An Instagram portrait post is 1080 x 1350 px. Instagram opened the feed to a taller 3:4 photo on 28 May 2025, so 4:5 is no longer its tallest shape.
Where it shows
- Main feed at full width
- Profile grid, cropped to a 3:4 tile
- Explore tab
- Saved collections
- Reshares into someone else's Story
The safe zone
In the feed a portrait post fills the frame with no interface drawn over it, so the whole 1080 x 1350 px is yours. The trim happens on the profile, where the 3:4 tile keeps the full 1350 px height and narrows the width to 1012 px, losing 34 px from each side. Only a 3:4 post at 1080 x 1440 px does better, because it matches the tile exactly and loses nothing. Leave a 40 px margin at the left and right edges and the grid takes nothing you cared about.
Quirks worth knowing
- 4:5 stopped being the ceiling on 28 May 2025. Adam Mosseri announced that Instagram supports 3:4 photos, which is 1080 x 1440 px at this width, and said a 3:4 upload appears exactly as you shot it.
- 3:4 was added, not swapped in. 4:5 and 1:1 were not deprecated and still post uncropped, so 1080 x 1350 px is as safe as it ever was.
- What the feed does with a photo taller than 3:4 is not documented. No primary source says whether it is cropped or refused, so treat a 1080 x 1920 px feed upload as untested rather than a known centre crop.
- Meta's Content Publishing documentation still states the aspect ratio must be within a 4:5 to 1.91:1 range, so 3:4 sits outside the documented API range while the app renders it uncropped. Meta has not reconciled the two.
- 1080 x 1350 px is 270 px taller than a square at the same width, which is roughly a quarter more phone screen for the same scroll.
- The 3:4 grid tile and the 4:5 post are close but not identical, which is why Hootsuite reports the grid render of a portrait post as 1012 x 1350 px.
- Meta caps a feed image at 8 MB and 1440 px wide, so 1440 x 1800 px is the largest version of a portrait post Instagram will keep. 1440 is a width ceiling, not a height.
- The 1012 px grid width is not an Instagram published number. It comes from Hootsuite's size guide and lines up with the 3:4 grid figure Buffer gives.
Common mistakes
- Designing at 1080 x 1920 px out of Story habit, when the tallest shape the feed is known to support is 3:4 at 1080 x 1440 px.
- Putting a logo hard against the left or right edge, where the 34 px grid trim clips it.
- Letting a headline run past 1080 px of width because the canvas was set up landscape first.
- Assuming a 4:5 post keeps its shape in the tile, then finding the tile slightly narrower than the post.
What we recommend
- Export at 1080 x 1350 px for a portrait post, or 1080 x 1440 px when you want the post and the 3:4 grid tile to be exactly the same shape.
- Keep type inside a 1000 px wide column so the 3:4 tile never touches it.
- If the source photo is taller than 3:4, crop it to 3:4 or 4:5 yourself before uploading, because Instagram does not document what it does with anything taller.
- Spend the extra 270 px of height on a second line of copy rather than more padding, since the height is the whole reason to pick portrait.
Common questions
Why does Instagram cut the top and bottom off my photo?
Your photo is taller than the tallest shape the feed supports. Since 28 May 2025 that shape is 3:4, which is 1080 x 1440 px at the standard width, and 4:5 and 1:1 still post uncropped alongside it. A 1080 x 1920 px Story graphic is taller than all three. Crop it to 3:4 or 4:5 yourself before uploading, because Instagram has not published what it does with anything taller than 3:4.
Is 4:5 better than square on Instagram?
For screen coverage, yes. A portrait post is 270 px taller than a square at the same width, so it occupies more of the phone while someone scrolls. It also loses only 34 px per side in the 3:4 profile tile, against 135 px per side for a square.
What is the tallest image Instagram allows in the feed?
3:4, which is 1080 x 1440 px at the standard 1080 px width. Adam Mosseri announced it on 28 May 2025, saying a 3:4 photo now appears exactly as you shot it. 4:5 and 1:1 were kept, not replaced, so both still post uncropped. Meta's Content Publishing documentation still lists a 4:5 to 1.91:1 range and has not been updated to match the app.
Should I export my portrait post larger than 1080 px wide?
There is little point past 1440 px, which Meta lists as the maximum width it keeps. Anything wider is downscaled, and that re-encode is usually worse than sending 1080 px in the first place. Keep the file under the 8 MB image limit too.
Why does my 4:5 post look narrower on my profile?
The profile tile is 3:4, which is narrower than 4:5. Hootsuite reports the grid render of a portrait post as 1012 x 1350 px, so 68 px of width is trimmed in total. Full width returns as soon as someone taps into the post.
More answers on thumbnail, carousel and cover questions are on the FAQ.