Get the exact size
FreePick where the image is going, then drop it in. Resizing runs on Zyff’s servers, so you get the same file on a phone as on a desktop, and nothing is stored.
Need padding instead of a crop, a different output format, or a size that isn’t listed? The full Image Resizer has every option.
The short version
- Match the aspect ratio exactly; the pixel count only needs to meet or slightly exceed the recommendation.
- Upload at good quality. The platform will re-compress, and it compresses whatever you gave it.
- 1080x1080 square and 1080x1350 portrait cover most feed posts across platforms.
- 1920x1080 (16:9) covers video thumbnails, and 1080x1920 (9:16) covers every full-screen vertical format.
- For anything with a face or logo in it, crop deliberately rather than letting the platform choose.
Every platform re-encodes and re-crops what you upload. Supply the wrong aspect ratio and it will either letterbox your image or cut it, and it decides where to cut using its own logic — usually the centre, occasionally a face detector. That is why a banner that looked fine in the editor turns up with the logo sliced in half.
The fix is to match the aspect ratio before uploading rather than hoping the platform crops kindly. Once the ratio is right, the pixel dimensions matter less than people think: platforms downscale anything larger than their display size, so uploading at or slightly above the recommended dimensions is enough, and uploading at four times the size just costs you upload time and a heavier re-encode.
The one thing worth being generous about is quality. Every platform compresses on ingest, and it compresses your file rather than the original — so an image you already squeezed to 40KB gets squeezed again and looks it. Upload a reasonably high-quality file and let the platform do its own compression once.
Feed and post sizes
These are the images that appear in a scrolling timeline. Portrait formats take more vertical space and therefore more attention, which is why 4:5 has become the default recommendation on Instagram rather than the square it started with.
| Platform | Format | Dimensions | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square post | 1080 x 1080 | 1:1 | |
| Portrait post | 1080 x 1350 | 4:5 | |
| Landscape post | 1080 x 566 | 1.91:1 | |
| Feed image | 1200 x 630 | 1.91:1 | |
| Square feed image | 1080 x 1080 | 1:1 | |
| X (Twitter) | In-stream image | 1600 x 900 | 16:9 |
| Feed image | 1200 x 627 | 1.91:1 | |
| Standard pin | 1000 x 1500 | 2:3 | |
| Threads | Feed image | 1080 x 1350 | 4:5 |
Stories, reels and vertical video covers
Everything full-screen and vertical uses 9:16, which makes this the easiest group to prepare — one 1080x1920 export works across all of them. The complication is safe zones rather than dimensions: each platform overlays its own interface on top of your image, and anything important near an edge disappears behind a caption, a profile name or a row of buttons.
Keep text and faces inside the middle 80% vertically. As a rule of thumb, leave about 250 pixels clear at the top and 350 at the bottom of a 1920-pixel-tall image, and stay 100 pixels in from each side.
| Platform | Format | Dimensions | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Story / Reel | 1080 x 1920 | 9:16 | |
| Story | 1080 x 1920 | 9:16 | |
| TikTok | Video / cover | 1080 x 1920 | 9:16 |
| YouTube | Shorts | 1080 x 1920 | 9:16 |
| Idea pin | 1080 x 1920 | 9:16 | |
| Snapchat | Snap / ad | 1080 x 1920 | 9:16 |
Video thumbnails and link previews
A YouTube thumbnail is 1280x720 at minimum and 1920x1080 is the practical standard, in 16:9, under 2MB. It is displayed as small as roughly 210 pixels wide in a sidebar, so anything subtle in it is invisible where it matters most — large faces and three or four words of text are what survive that reduction.
Link previews are the same problem in a different ratio. When a page is shared on any platform, the image it shows comes from that page's Open Graph tag, and 1200x630 is the size that works everywhere. Text in a link preview image is cropped aggressively on some platforms, so keep it well inside the middle.
| Use | Dimensions | Ratio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube thumbnail | 1920 x 1080 | 16:9 | 1280 x 720 minimum, under 2MB |
| Open Graph link preview | 1200 x 630 | 1.91:1 | Used by most platforms when a link is shared |
| X large card | 1200 x 628 | 1.91:1 | Falls back to the Open Graph image |
| Pinterest video cover | 1000 x 1500 | 2:3 | Portrait performs better in the grid |
Cropping so the subject survives
Changing an aspect ratio always means either adding empty space or removing content. Which one you get depends on the fit mode, and the choice matters more than the dimensions do.
Cover fills the target ratio completely and crops whatever does not fit, which is what you want for a banner or a feed image — no letterboxing, at the cost of losing some edges. Contain fits the whole image inside the target and pads the remainder, which preserves everything and is right when the image is a logo or a diagram that must not be cut. Fill stretches to the ratio and distorts, and is almost never what anyone wants.
Where cover is right, the crop position decides what survives. Centre is the default and is usually fine for landscapes. For a portrait, cropping from the top keeps the head in frame where centre would cut it. Zyff's resizer also offers two automatic positions: entropy picks the busiest region, and attention targets the area most likely to draw the eye — the latter is the better default for photographs of people, since it tends to keep faces rather than backgrounds.
- Banners and feed images: cover, so nothing is letterboxed.
- Logos and diagrams: contain, so nothing is cut.
- Portraits going to a square or 4:5: cover with the crop position at top, or attention.
- Never fill — it distorts the image to force the ratio.
Try it on Image Resizer
Free, no signup, no watermark. Runs on Zyff’s servers, so you get the same result on a phone as on a desktop.
How to resize an image for a social platform
Find the ratio you need
Look up the format in the tables above and note the aspect ratio rather than just the pixels — 1:1, 4:5, 9:16 or 16:9. The ratio is what has to match; the exact pixel count only needs to reach the recommendation.
Open the resizer in dimensions mode
In Zyff's image resizer, switch to dimensions mode and enter both the width and the height for the format, for example 1080 by 1350 for an Instagram portrait post.
Choose cover, and set the crop position
Set the fit mode to cover so the frame is filled with no padding. For a photograph of a person, set the crop position to attention or top rather than centre, which is what stops a head being cut off.
Keep quality high
Export at quality 85 or above, or leave the format as the original. The platform re-compresses whatever you upload, so a file you already squeezed hard gets squeezed twice and shows it.
Check the safe zone before uploading
For a story, reel or banner, confirm nothing important sits near an edge — platform interface elements will cover it. Move text and logos toward the centre and re-export if they are close.
At a glance
| Resize modes | Exact dimensions, or percentage of the original |
|---|---|
| Fit modes | cover, contain, fill, inside, outside |
| Crop positions | 9 fixed positions plus entropy and attention |
| Resampling | Lanczos3, Mitchell, cubic or nearest neighbour |
| Output formats | Original, JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF |
| Price | Free, no account needed |
Frequently asked questions
What is the best image size for Instagram?
1080 x 1350 for a portrait feed post, which is the 4:5 ratio and takes the most vertical space in the feed. Use 1080 x 1080 for a square and 1080 x 1920 for stories and reels. Instagram downscales anything larger, so there is no benefit to uploading at higher resolution than that.
What size should a YouTube thumbnail be?
1920 x 1080 in 16:9, with 1280 x 720 as the minimum and 2MB as the file size ceiling. Because a thumbnail is displayed as small as about 210 pixels wide in recommendation lists, use large faces and no more than three or four words of text — anything finer is invisible at that scale.
Why does the platform crop my image badly?
Because the aspect ratio you uploaded does not match the ratio it displays, so it crops to fit — usually from the centre, with no regard for where your subject is. Resize to the correct ratio yourself before uploading, using cover fit so nothing is letterboxed and choosing the crop position deliberately.
Does uploading a larger image give better quality?
Only up to the platform's display size. Beyond that it downscales and re-encodes, so a 6000-pixel upload ends up the same as a 1080-pixel one but takes longer to send. What does affect quality is compressing the file yourself before uploading, because the platform then compresses your already-compressed copy.
What size is a LinkedIn banner?
1584 x 396 for a personal profile, a 4:1 ratio, and 1128 x 191 for a company page. Both are cropped differently across devices, so keep your name, logo and any faces near the horizontal centre — the outer edges are frequently not visible on a phone.
Can one image work across several platforms?
Within a ratio group, yes. A single 1080 x 1920 export covers Instagram stories and reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Facebook stories, and one 1080 x 1080 square works on most feeds. Across groups you need a separate crop, because going from 1:1 to 16:9 means either cutting content or adding padding.
What is the difference between cover and contain when resizing?
Cover fills the whole target frame and crops whatever does not fit, so there is no empty space but you lose some edges. Contain fits the entire image inside the frame and pads the rest, so nothing is lost but there are bars. Use cover for photographs and banners, contain for logos and diagrams that must stay complete.