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Image format on Facebook & Instagram Guide
The image formats on Facebook and Instagram are many, and it varies depending on what type of post you will share.
Sometimes it can feel a little tricky to know how to adapt your images according to the wishes (and requirements) of the social networks for best results. In this post, we will guide you through which image and video formats work best on Facebook & Instagram. Let’s dig in!
Sometimes it can feel tricky to know what to choose, who and what to listen to. Today, almost all the information is just a Google search away, which also means that the information we get is often different.
The image formats for Facebook
Facebook is still the largest social platform in the world, although growth has not been as great in recent years. As with most social platforms, visual content is very important. Therefore, when sharing something on Facebook, it is important to have a picture, or preferably, a video. What you should also keep in mind is that the formats differ depending on whether you see them on desktop or mobile. Our mobile screens are much smaller and give you a limited opportunity to use eg. text in these. I will discuss below what the optimal formats for image and video are for each placement.
Profile picture – desktop & mobile: 180 x 180 px
We recommend uploading a profile image of at least 180 x 180 pixels. Preferably nice resolution to avoid a pixel profile image.
Cover image desktop: 815 x 320 px
The same principle regarding resolution is of course applied to the cover page of the page.
Mobile cover image: 640 x 360
If you have information in your cover image that you want to see, you should update it according to the mobile dimensions. Otherwise, the image you upload via desktop to the mobile format will be automatically adapted.
Picture in posts, carousel & slideshow – desktop & mobile:
When it comes to posting photos in their posts, whether you just add one or more photos, a good rule of thumb is to think about how you want the end result to look. For example, creating an album can be nice if all the pictures are the same format. The same goes for a collection of photos.
If we know that many people will see the pictures or video on a mobile, then it is perhaps a good idea to optimize for that from the beginning. Generally speaking, it is a good idea to try to use as much of the screen as possible in the flow. This applies to both desktop and mobile. In short, we can work with three different formats today:
Landscape: 1200 x 628 px (16: 9)
This format is the slightly more classic format of pictures on Facebook. It is also the format of the images when sharing via a link preview. If one is to work on the principle of taking up as much screen space as possible, this is the last format alternative.
Square: 1200 x 1200 px (1: 1)
The square format is great because it works in many places. In other words, it is very versatile.
Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px
This format is great as it occupies a lot of screen space and gives you a greater opportunity to catch people’s’ attention.
Image in stories mobile & desktop: 1080 x 1920
This format is actually created to fill the entire screen when you open a story. A fun format that far too few utilize! Stories is therefore great!
NOTE! The images in the stories are only displayed for 5 seconds and only remain for 24 hours.
Video feed – desktop & mobile:
For movies, the same formats apply as for pictures, you choose based on how you want the end result to look. Of course, the principle of taking up as much screen space as possible also applies to video.
Video stores
The format for video in stories is the same as for pictures.
Image format for Instagram
Instagram continues to grow and is an extremely popular platform. All image formats can be directly translated from Facebook. What you should remember is that most people use Instagram alone on their mobile, so it becomes extra important to think mobile when sharing photos and videos here.
Profile image: 180 x 180 px
The same applies to Facebook.
Image & video in the feed:
Here, the same principle applies as for Facebook, you can use three different formats:
- Landscape: 1080 x 608 px
- Square: 1080 x 1080 px (1: 1)
- Portrait: 1080 x 1350 px
Picture & video in stories: 1080 x 1920
The format for stories on Instagram is the same as on Facebook.
Image format on Facebook and Instagram – overview
Here you have a small infographic where I compiled all the image formats.
