Tired of trying to figure out exactly what size social media images you need for your channel or small business? Want a quick and easy solution to finding and sourcing the optimal image to fit with ever-changing platform sizes?
We can help!
We've compiled a list of all of the top social media image sizes (to suit both desktop and mobile devices) that you need to know, including:
Not only that but we've also added FREE downloadable image templates with desktop and mobile guidelines so your social media images can be as optimised and well-sized as possible. Click on the sub headings below to download the template images.
Main Feed Post Template *RECENTLY UPDATED*
TikTok – *RECENTLY ADDED*
To note:
All of the below sizes are given in width x height
The templates are available in PSD (PhotoShop) format only
The red stripes on the templates mark 'danger zone' areas where you should avoid putting anything important on your images as cropping can take place on some platform imagery between desktop and mobile
We update this post on a regular basis to coincide with changing platforms
Your Facebook Profile Picture is the perfect tool to show other users and consumers who a person or company is.
For a personal page, we'd recommend using a clear photograph of yourself.
For a business page, we'd recommend using your clearest and most identifiable logo or branding.
Remember, the image is a visual representation of your company and the space is quite minimal so you don't want to include anything too small, too big or too wordy. If your business name is too long, don't worry about adding this to the image as you can add your business name to the 'name' of the page. This will accompany the profile picture image any time it is used.
Desktop size: 820 x 312 pixels
Mobile: 640 x 360 pixels
The Facebook Cover Image is the image that spans the top of your profile page and is a way to further promote your brand visuals, aesthetic or even a lead product.
We'd recommend using the desktop cover dimensions as a size guide but then making sure your cover image fits within the mobile size on the desktop size. This way, your image will fit both sizes comfortably. Use our handy template (click on the sub heading above) as a guide.
For Facebook News Feed Posts, you can share any kind of imagery or video but we'd recommend cropping and resizing to fit the above dimensions and to ensure your image is as optimised for the platform as possible.
What are Facebook News Feed Posts?
News Feed Posts are the main way of sharing content and information on Facebook. They usually contain text, imagery and/or video content and can be posted by yourself or another friend/page that you follow. If you share a post on Facebook, this will likely show up on the feeds of your friends and followers and the same goes for any of your friends or liked pages. Your posts will also show up on your own Facebook profile page with the most recent posts at the top.
You can also edit any image before you post with Facebook's built in image editor which will help ensure your image it as effective as possible.
What you can do using the editor:
Tag other people
Add stickers
Add text
Free-hand draw/doodle (though we wouldn't recommend doing this)
Add filter effects
Adjust the lighting
Alternatively, you can use a third party app such as Preview or Colour Story to adjust, crop and add filters to your images.
You can also add a location to your Facebook News Feed Post which we'd recommend as this means it can appear if people search or click on the link for that area, giving your image even more exposure. This can be especially effective if you're a local business.
In the last couple of years, video content has become increasingly more popular on Facebook and as a result the platform will often prioritise organic content in video format.
With this in mind, it's important to ensure your videos are not only optimised to the Facebook platform but they also catch the eye of the viewer.
We'd recommend sizing your Facebook videos to 1:1 (square) size at 1080 x 1080 pixels. This way your videos are clear cut with a high resolution, adapted to suit other platforms (such as Instagram) and your videos take up more space on a user's screen, increasing viewing time and watchability.
A feature replicated from Instagram, Facebook Story Posts appear at the top of your home screen below the post and room bar. On the home screen, the Facebook Stories appear as multiple rectangles featuring a person's profile picture in the top left corner.
What are Facebook Story Posts?
Story Posts are a way of sharing 'in the moment content' that you don't want to add to your main feed, but they can be just as effective in generating engagement and traffic. One of the great things about Story Posts on Facebook is that you can replicate any content you create on Instagram and repurpose to potentially reach another audience.
Handy tip: If your Facebook and Instagram pages are linked (which we would recommend), you can also post to both Facebook and Instagram Stories at the same time.
Facebook Event Images appear across the top of any event that you create and are the main visual way of promoting the event.
We'd recommend the image you use relates to the event your promoting or alternatively further promotes your brand in some way - you could rescale your cover image for instance if appropriate.
Remember: Facebook will scale the image down to 470 × 174 on a feed but creating the image at the recommended size above will mean your image retains resolution and quality across desktop and mobile view.
Max file size: 2MB and recommended image types: JPG or PNG.
Your Twitter profile picture is the main visual way you'll be showing off your brand to other Twitter users, so it's important you include any logo or stand-out branding on your profile picture.
Most brands or businesses opt for their logo scaled to fit a 400 x 400 pixel square, but do remember that the visual will appear as a circle on Twitter so avoid putting imagery or decoration in the square corners (use our downloadable template for guidance by clicking on the sub heading above).
Your profile picture not only appears on your profile, but also on any of your tweets and on the feed of anyone that shares (retweets) your tweet, therefore it's a great way of driving brand awareness.
Max file size: 5MB and recommended image types: JPG or PNG.
Your Twitter Header image spans the top portion of your profile and is the perfect way to showcase your work, product, aesthetic or brand in a wider format.
Do beware that the profile picture image does overlap with the Header image and therefore we'd recommend using our template to avoid key information being hidden from your followers or profile visitors.
Max file size: 5MB recommended image types: JPG or PNG.
Twitter is extremely flexible when it comes to the size of your feed posts and so it's extremely important to consider this in order to share your content in the best possible way.
Standard Single Image - 1200 x 675 pixels – this adjusts automatically for mobile. However, we could recommend putting the most important content in the centre of your image to avoid anything being cropped on the sides.
Shared Link Image - 1200 x 628 pixels – again this adjusts automatically for mobile. This is when you type in a URL within your tweet and an image automatically appears beneath. Usually the person who owns the URL will have control of the content size though and not you so this is only important to consider if sharing your own content from your website or a third party source.
Double Image Sharing - 700 x 800 pixels for both images. If you're sharing two images side by side, we'd recommend scaling to the above size. However, you can share square images instead i.e. imagery you may have created for Instagram, provided the thing you want to promote is in the centre of your image.
Triple Image Sharing:
First Image will appear on the left - 700 x 800 pixels
Second and Third Images will appear on the right, stacked - 1200 x 686 pixels
Quadruple Image Sharing - 1200 x 600 pixels (each image)
You can't share more than four images in a single tweet.
Handy Tip: If you want to share more images, a great way around this is doing a Twitter Thread.
Exactly as it sounds, a Twitter Thread is a stack of multiple tweets that are all posted at the same time and are linked. To create a Twitter Thread, simply write a tweet (and add imagery if you want to) and then click on the '+' icon at the bottom right corner of the screen. Not only does this mean you can promote more text and imagery, but it also takes up more of your followers' feeds and therefore is more likely catch their attention.
But, a word of warning: do not overdo the Twitter Threads as they can be seen as 'spammy' if overused and you could see a drop in followers.
Like on Twitter and Facebook, your Instagram Profile Picture is the way to promote your logo and brand. But unlike Twitter and Facebook, you don't have a Header or Cover Image to further promote on your main profile page (although arguably you have the main grid feed which is in fact better) so it's important that your profile picture is clear and shows off your branding.
However, one other thing to note is that consistency is really important for brands too so we'd recommend having one consistent Profile Picture design and resize this for each platform.
*RECENTLY UPDATED*
Instagram Main Feed Posts appear on your followers' main feeds and the grid of images at the bottom of your profile.
Instagram now accepts portrait size main feed images which we would recommend using as it takes up more of a user's screen meaning their eyes remain on your content for longer (which can only be a good thing, right?).
If using an image straight from your phone, use the inbuilt editor to resize your photo or alternatively use a photo editor (we'd recommend Preview or Colour Story). You can also take your photos in '4:3' mode in your camera view which will ensure they are suitably sized for Instagram.
Main Feed Posts are a great way of showing off your brand or an aesthetic, promoting engaging and shareable content and elevating your business and/or product.
Handy tip: we'd recommend posting Main Feed content 4-5 times a week for optimal engagement, but avoid posting too often as you can spam follower's feeds and this can lead to a drop in your follower numbers.
Max file size: 4GB
As mentioned on the Story Posts Facebook section, Instagram Story Posts are a great way of sharing easy-to-view, in-the-moment, friendly content with your followers.
On Instagram, Story Posts appear when you click on a person's profile picture at the top of your home page or when visiting another person's profile. Usually the profile picture will have an orange and pink glow around it indicating this person has posted a Story. In order to share your own Story Post, go to your profile (bottom right corner with your image on it) and click the + button at the top.
On Story Posts, you can add text, filters, animated gifs, images, music, stickers, hashtags, locations and much more. You can also create interactive content like polls, countdowns, quizzes and q&a elements which are an excellent way to engage with followers and for consumer insight too.
Instagram Story Posts only last for 24 hours, but if you want to keep your content visible you can add your posts to the Highlights section on your profile (this appears beneath your bio and the 'edit profile' button).
Remember that Instagram Story Posts show your profile picture, text and then buttons on the top and bottom of the screen so keep your content to the middle of the image to avoid it getting masked. Use our template as a guide.
Reels Posts - 1080 x 1920 pixels (but keep content in the middle)
Instagram's newest feature is Instagram Reels - their attempt at rivalling TikTok. Reels are 15-30 second videos in which you can add music, effects and text to create fun, eye-catching video-based content. As they are the latest feature and Instagram wants to keep TikTok fans on side, the platform highly values and rewards users who invest in the feature with high levels of exposure from their explore pages and prioritising the content on people's news feeds. As Instagram, up until recently, was a highly static and photographic focused platform, Reels are also an excellent way to grab user's attention quickly as they disrupt the photo-based feed and capture your attention faster.
In terms of size, Reels can be a little bit tricky.
When viewing in the Reels part of the platform, Reels appear like Instagram Stories at size 1080 (w) x 1920 (h) pixels. However, Instagram encourages Reel-posters to share to their main feed (and in turn their followers' feeds) and when doing so crops the top 15% and the bottom 15% of the video off in order to fit with their main feed proportions. With this in mind, it's important to keep the focus of your Reels in the central portion of the video to avoid important information (and content) being cut off.
In conclusion:
Size Reels and any Reels cover imagery to: 1080 x 1920 pixels (9:16)
But keep content within 1080 x 1080 pixels in the centre of the above size (1:1 or 4:3)
YouTube
On YouTube, having a Profile Picture is important as it puts a face/identity to your brand.
When setting your Profile Picture, you're able to add a border, but we'd recommend adding your image first (making sure your image appears in the centre of the picture) and then add your border to avoid any unwanted cropping.
Like Twitter and Facebook, on your YouTube channel you can create a branded homepage banner to further promote your product or brand.
However, be careful with the size of your banner as it can change drastically between desktop and mobile.
For this reason, we'd recommend putting the key content on your banner within 1546 x 423 pixels on the above recommended size template to ensure nothing is cropped. Use our guide if you're not sure by clicking on Channel Cover Image above.
YouTube Video Posts are the only form of content on YouTube and as such having your video content at the right size is essential.
As YouTube videos can appear on multiple devices, it's important your videos are the correct size to adapt.
The above recommended size suits all devices but we'd also recommend keeping the main speaker or action to the centre of your video to ensure the video is as optimised as possible.
TikTok – *RECENTLY ADDED*
While the profile image you've used across other social media platforms will likely work for TikTok, if you want your profile image to be optimised as possible, we'd recommend sizing it to 200x200 pixels.
Video Posts – 1080 x 1920 pixels
Because TikTok is a mobile-first app, it's content sizing is based entirely around the mobile size. For this reason, videos are posted directly into the app and for this reason we haven't provided a photoshop template as we'd recommend creating content in the app itself.
Max file size: 10GB and recommend image types are JPG or PNG.
When setting-up your Pinterest account, you're given the option to use your Google or Facebook account which can pull through your Profile Picture image automatically. However, there is also the option to alter your Profile Picture manually through your profile page to ensure your image is as optimised as possible, which we would recommend doing.
Use our template (click on the Profile Pictures sub heading above to download) as a guide.
The main purpose of Pinterest is to create mood and aesthetic boards, save your favourite imagery and show off your products in a visually-pleasing way. For businesses, you can also link your pins to your website to drive traffic and leads.
What are pins?
Pins are images you can bookmark and use to save ideas. These typically show up on your homepage but can also appear on search results and your own boards too. You can also upload your own pins, search for pins, save any that you like and click on a pin to learn more.
The pins that show up on your homepage are dependent on what interests you've selected and what is trending within those interests.
Unlike other platforms, the height of Pins are adjustable. However we'd recommend keeping your images within an aspect ratio of 2:3 to ensure your content is as optimised as possible.
Board creation is the main purpose of Pinterest and because of this it's even more important to have imagery at the right size and in the right place.
On your board, your images will display as a grid beneath your profile picture, name and information. The more uniform the image sizes are the more pleasing the content will be to your followers and viewers.
We hope the above was a useful overview on social media image sizes. As mentioned above, we update this post frequently in line with platform alterations so feel free to bookmark or save this as your go-to social media image guide.
Thanks for reading and best of luck with your social media sizing!
P.S. Want some help creating images or photography for your business or community? Get in touch via the form on our Contact page or alternatively email natasha@ng-creative.co.uk.