Instagram carousel size & dimensions: the 2026 guide

The four carousel sizes Instagram supports

Instagram accepts one aspect ratio per carousel — every slide is forced to match the first one you upload. These are the four ratios and the pixel dimensions to export at:

• Portrait (4:5) — 1080 × 1350 px. The tallest feed format and the default choice: it occupies about 20% more screen than a square.
• Square (1:1) — 1080 × 1080 px. The classic. Safe everywhere, ideal when your grid aesthetic matters.
• Landscape (1.91:1) — 1080 × 566 px. Wide and cinematic, but small in the feed — use only when the visual demands it.
• Story / Reels (9:16) — 1080 × 1920 px. For Stories and Reels covers, not feed carousels.

Which size gets the most reach?

Portrait 4:5 is the pragmatic winner for carousels. More vertical space means your post stays on screen longer as users scroll, and longer on-screen time correlates with more stops, reads, and swipes. Instagram has also been nudging the whole feed toward taller formats for years.

Square remains the right call when your carousel will be viewed as part of a grid (profile visits matter for creators being evaluated by brands) or when you're repurposing the same asset to platforms that prefer 1:1.

Safe zones: where text can actually live

Dimensions are only half the story. Instagram overlays UI on your image — the account name at the top, the caption, like and share buttons at the bottom — and profile grid view crops everything to a centered square-ish window.

• Keep headlines and key text within the middle ~80% of the canvas, both vertically and horizontally.
• Leave at least 120 px clear at the top and 250 px at the bottom on 4:5 exports if you care about text never touching UI.
• Check the first slide in grid crop: on a 1080 × 1350 portrait, the grid shows roughly the middle 1080 × 1080.

Technical specs that trip people up

• Up to 20 slides per carousel (raised from 10 in 2024).
• JPG or PNG; Instagram re-compresses everything, so export at high quality (80–90) rather than maximum file size.
• All slides share the first slide's aspect ratio — mixing portrait and square in one carousel isn't possible.
• Minimum width is 320 px, but always upload at 1080 px wide; Instagram downscales far better than it upscales.

Skip the manual export math

If you'd rather not manage aspect ratios, safe zones, and export settings per post, Prompt2Post handles the whole pipeline: it picks the best format for your topic (or you choose), composites pixel-perfect vector text inside the safe zones, and exports print-quality slides ready to upload.