you are putting a detailed photograph on a thumbnail, that is the case where going larger is worth it.
Why covers are harder than they look
A LinkedIn cover is four times wider than it is tall, and a YouTube banner is cropped differently on a phone, a laptop and a television. Both shapes punish long text. The editor shrinks whatever you write until it fits, so nothing ever spills over the edge, but on these two the honest advice is to write less: three or four words land, a sentence disappears.
A caution on every other number here
Platforms change their layouts without announcing it. The ratios above are the ones each place has used consistently and they are what we would bet on, but we are not going to pretend they are official specifications. If a platform changes, the shape is what will change last.