Instagram · Updated October 5, 2026

Instagram story size (2026): 1080 × 1920 px

An Instagram story is 1080 × 1920 pixels, a 9:16 ratio. Meta's Ads Guide asks for 1440 × 2560 (also 9:16) for Stories ads and tells you to keep the top 14% and bottom 35% of the frame free of text and logos.

Last verified October 5, 2026 against Moonb (updated July 2026). All sources.

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Size
Fit
Position

1080 × 1920 px · JPG · add an image

Story (organic, recommended)
1080 × 1920px
Ratio 9:16
Source: Moonb (updated July 2026)
Stories ad image
1440 × 2560px
Ratio 9:16 (1% tolerance)
Source: Meta Ads Guide (Instagram Stories image ads)
Stories ad video
1440 × 2560px
Ratio 9:16 (1% tolerance)
Source: Meta Ads Guide (Instagram Stories video ads)
Stories carousel card
1080 × 1920px
Ratio 9:16 (1% tolerance)
Source: Meta Ads Guide (Instagram Stories carousel ads)

Instagram story size: every format and limit

Instagram story size specs by format. Each number was checked against the linked source on October 5, 2026.
FormatSize (px)RatioMinimum / maximumFile types and limitSource
Story (organic, recommended)The size nearly every guide uses. We found no Instagram page that states a number for organic stories, so this row is secondary. A story video segment runs up to 60 seconds, as a Meta spokesperson told PetaPixel in 2022.1080 × 19209:16Min: 720 × 1280 px (third-party figure)JPG, PNG; MP4, MOV for videoMoonb (updated July 2026)Secondary source
Stories ad imageMeta's current recommendation. A 1080 × 1920 file has the same shape and clears the minimum width.1440 × 25609:16 (1% tolerance)Min: 500 px wideJPG, PNGLimit: 30 MBMeta Ads Guide (Instagram Stories image ads)Platform's own page
Stories ad video1 second to 60 minutes. H.264 compression and stereo AAC audio at 128 kbps or higher.1440 × 25609:16 (1% tolerance)Min: 250 px wideMP4, MOV, GIFLimit: 4 GBMeta Ads Guide (Instagram Stories video ads)Platform's own page
Stories carousel card2 to 10 cards. Video cards run 1 to 15 seconds.1080 × 19209:16 (1% tolerance)Min: 1080 × 1920 pxJPG, PNG; MP4, MOV, GIFLimit: 30 MB image, 4 GB videoMeta Ads Guide (Instagram Stories carousel ads)Platform's own page

Safe zones and crops

Drawn to scale from the numbers above. Dashed boxes mark what stays visible; hatched areas are cut or covered.

Meta's Stories safe zone on a 1080 × 1920 story

Meta's Stories safe zone on a 1080 × 1920 storyFrame 1080 by 1920 pixels. Covered area: Top 14%: profile and progress bar, 1080 by 269 pixels at x 0, y 0. Covered area: Bottom 35%: reply bar and call to action, 1080 by 672 pixels at x 0, y 1248. Safe area: Keep text here: 950 × 979, 950 by 979 pixels at x 65, y 269.1080 px1920 px
  • Top 14%: profile and progress bar
  • Bottom 35%: reply bar and call to action
  • Keep text here: 950 × 979
Meta's percentages applied to 1080 × 1920: 14% is 269 px, 35% is 672 px, 6% is 65 px per side. That leaves a 950 × 979 box, about 45% of the frame's area.

A 4:5 feed image placed in a story frame

A 4:5 feed image placed in a story frameFrame 1080 by 1920 pixels. Covered area: 285 px empty above, 1080 by 285 pixels at x 0, y 0. Covered area: 285 px empty below, 1080 by 285 pixels at x 0, y 1635. Safe area: 1080 × 1350 image, fitted to width, 1080 by 1350 pixels at x 0, y 285.1080 px1920 px285 px empty above285 px empty below
  • 285 px empty above
  • 285 px empty below
  • 1080 × 1350 image, fitted to width
Fit to width and a 1080 × 1350 post leaves (1920 − 1350) ÷ 2 = 285 px above and below. Fill the height instead and you scale by 1920 ÷ 1350 = 1.42, then lose 228 px from each side.

How Instagram shows your image

  • A story fills the whole phone screen, so 9:16 is the only shape that leaves no bars. A 4:5 or square image is placed inside the frame with empty space above and below.
  • The profile name and progress bar sit over the top of the frame. The reply bar, or the call-to-action button on an ad, sits over the bottom.
  • Meta puts the covered zones for Instagram Stories ads at 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side. For organic stories, Moonb's guide keeps 250 px clear at the top and 340 px at the bottom.
  • Meta's Facebook Stories video page asks for a smaller bottom zone (20%), while its Facebook Stories image page uses the same 35% bottom and 6% sides as Instagram. One export that obeys the 35% zone is safe in every Stories placement.
  • A story carousel ad shows 1 to 3 cards before viewers tap to expand the rest, as Meta's carousel page describes it, so the first card carries the message.

How to resize and upload

  1. 01Decide where the story will run. Organic story: 1080 × 1920. Stories ad: 1440 × 2560, or 1080 × 1920 if that is all you have.
  2. 02If the artwork started as a 4:5 feed post, choose how to adapt it first: fitting it leaves 285 px bands above and below, and filling the height cuts 228 px from each side. The section below works through both.
  3. 03Choose Story 9:16, or Stories ad 1440 × 2560 for a paid placement, and leave Crop to fill selected. Drag the picture or use Detect subject to center it.
  4. 04Turn on Show safe zone. Move every headline, price, logo and face into the dashed box; for an ad, that box is Meta's zone.
  5. 05For a landscape photo you cannot crop, pick Fit inside with a blurred background so the whole photo shows between two blurred bands.
  6. 06Download JPG for photos or PNG for graphics with small text. For a Stories ad, check the file against Meta's 30 MB image limit.
  7. 07In Instagram, open Stories, pick the file and check the preview. If a sticker, mention or link sticker will cover your text, move the text, not the sticker.

Common mistakes to check before you post

  • Putting a headline in the bottom third. Anything below y = 1248 on a 1080 × 1920 frame can be covered by the reply bar or an ad's button.
  • Reading the safe zone as 250 px on a 1440 × 2560 ad. The percentages scale: 14% of 2560 is 358 px and 35% is 896 px.
  • Uploading a 1080 × 1350 feed post and letting the app fill the frame. You lose 228 px from each side of the image, and any text in that strip.
  • Using a 16:9 video as is. Scaled to 1080 px wide it is only 608 px tall, so it sits in a thin strip with 656 px of empty space above and below.
  • Placing a logo in a corner. The top 14% and the 6% side strips cover the corners, so a logo at x = 20, y = 20 sits under the profile area.
  • Re-exporting a good 1080 × 1920 ad only to hit 1440 × 2560. Upscaling adds no detail; 1440 × 2560 helps only when your source is that large.
  • Reusing a Reel cover or a Reels clip without checking the zones. See the Meta ad specs cheat sheet for how the paid placements differ.

The safe zone, worked out in pixels

Meta's Ads Guide says to keep "roughly 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom, and 6% on each side" of a Stories asset free of text, logos and other key elements (Meta Ads Guide). Percentages are the only thing Meta states for Instagram, so the pixel numbers below are our arithmetic, not Meta's.

On a 1080 × 1920 story: top 0.14 × 1920 = 269 px, bottom 0.35 × 1920 = 672 px, sides 0.06 × 1080 = 65 px each. The safe box starts at x = 65, y = 269 and measures 950 × 979. A line of text whose baseline sits at y = 1300 is inside the bottom zone, which begins at y = 1920 − 672 = 1248.

On a 1440 × 2560 ad: top 358 px, bottom 896 px, sides 86 px, which leaves a 1268 × 1306 box. The box has the same proportions at both sizes, so you can design once and scale.

Stories ads and organic stories are not the same spec

Meta publishes exact numbers only for ads: 1440 × 2560, 9:16, at least 500 px wide, 30 MB for an image, 4 GB and up to 60 minutes for a video (image, video). For organic stories the figure everyone repeats, 1080 × 1920, comes from guides such as Moonb rather than an Instagram page.

The two are the same shape, so a 1080 × 1920 file can serve both. The practical differences are the ad's call-to-action button, which needs the larger bottom zone, and the file ceilings, which only Meta states for paid placements.

If you plan to run the same creative as a paid placement later, build to the ad zone from the start. An organic story that already clears the 14% and 35% zones needs no rework. The Meta ad copy preview checks your text lengths for the same placement.

Turning a feed post into a story without losing the edges

A 4:5 post and a 9:16 story differ by a lot, so a straight upload is rarely right. There are two honest options and the pixel cost of each is checkable.

Fit to width. A 1080 × 1350 image keeps its full width and leaves 285 px above and below. Fill that space with a blurred copy or a brand color and nothing is cut. This is the Fit inside mode in the resizer above.

Fill the height. Scale the image by 1920 ÷ 1350 = 1.42 to 1536 px wide, then crop to 1080. You lose 456 px of width, 228 on each side. Use this only when the sides of the picture are dispensable. For the other direction, see Instagram post size, which covers how a 9:16 image is cut in the feed.

Video in stories: length, splitting and format

For ads, Meta lists MP4, MOV or GIF, H.264 compression, stereo AAC audio at 128 kbps or higher, and a 1 second to 60 minute range (Meta Ads Guide). The same page says video ads of 16 seconds or longer may be split into separate story cards, with Instagram showing one, two or three cards to each viewer, so keep one idea per 15-second segment.

Story carousel ads are stricter: cards are 9:16 at least 1080 × 1920, a video card runs 1 to 15 seconds, and a carousel has 2 to 10 cards (Meta Ads Guide). Meta lists captions and sound for Stories video ads as optional but recommended.

If the same ad also runs on Facebook Stories

Meta's own pages disagree on the bottom zone. The Facebook Stories video page asks for 14% at the top and 20% at the bottom, with no side zone. The Facebook Stories image page matches Instagram: 14% top, 35% bottom and 6% each side. The video page also quotes pixel figures (250 and 340 px) that do not match its percentages on a 1080 × 1920 frame, which would be 269 and 384 px.

Design to the 35% zone and the layout is valid in all of them. For a Facebook Stories video the cost is about 288 px of usable height (the gap between 20% and 35% of 1920 px), which is small next to the risk of a covered button.

What we could not confirm

  • Instagram's own help pages load with JavaScript and we could not read a page that states the organic story size. 1080 × 1920 and the 720 × 1280 minimum come from third-party guides. The 60-second segment comes from a Meta spokesperson quoted by PetaPixel in 2022, not from a help page.
  • The organic safe-area figure (250 px top, 340 px bottom) is from one third-party guide, Moonb. The percentages for ads come from Meta's Ads Guide; the pixel conversions are ours.
  • Meta's Facebook Stories video page gives pixel figures (250 and 340 px) that do not match its own percentages on a 1080 × 1920 frame. We use the percentages.
  • Meta's statement that video ads of 16 seconds or longer may be split into story cards is on its Stories video ad page, which we read twice through a text extractor on 2026-10-05. It covers ads; we did not test how Instagram splits organic uploads.
  • We did not test stories on every phone, and in-app buttons move between versions. The 14% and 35% zones are Meta's planning figures, not a measured overlay.

Instagram story size FAQ

What is the Instagram story size?

1080 × 1920 pixels, a 9:16 ratio. For Stories ads, Meta's Ads Guide recommends 1440 × 2560, which is the same shape at a higher resolution.

What is the Instagram story safe zone?

For ads, Meta says to keep roughly 14% of the top, 35% of the bottom and 6% on each side free of text and logos. On 1080 × 1920 that leaves a 950 × 979 px box starting 65 px from the left and 269 px from the top.

Can I post a square or 4:5 image as a story?

Yes. Instagram places it inside the 9:16 frame. A 1080 × 1350 image leaves 285 px of empty space above and below unless you fill that space with a background or crop in.

How long can an Instagram story video be?

Up to 60 seconds per story segment. A Meta spokesperson told PetaPixel in September 2022 that stories now play continuously for up to 60 seconds instead of being cut into 15-second clips; we found no Instagram help page that states it. For ads, Meta lists 1 second to 60 minutes, and 1 to 15 seconds for each video card in a story carousel.

Is 1080 × 1920 still fine for Stories ads?

It has the same 9:16 shape and clears the 500 px minimum width, but Meta's current recommendation is 1440 × 2560. Use the larger size when you have the source resolution; upscaling a smaller file adds nothing.

Why is my story text hidden behind the reply bar?

The reply bar or ad button covers the bottom of the frame. Move text above y = 1248 on a 1080 × 1920 story, which is 35% from the bottom.

What size is an Instagram Stories carousel card?

9:16 at least 1080 × 1920, per Meta's Ads Guide. A Stories carousel has 2 to 10 cards; image cards can be up to 30 MB and video cards run 1 to 15 seconds.

Sources and dates

Published October 5, 2026 · Updated October 5, 2026 · Specs last verified October 5, 2026 by the AdFlint team. Platforms change sizes without notice; if a number here no longer matches the linked source, the source wins.

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