Resizing images for social media: exact dimensions and how to hit them

Every target below is really two numbers: a ratio (the shape) and a pixel size. The ratio is what matters most. A 1080 × 1350 image and a 2160 × 2700 image have the same 4:5 shape, and a platform will display them the same way after scaling. A 1080 × 1080 image has a different shape, and it will be shown differently.

QuickConvert’s resizer changes pixels. It does not crop. With “Keep aspect ratio” on, it preserves the shape of the image you give it. With the ratio off, it forces the image into the box you typed, which stretches it if the shapes differ. So the workflow is always:

• Crop the image to the target ratio in your phone’s or computer’s photo editor.
• Resize the cropped image to the target width with the ratio on.

Platforms change their recommendations from time to time, so check the platform’s own help page before a campaign or a print run of anything. These sizes have been stable and widely used:

Instagram

• Square post: 1080 × 1080 (1:1).
• Portrait post: 1080 × 1350 (4:5). This takes up the most room in the feed.
• Landscape post: 1080 × 566 (about 1.91:1).
• Story or Reel cover: 1080 × 1920 (9:16). Keep text away from the top and bottom edges, where the app places its own buttons.

Link previews (Facebook, LinkedIn, and others)

• 1200 × 630 (about 1.91:1) is the common size for the preview image that appears when someone shares a web page. If you run a website, this is the image referenced in its Open Graph tags.

YouTube

• Thumbnail: 1280 × 720 (16:9).

Profile banners

• X (Twitter) header: 1500 × 500 (3:1).
• LinkedIn personal background: 1584 × 396 (4:1).

Banners are cropped differently on phones and desktops, and the profile photo covers part of them. Keep anything important in the middle third.

Phone cameras usually shoot at 4:3 or 3:4. Say you have a 3024 × 4032 portrait photo.

• Crop. Open the photo in your gallery app’s editor, choose the crop tool, set the ratio to 4:5, and position the frame. The crop will be about 3024 × 3780.
• Resize. Open Image Resize and drop the cropped photo. Wait for the original size to show. Choose Dimensions, leave Keep aspect ratio on, and type 1080 in the width box. The height updates to 1350.
• Format. Set Save as to JPG and keep quality at 90. Social platforms re-compress uploads, so starting from a clean file helps the final result look better.
• Download. Click Resize and download, and check the dimensions in your file manager before posting.

For a link preview built from a screenshot or a designed graphic:

• Crop to 1.91:1. If your editor does not offer that ratio, pick a custom crop and aim for a width that is 1.905 times the height, for example 2400 × 1260.
• In Image Resize, type a width of 1200 with the ratio on. The height should be 630, or within a pixel of it.
• If the height is 629 or 631, switch the ratio off and type 1200 × 630. A single pixel of stretch is invisible.
• Choose PNG if the graphic has sharp text and flat colours, or JPG at quality 90 if it is mostly photo. The JPG vs PNG vs WebP guide explains why.

If you are preparing, say, ten product photos for a carousel, crop them all to the same ratio first. Then drop them together on Image Resize, choose Dimensions with the ratio on, and type the width (1080). Each file gets that width, and its height follows its own shape. If all crops were 1:1, every result is 1080 × 1080. The batch downloads as resized-images.zip.

If you switch the ratio off for a batch, every file is forced to the exact width and height you typed. That is fine when every image already has that shape, and it stretches any that do not. Open one image from the zip before you post the set.

You can, and for photos it often works. There are three reasons to resize yourself:

• You control the crop. Platforms crop from the centre or with their own rules.
• Some platforms and scheduling tools have file size limits, and a camera original can exceed them.
• Smaller uploads finish faster on a mobile connection.

Do not enlarge a small image to reach a recommended size. Image Resize can scale up to 200 percent, but it cannot add detail that was never captured. An 800 pixel wide image stretched to 1080 will look softer than the 800 pixel original shown at its natural size. Find a larger source if you can.

Graphics with text are where resizing goes wrong most often. Two habits help:

• Design at the target size or at exactly double it (2160 × 2700 for a 1080 × 1350 post), then reduce to 50 percent with Percentage mode. Halving keeps lines crisp.
• Save text graphics as PNG, or as JPG at a high quality. A low JPEG quality makes halos around letters, and the platform’s own compression adds more.

Unreleased product photos and client artwork should not sit on an unknown upload server. Image Resize draws the image on a canvas in your browser and saves the result to your device. QuickConvert does not receive the file.

What does “Keep aspect ratio” do?

When it is on, changing the width updates the height from the image’s original proportions, and the other way around. The shape stays the same.

Can Image Resize crop to a square?

No. It changes size only. Crop in a photo editor first, then resize the cropped file.

Should I use WebP for social media?

Most platforms accept JPG and PNG everywhere; WebP support is less consistent across apps and scheduling tools. JPG is the safer upload for photos.

What is the largest image the tool can make?

Neither side can exceed 16,384 pixels, and each source file must be 40 MB or smaller. Social media sizes are far below those limits.

For the mechanics of ratios and batch rules in more depth, read how to resize images without stretching them, then open Image Resize.