The Best Image Sizes for Social Media in 2026
July 11, 2026
Every platform crops and compresses images to its own set of shapes. Upload a picture that already matches the target size and it stays sharp with nothing important cut off. Upload the wrong shape and the platform makes the call for you, usually badly.
Here is the short list worth keeping, and each size has a one-click preset in the resizer.
The sizes
| Platform | Placement | Pixels | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| YouTube | Thumbnail | 1280 x 720 | 16:9 |
| Square post | 1080 x 1080 | 1:1 | |
| Portrait post | 1080 x 1350 | 4:5 | |
| Story / Reel | 1080 x 1920 | 9:16 | |
| Shared post | 1200 x 630 | ~1.9:1 | |
| Cover photo | 851 x 315 | ~2.7:1 | |
| X (Twitter) | Header | 1500 x 500 | 3:1 |
| Profile banner | 1584 x 396 | 4:1 |
Which one to pick
For feed posts, taller usually wins. An Instagram portrait post at 1080 by 1350 takes up more of the screen than a square, so it tends to stop the scroll better.
For banners and headers, keep your subject away from the edges. Both the X header and the LinkedIn banner get your profile photo overlapping the lower-left corner, so put text and key details toward the center or right.
Cover or fit
When you apply a preset you choose cover or fit. Cover fills the frame and crops the overflow, which is what you want for a thumbnail or banner so there are no empty bars. Fit keeps the whole image with padding when you cannot lose any of it. There is a full guide to cover vs fit if you are not sure.
A note on freshness
Platforms adjust these numbers now and then, and they display images at different sizes on phones and desktops. The values above are the current widely recommended sizes and will look right in almost every case. When in doubt, match the ratio and use the larger recommended pixel size, since platforms downscale cleanly but never add detail back. The full reference lives on the social media size guide.