Every platform crops, resizes, or compresses your image its own way the moment you upload it, and if you didn’t size the image for that platform first, you’re letting an algorithm decide what gets cut off. This is the reference version — the actual current dimensions, not “roughly square-ish,” so you can size an image once and know it’ll display the way you intended.
One honest caveat before the tables: platforms change these numbers periodically, usually without much announcement. If you’re prepping something important (a launch graphic, an ad campaign), it’s worth a quick spot-check against the platform’s current help documentation before finalizing dimensions at scale.
| Placement | Recommended size | Aspect ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Feed post (portrait, gets the most vertical space in-feed) | 1080 × 1350px | 4:5 |
| Feed post (square) | 1080 × 1080px | 1:1 |
| Stories / Reels | 1080 × 1920px | 9:16 |
| Profile picture | 320 × 320px (displays as a circle, crop accordingly) | 1:1 |
Portrait (4:5) feed posts take up noticeably more vertical space in a follower’s scroll than a square post, which is why most creators default to it over the older square standard.
| Placement | Recommended size | Aspect ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Shared/link image | 1200 × 630px | ~1.91:1 |
| Cover photo | 820 × 312px (desktop); crops differently on mobile, so keep key content centered | ~2.63:1 |
| Profile picture | 170 × 170px (displays smaller on mobile) | 1:1 |
| In-feed photo post | 1200 × 630px works safely across placements | ~1.91:1 |
Facebook’s cover photo is the classic “looks fine on desktop, crops badly on mobile” case — keep any text or logo well within the center third of the image.
X (formerly Twitter)
| Placement | Recommended size | Aspect ratio |
|---|---|---|
| In-stream photo | 1600 × 900px | 16:9 |
| Header/banner image | 1500 × 500px | 3:1 |
| Profile picture | 400 × 400px (displays as a circle) | 1:1 |
| Placement | Recommended size | Aspect ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Personal profile cover banner | 1584 × 396px | 4:1 |
| Company page cover banner | 1128 × 191px | ~5.9:1 |
| Feed post image | 1200 × 627px | ~1.91:1 |
| Profile picture | 400 × 400px | 1:1 |
| Placement | Recommended size | Aspect ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Pin | 1000 × 1500px | 2:3 |
| Square Pin | 1000 × 1000px | 1:1 |
| Profile picture | 165 × 165px | 1:1 |
Pinterest’s algorithm favors the taller 2:3 ratio — it simply takes up more vertical space in the grid layout than a square Pin, which tends to translate into more visibility.
YouTube
| Placement | Recommended size | Aspect ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Video thumbnail | 1280 × 720px (minimum width 640px) | 16:9 |
| Channel banner | 2560 × 1440px, but keep essential content inside the ~1546 × 423px “safe area” that displays across all devices | 16:9 (full), safe-area varies |
| Channel profile picture | 800 × 800px | 1:1 |
The channel banner safe-area detail trips people up constantly — the full banner gets cropped differently on TV, desktop, and mobile, so anything important (channel name, logo) needs to sit inside that smaller safe zone or it risks getting cut off on some devices.
Quick Reference: All Platforms at a Glance
| Platform | Most important size to get right |
|---|---|
| 1080 × 1350px (feed) | |
| 1200 × 630px (shared image) | |
| X | 1600 × 900px (in-stream photo) |
| 1200 × 627px (feed post) | |
| 1000 × 1500px (standard Pin) | |
| YouTube | 1280 × 720px (thumbnail) |
Sizing Is Only Half the Job — Compress Too
Getting the pixel dimensions right stops a platform from cropping your image unexpectedly, but it doesn’t shrink the file size. A correctly-sized 1080×1350 image straight from a phone or design tool can still be several megabytes, which matters for upload speed and, on platforms that don’t heavily re-compress on their end, how fast the image actually loads for viewers.
The straightforward workflow:
- Resize the image to the platform’s recommended dimensions first.
- Run it through AllMediaTools’ image compressor to cut file size without a visible quality hit.
- Convert the format if the platform expects something your design tool didn’t export by default.
For a thumbnail specifically, our guide to creating a YouTube thumbnail walks through the process end to end, and our complete image optimization guide covers the broader compression and format tradeoffs if you want the full picture beyond just dimensions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if I upload an image at the wrong size?
Most platforms auto-resize or auto-crop it rather than rejecting it outright — but you lose control over exactly what gets cropped out, and important content (a face, a logo, text) can end up cut off or pushed to an awkward position. Sizing it correctly beforehand keeps the composition intentional.
Do these platforms update their recommended sizes often?
Occasionally, and usually without a major announcement — a platform redesign or new feature (like Instagram’s shift toward taller feed posts) can shift what performs best even before the “official” recommended size changes. It’s worth a periodic check if a platform’s layout looks noticeably different than it used to.
Should I design at a higher resolution than these tables and let the platform scale down?
Generally no benefit for most placements — designing well beyond the platform’s actual display resolution just means uploading a larger file for the platform to immediately shrink, with no visible quality gain. The one exception is print or a use case where the same image needs to work at a much larger size elsewhere.
Why does my cover photo look fine on desktop but cropped weird on mobile?
Facebook and LinkedIn’s cover/banner placements display different crop windows on desktop versus mobile from the same uploaded image. Keeping all essential content (text, logos, faces) centered in the image, well away from the edges, avoids this regardless of which crop window a given viewer sees.
Is there a single “universal” size that works reasonably everywhere?
Not really — the aspect ratios are different enough (portrait 4:5 for Instagram vs. wide 1.91:1 for Facebook/LinkedIn vs. tall 2:3 for Pinterest) that a true one-size-fits-all image ends up compromised everywhere rather than optimized anywhere. Sizing per-platform, even if it means exporting the same photo three or four times, gives a noticeably better result on each one.
Does image compression hurt quality on platforms that already compress uploads heavily?
Not meaningfully in most cases — if the platform is going to re-compress your image on its end regardless, starting from a reasonably compressed file rather than an untouched 10MB original mostly just saves upload time and bandwidth on your side, without adding a second visible round of quality loss on top of the platform’s own processing.