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CalculatorsSeptember 11, 2026· 6 min read

Aspect Ratios for Social Media: A Practical Cheat Sheet

Every platform crops your image or video differently. Here are the aspect ratios that actually work across Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and more.

By Piyush

Post the same photo or video across a few different platforms without checking dimensions first, and you'll usually get it cropped in ways you didn't intend — a face cut off, a subtitle covered by an overlay, or awkward black bars. Every major platform has its own preferred aspect ratio (or several, for different formats), and designing around the right one from the start avoids most of that.

The common ratios, in plain terms

  • 1:1 (square) — equal width and height. Common for feed posts that need to look consistent regardless of the viewer's screen orientation.
  • 4:5 (portrait) — slightly taller than wide. Takes up more vertical space in a mobile feed than a square post, which tends to increase visibility.
  • 9:16 (tall vertical) — the standard for full-screen mobile video: Stories, Reels, TikTok and Shorts all use this.
  • 16:9 (widescreen) — the standard for traditional horizontal video, used for YouTube uploads and thumbnails.
  • 1.91:1 (wide landscape) — common for link preview images and horizontal banner-style graphics.

Rough starting points by platform

Platforms adjust their exact recommended pixel dimensions over time, so always check the current upload guidelines before a final export. As general starting points that have held steady:

  • Instagram feed post: 1:1 or 4:5
  • Instagram / Facebook Stories, Reels: 9:16
  • TikTok video: 9:16
  • YouTube video: 16:9
  • YouTube Shorts: 9:16
  • X (Twitter) in-feed image: 16:9 or 1:1
  • Facebook link preview: 1.91:1

Design for the tightest crop, not the loosest

Feeds often show a cropped preview of your full image even when the upload itself isn't cropped, and different apps crop differently on different screen sizes. The safest approach is to keep the subject and any text centered, with enough margin on every edge that a moderate crop from any direction still looks intentional. Avoid placing important details right at the edge of the frame.

Getting the math right

If you know the ratio you need but not the pixel dimensions, or you have an existing image and need to know what ratio it already is, the aspect ratio calculator solves both directions: enter a ratio and one dimension to get the other, or enter your current width and height to see the exact ratio and the closest standard format it matches. Pair it with the image resizer to crop or resize to the result without distorting the image.

Related tools

Aspect Ratio CalculatorCalculate aspect ratios and solve for missing dimensions.Image ResizerResize images in your browser to any dimension.

Frequently asked questions

1:1 (square) or 4:5 (portrait) for feed posts, and 9:16 for Stories and Reels. 4:5 typically takes up more vertical space in the feed than a square post.
16:9 for standard horizontal video uploads and thumbnails, and 9:16 for YouTube Shorts, which are designed for full-screen vertical mobile viewing.
Each platform displays content in its own preferred aspect ratio and crops uploads that don't match. Designing your original image close to the platform's target ratio, with margin around important details, minimizes unexpected cropping.
Enter its width and height into an aspect ratio calculator, which simplifies the ratio (for example, 1920x1080 simplifies to 16:9) and identifies the closest standard format it matches.

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