Instagram Story Size
1080 by 1920 — and the strips at the top and bottom that the interface sits on top of, which is where most designs put their text.
Runs on your device — images are never uploadedDrop your images here
or click to browse — as many as you like
JPG · PNG · WebP · HEIC
Enlarging past the original cannot add detail that was never captured. The tool says so when it happens rather than quietly handing back something softer.
How it works
Three steps, no account, and the image never leaves your computer.
Drop the image in
JPG, PNG, WebP or an iPhone HEIC. Several at once is fine — they all come out the same size.
The size is already set to 1080 by 1920
Change it if you need something else. Cover crops to fill, Contain fits the whole picture and pads the rest.
Check the preview, then save
The crop is shown before anything is written, so what you get is what you saw.
What people resize to this
A story or a reel cover
The right shape, with the text clear of the interface at both ends.
The same design for several platforms
9:16 covers stories, reels, TikTok and Shorts, so one export serves all of them.
A landscape photo you have to post vertically
Crop it deliberately, or pad it and keep the whole frame. The preview shows both.
A poster or a flyer as a story
Usually a different shape entirely. Padding keeps the whole design readable rather than cutting the edges off it.
The size everyone knows, and the margins nobody does
1080 by 1920 pixels, 9:16. The same shape serves an Instagram story, a reel, a TikTok, a YouTube Short and a Facebook story, which is why it has become the default vertical size everywhere.
Roughly 250 pixels are covered at each end
This is the part that catches people. Your profile picture and name sit across the top of a story. The reply box, the send arrow and the share icons sit across the bottom. On a reel, the caption and the account name take a wide strip near the bottom as well.
None of that is in the image you upload, and all of it is on top of it when somebody watches.
Keep text and faces inside the middle 1080 by 1420 — about 250 pixels clear at the top and 250 at the bottom. Backgrounds can and should run to the edges; it is the content that needs the margin.
| Size | Ratio | File limit |
|---|---|---|
| 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 | no practical limit |
Different phones cut different amounts
9:16 is the shape of most phone screens, but not all of them. A taller handset crops slightly at the sides, a shorter one at the top and bottom. That is another reason for a generous margin rather than a precise one: an edge that is exactly at the limit is at the limit on one phone and outside it on another.
Turning a landscape photo vertical
A 16:9 landscape into 9:16 vertical is the most aggressive crop this tool does — you keep about a third of the width. There are two honest ways to handle it. Crop, and accept losing the sides. Or fit the whole image and fill the space above and below with a colour, which keeps everything at the cost of a smaller picture.
Both are here: Cover crops, Contain fits and pads. The preview shows what each does before you choose.
Cover or Contain, and what each throws away
Two ways to fit one shape into another, and the tool offers both.
Cover fills the frame completely and crops whatever does not fit. Nothing is distorted and nothing is padded; some of the picture is simply gone. This is what you want almost always.
Contain fits the whole image inside the frame and fills the leftover space with a colour you choose. Nothing is lost, but the picture is smaller and there are bars. Right when the whole frame matters — a poster, a diagram, a design you cannot cut.
Neither ever stretches. An image squashed to fit is the one mistake that cannot be undone by looking at it again later.
Nothing is uploaded
The resizing happens in your browser using your own processor, so the image never leaves your machine. That is why there is no file-size limit, no queue and no account, and why a batch of forty is limited by your computer rather than by somebody’s free tier.
Common questions
What size is an Instagram story?
1080 by 1920 pixels, 9:16. The same size works for reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Facebook stories.
Why is my text covered by the interface?
Because the profile name sits across the top and the reply bar across the bottom, on top of your image. Keep text and faces inside the middle, about 250 pixels clear at each end.
How do I make a landscape photo fit?
Either crop it, which keeps about a third of the width, or use Contain to fit the whole image and fill the space above and below with a colour. The preview shows both.
Does the same size work for TikTok and Shorts?
Yes. 1080 by 1920 is the standard vertical size across all of them, which is why one export usually serves every platform.
More tools
Every one of them runs on your device. No uploads, no accounts.