Instagram story size
1080 × 1920px
Aspect ratio
9:16
Stories are 1080 × 1920 px (9:16) — full vertical screen, with UI overlays eating the top and bottom edges.
Last verified June 2026
Instagram Stories fill the entire phone screen, which makes the spec simple — 1080 × 1920 px at 9:16 — and the design harder than it looks. Your username, the progress bar, and the camera/share icons overlay the top of every Story; the reply bar, link sticker taps, and system gestures claim the bottom. A Story designed edge-to-edge will have its headline sitting underneath your own profile picture.
| Variant | Dimensions | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Story (image or video) | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Minimum safe width | 1080 px wideSmaller uploads are stretched to full screen and look soft. | 9:16 |
| Non-9:16 uploads | anyShown with blurred or colored bars — fine for casual reposts, weak for designed content. | varies |
Keep text, stickers, and tappable elements out of roughly the top 250 px and the bottom 250 px of the canvas — that is where Instagram draws your profile info, the progress bars, and the reply/share bar. Some devices draw the bottom overlay taller, so many designers reserve closer to 320–340 px at the bottom for anything critical. The practical rule: design your message inside the central ~1080 × 1420 px and treat the edges as decoration-only.
The fastest way to keep Stories consistent is a reusable 1080 × 1920 template with guides at 250 px from the top and ~320 px from the bottom. Put your logo and recurring elements inside the guides once, and every future Story inherits correct placement. This matters double if you repurpose Stories as TikToks or Shorts — each platform overlays different UI, and a generous safe zone survives all of them.
Polls, question boxes, and link stickers placed low on the screen collide with the reply bar and the swipe-up gesture area, so taps miss. Place interactive elements in the middle third of the screen where thumbs naturally rest. It also keeps them visible in the small Story preview tiles.
Stories reward presence — 1–2 a day keeps you at the front of the Story tray — and tolerate rougher, more personal content than the feed. Batch a week of lightweight Story frames at the correct size and schedule them, saving your design effort for feed posts and Reels covers.
1080 × 1920 px with a 9:16 aspect ratio, for both images and video. That is a full phone screen — the same canvas as Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts.
Keep important content out of roughly the top 250 px (profile info and progress bar) and the bottom 250–340 px (reply bar and gestures). Centering critical text in the middle ~1420 px of the canvas keeps it readable on every device.
Yes — Instagram displays it with blurred or colored bars above and below. It works for casual reshares, but designed content should always be exported at 1080 × 1920 to use the full screen.
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