Every platform crops to a different shape. A photo sized right for Instagram’s 4:5 feed gets squeezed or cropped the moment you post it natively to X’s 16:9 timeline. There’s no single size that works everywhere, but there is a small set of ratios that cover almost every platform if you know which one each expects.
Summary table
| Platform | Recommended size | Aspect ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram (feed) | 1080 x 1350 | 4:5 |
| Instagram (story/reel) | 1080 x 1920 | 9:16 |
| Facebook (feed post) | 1080 x 1350 | 4:5 |
| Facebook (link share) | 1200 x 630 | 1.91:1 |
| X (Twitter) | 1200 x 675 | 16:9 |
| Threads | 1080 x 1350 | 4:5 |
| Bluesky | 2000 x 2000 | 1:1 |
| Mastodon | 1920 x 1080 | 16:9 |
| LinkedIn (feed post) | 1080 x 1350 | 4:5 |
| 1000 x 1500 | 2:3 | |
| TikTok | 1080 x 1920 | 9:16 |
| YouTube (thumbnail) | 1280 x 720 | 16:9 |
| Google Business Profile | 1200 x 900 | 4:3 |
For the full breakdown on any one platform, including profile photos, banners, and carousel or multi-image specs, see the dedicated posts: Instagram, Instagram Stories, Facebook, X, Threads, Bluesky, Mastodon, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, YouTube, and Google Business Profile.
Three ratios cover most of it
Vertical, at roughly 4:5 or 9:16, is the shape Instagram, TikTok, Threads, Facebook and LinkedIn all favor for a single feed post, since each takes up more of the screen while someone scrolls. Wide, at 16:9 or close to it, is what X, Mastodon and YouTube thumbnails default to, and it’s also the shape nearly every link preview renders at, which is why Facebook and LinkedIn both have a second, wider size for link shares specifically. Square, at 1:1, is what Bluesky builds around and a safe fallback elsewhere, it rarely gets an awkward crop anywhere, even if it isn’t the strongest performer on every platform.
If you only design one version of an image, a square export tends to survive the most crops with the least damage, since a platform expecting vertical and a platform expecting wide will both center-crop a square into something usable, where an extreme ratio in either direction loses real content on the platforms that want the opposite shape.
Format and common mistakes
Design at the actual target size for each platform rather than exporting once and letting every platform crop the same source image differently, that’s how a subject’s head ends up cut off on one platform and fine on another. A social media image resizer makes producing several sized versions from one source fast rather than tedious.
Watch file size across the board. Most platforms recompress large uploads anyway, so a properly compressed source file gives you more control over the final result than an oversized original does. An image compressor handles that without a visible quality hit, and the social media image size guide is the fastest way to check a full set of dimensions at once instead of opening a dozen separate pages.