Checked against the source
Instagram Carousel Size: 1080 x 1440 px, Up to 20 Slides
Short answer
Make every slide the same shape, up to 1080 × 1440 pixels (3:4): Instagram Help says a post can hold up to 20 photos and videos and the orientation you choose applies to all of them.
Key takeaways
- Up to 20 items per post, all in one orientation (Instagram Help).
- The slide frame is 1080 × 1440: 1.56 megapixels per slide, so a 10 slide carousel is 15.6 megapixels (computed).
- In our tests a 1080 × 1440 slide saved as JPG was between the sizes in the table below; multiply by the number of slides for the whole post.
- Across our six test pictures the 1080 × 1440 result was 250 KB to 464 KB as a JPG at quality 0.92.
The size
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Width | 1080 px |
| Height | 1440 px |
| Aspect ratio | 3:4 |
What the platform publishes
| What | Published value |
|---|---|
| Items per post | Up to 20 photos and videos |
| Orientation | The one you choose (square, portrait or landscape) applies to every item |
| Tallest slide | 1080 × 1440 px (3:4) |
| Width | Up to 1080 px. Wider photos are scaled down to 1080 px; photos under 320 px are enlarged to 320 px |
| Aspect ratios kept uncropped | 1.91:1 to 3:4, i.e. 1080 × 566 to 1080 × 1440 px |
| Outside that range | Cropped to the nearest supported ratio |
Source: Instagram Help: Share a post with multiple photos or videos (checked 2026-10-05) · Instagram Help: Image resolution of photos you share (checked 2026-10-05)
Resize it now
Scales and center-crops any image to exactly 1080 x 1440 px, in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, there is no file size cap and no daily limit.
Batch is unlimited and free - every image is processed on your device, so there is no queue and no daily cap.
Which shapes Instagram keeps whole (computed)
Instagram Help says photos in the range from 1.91:1 to 3:4 are not cropped and others are cropped to the nearest supported ratio. Applying that to common shapes:
| Photo shape | Kept whole? | Cropped to | Share of the photo kept |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2.35:1 (cinema) | No | 1.91:1 | 81% |
| 1.91:1 | Yes | - | 100% |
| 16:9 (1.78:1) | Yes | - | 100% |
| 3:2 (1.5:1) | Yes | - | 100% |
| 4:3 (1.33:1) | Yes | - | 100% |
| 1:1 | Yes | - | 100% |
| 4:5 (0.8:1) | Yes | - | 100% |
| 3:4 (0.75:1) | Yes | - | 100% |
| 2:3 (0.67:1) | No | 3:4 | 89% |
| 9:16 (0.56:1) | No | 3:4 | 75% |
The sizes at the two ends of the range are 1080 × 566 and 1080 × 1440 pixels. A 9:16 video frame or screenshot loses a quarter of its height when it is shared as a photo.
A whole carousel in file size (measured)
The per-slide JPG sizes of our six test pictures at 1080 × 1440, multiplied by the number of slides:
| Picture | One slide | 5 slides | 10 slides | 20 slides |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photo, nearly square | 464 KB | 2.32 MB | 4.64 MB | 9.27 MB |
| Portrait | 321 KB | 1.60 MB | 3.21 MB | 6.42 MB |
| Wide document scan | 401 KB | 2.01 MB | 4.01 MB | 8.02 MB |
| Square PNG graphic | 408 KB | 2.04 MB | 4.08 MB | 8.16 MB |
| Small portrait (1060 px) | 262 KB | 1.31 MB | 2.62 MB | 5.23 MB |
| Small landscape (640 px) | 250 KB | 1.25 MB | 2.50 MB | 4.99 MB |
The totals matter when you upload on a slow connection. A carousel of detailed photographs is several times the size of one of plain graphics.
What a 1080 × 1440 frame does to common photo shapes
The frame is 3:4. A photo of another shape is scaled until it covers the frame and the excess is cut from the center, which is what the resizer on this page does. This is computed from the shapes.
| Photo shape | Share of the photo kept | What is cut |
|---|---|---|
| 16:9 (1920 × 1080) | 42% | The sides |
| 3:2 (3000 × 2000) | 50% | The sides |
| 4:3 (4000 × 3000) | 56% | The sides |
| 1:1 (2000 × 2000) | 75% | The sides |
| 4:5 (1080 × 1350) | 94% | The sides |
| 9:16 (1080 × 1920) | 75% | The top and bottom |
Measured: six pictures through the resizer
The resizer on this page was run in headless Chromium on six test pictures (public domain NASA scans, a PNG graphic and two small pictures made from them): each is scaled to cover 1080 × 1440, drawn on a white background and saved as a JPG at quality 0.92. SSIM compares each result with a Lanczos crop of the same picture made by ffmpeg (1.0 would be identical); it is blank when the frame has an odd side, which ffmpeg's check cannot compare. Other browsers use their own encoders, so sizes can differ.
| Picture | Pixels | Scale | Result | Time | SSIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Photo, nearly square | 3840 × 3877 | 0.37× | 464 KB | 26 ms | 0.83 |
| Portrait | 2122 × 2644 | 0.54× | 321 KB | 24 ms | 0.95 |
| Wide document scan | 3827 × 1588 | 0.91× | 401 KB | 21 ms | 0.96 |
| Square PNG graphic | 5380 × 5432 | 0.27× | 408 KB | 21 ms | 0.93 |
| Small portrait (1060 px) | 1060 × 1320 | 1.09× (enlarged) | 262 KB | 19 ms | 0.97 |
| Small landscape (640 px) | 640 × 480 | 3.00× (enlarged) | 250 KB | 19 ms | 0.97 |
A scale above 1 enlarges the picture to fill the frame; enlarging adds no detail, so start from a file at least as large as the frame.
Detail decides the file size (measured)
The same frame holds 1.56 megapixels whatever the picture, but the JPG size follows the detail in it. Bits per pixel is the file size in bits divided by the number of pixels in the frame.
| Picture | Result | Bits per pixel |
|---|---|---|
| Photo, nearly square | 464 KB | 2.38 |
| Portrait | 321 KB | 1.65 |
| Wide document scan | 401 KB | 2.06 |
| Square PNG graphic | 408 KB | 2.10 |
| Small portrait (1060 px) | 262 KB | 1.35 |
| Small landscape (640 px) | 250 KB | 1.28 |
Smooth areas and flat color compress to a fraction of what fine detail needs; a photograph full of texture is the expensive case. If a size limit matters, check your own picture, not an average.
Using the Instagram carousel post size
- Start from a file at least 1080 × 1440 pixels so nothing is enlarged.
- Keep faces, logos and text away from the edges; every crop above cuts the edges.
- Check the platform's own page before you rely on a figure; sizes change.
- The resizer above does the crop and the JPG in your browser; nothing is uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
How many slides can a carousel have?
Up to 20 photos and videos, according to Instagram Help.
Can I mix shapes?
No. The orientation you choose applies to every item, so make all slides the same shape.
How much of a 16:9 photo is kept in 1080 × 1440?
42% of its area (computed).
What is the aspect ratio of 1080 × 1440?
3:4, 1.56 megapixels.
How big will the file be?
Our six test pictures came out between 250 KB and 464 KB as JPGs at quality 0.92; detailed photographs are the large end.
Is my picture uploaded?
No. The resizer runs in your browser.
Other Instagram sizes
Sources
- Instagram Help: Share a post with multiple photos or videos (checked 2026-10-05)
- Instagram Help: Image resolution of photos you share (checked 2026-10-05)
- Wikimedia Commons: Buzz salutes the U.S. Flag (NASA, public domain), one of the test pictures (checked 2026-10-10)
- MDN: HTMLCanvasElement.toBlob() (JPEG quality) (checked 2026-10-10)
