What size should an Instagram Reels cover be?
1080 by 1920 pixels, a 9:16 portrait ratio. That is the shape the Reels feed plays at full bleed, so the feed is the only place your cover is ever seen whole. Everywhere else the cover appears, a shape gets cut out of the middle of it. Design for the crop first and the full frame second, because the crop is what people scrolling your profile see.
Why does my Reels cover look cropped on my profile grid?
Because the grid tile is a different shape from the feed. Instagram takes a centre crop of your 9:16 cover to fill the tile, so the top and the bottom of the image are removed outright. Instagram also moved the profile grid from 1:1 squares to 4:5 portrait tiles during 2025, which changed how much survives the cut. Both shapes are in the previewer above so you can see the difference on your own image. Anything that has to be readable on your profile belongs in the middle of the frame, well away from the edges.
What size is a TikTok cover photo?
Upload at 1080 by 1920 pixels, 9:16, the same as the video itself. TikTok then shows a roughly 3:4 centre crop of that cover in your profile grid and in most browse layouts. A title placed near the top or bottom edge of the cover looks fine in the full screen feed and then vanishes from the grid, which is the single most common reason a TikTok cover preview surprises people after posting.
Where does the app interface cover a Reels or Shorts cover?
In the full screen feed, roughly the bottom quarter on the left carries the username, title and caption, a vertical rail of like, comment and share buttons runs up the right edge over about a fifth of the width, and thin bars sit at the very top and the very bottom. That leaves a usable middle band that is a good deal smaller than the file you exported. The overlays here are drawn at those proportions from the current app layouts, and they shift a little with every app update, so treat them as a working guide rather than a spec sheet.
Cover, or carousel?
A cover has one job, which is to earn the tap. A carousel has to hold attention across a swipe, and the two formats reward completely different ideas. If you are still deciding which one an idea deserves, carousels vs Reels has the numbers on reach, saves and how each format actually performs.
Already committed to the carousel? Cut a wide image into seamless slides with the Instagram carousel splitter, or look through the rest of the free tools.