Social Media Image Sizes
Every social platform crops uploaded media to its own aspect ratio before showing it in feeds, and re-encodes the file through its CDN. Uploading at the platform's native size — exact pixel count, exact ratio — preserves the framing you intended and skips the soft-focus that comes from the platform's own resampler. This catalog covers the native sizes for every major social platform, plus profile, cover, story, reel, and grid-thumbnail variants.
A post uploaded at the wrong aspect ratio gets the platform's auto-crop, which often clips faces, logos, or captions positioned near the edge. A post uploaded at a smaller pixel size than the platform's native size gets upscaled by the platform's server, softening edges and crushing thin text. Both outcomes hurt engagement — image quality is a direct ranking signal on most feeds. Hitting the platform's exact native pixel count and ratio with this preset means the platform serves your file as-is.
How to choose the right preset
- Pick by platform. Each platform card lists feed-post, profile, cover, and story sizes. If you're posting once and cross-distributing, start with the largest native size (typically Instagram or LinkedIn) and let the smaller platforms downsample.
- Pick by post type. Feed posts, story / reel covers, and grid thumbnails each have different native sizes within the same platform. Check the subtitle on each card.
- If you're posting cross-platform. Use a 1:1 (square) crop — it renders cleanly on every feed without auto-cropping. Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all show squares without modification.
- Check whether the platform supports native portrait. Instagram supports 4:5 portrait in feed; Twitter and Facebook crop to 16:9 in the timeline preview but show full ratio on click. TikTok and Reels are 9:16 only.
- Plan for retina / HiDPI. Profile pictures are rendered at 2× on retina displays — uploading at the platform's recommended size (e.g., 640×640 for WhatsApp) is the actual rendered size on a Retina screen, so don't go smaller.
Every Social Media preset
All 47 recipes in this category. Click any card to land in chat with the recipe pre-loaded — drop an image to run.
Common mistakes
- Uploading at a smaller pixel size than the platform's native — the server upscales, softening edges.
- Re-saving JPEG twice — once when exporting from your editor, once when the platform re-encodes — produces visible compression artefacts.
- Including text near the edge of a 16:9 source — Instagram crops to 4:5 in the feed preview, clipping anything in the bottom 20% of the original frame.
- Uploading PNG when the platform expects JPEG — most social CDNs convert PNG to JPEG anyway, so you ship a larger file with no quality benefit.
- Forgetting that profile pictures crop to a circle — square content with corners (like text or logos) gets clipped on the four corners.
- Posting an animated GIF when the platform serves it as a static image — Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn convert GIF uploads to JPEG; only Instagram, Reddit, and Discord preserve animation natively.
Frequently asked questions
Why upload at native size if the platform re-encodes anyway?
The platform's encoder produces visibly cleaner output when the input is exactly the right size. Uploading 1080×1080 to Instagram bypasses the platform's resize step — the encoder runs once instead of twice, so the output retains more detail.
Will my source EXIF / metadata be stripped?
Most platforms strip EXIF on upload — Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn all do this. If you need EXIF preserved (for verifiable timestamp or location), upload to a platform that keeps it (Flickr, your own site) or share the original file directly.
How private is the processing?
Every preset here runs in your browser using canvas APIs and WebAssembly — no upload to any conversion server. Only the social platform's own server sees the final file when you upload there.
Can I keep transparency in social posts?
No — every major social platform converts uploaded PNGs to JPEG, which discards transparency. Render your asset on a flat background colour first, then export. Discord and Reddit are exceptions where PNG transparency is preserved for profile pictures.
What about animated content?
Instagram supports MP4 video in feeds; Reddit, Discord, and Twitter accept GIFs. Pinterest and LinkedIn convert GIF uploads to static JPEG. The grids here are for static image presets — for video sizes, check the platform's creator-tools documentation.
Does the platform's algorithm reward higher-resolution uploads?
Indirectly — image quality is one of many engagement-ranking signals. Sharper photos generate more saves and shares per impression than soft ones, which feeds back into algorithmic distribution. The native-size upload removes platform-side softening from the equation.