Instagram reel size
1080 × 1920px
Aspect ratio
9:16
Reels are 1080 × 1920 px (9:16) — and your cover gets cropped three different ways, so center everything that matters.
Last verified June 2026
The Reel itself is easy: full-screen vertical video at 1080 × 1920 px, 9:16. The trap is the cover image. One upload is displayed at 9:16 in the Reels tab, cropped to 4:5 when it appears in the main feed, and cropped again to 3:4 on your profile grid. A title placed near any edge will be amputated on at least one of those surfaces — which is why Reel covers with dead-center text are not a style choice but a survival strategy.
| Variant | Dimensions | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Reel video | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Cover — Reels tab | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 |
| Cover — feed crop | 1080 × 1350 pxCenter crop of your 9:16 cover when the Reel shows in the feed. | 4:5 |
| Cover — profile grid crop | 1080 × 1440 pxCenter crop shown on your profile since the grid update. | 3:4 |
For the video itself, keep captions and hooks inside the central area — the right rail (like/comment/share stack), the bottom caption block, and the audio attribution all overlay your footage. For the cover, the only region guaranteed visible in all three crops (9:16, 4:5, 3:4) is a centered block roughly 1080 × 1350 px tall — in practice, put title text dead-center and keep it well clear of the top and bottom thirds.
Treat the middle 60% of your cover as the canvas and everything outside it as expendable. A bold, three-to-five-word title centered vertically and horizontally reads correctly in the Reels tab, the feed, and the grid. If your Reels are a series, use a consistent cover template so your profile grid doubles as a browsable index.
Instagram down-ranks recycled content with visible watermarks, and auto-captions hugging the bottom edge sit underneath the caption overlay. Export a clean vertical master, add captions inside the safe area, and publish that master natively to each platform — the same file works for Reels, TikTok, and Shorts if you respected the shared 9:16 safe zones.
Reels are pushed to non-followers long after publishing, so the first hour is less decisive than for feed posts. Consistency wins: schedule Reels into your normal weekly slots and judge performance over a week, not an afternoon. See our best time to post on Instagram guide for the full data.
1080 × 1920 px at 9:16 — full-screen vertical video. The same export works for TikTok and YouTube Shorts, which makes 9:16 the most reusable canvas in social media.
Upload a 1080 × 1920 px (9:16) cover, but design it center-weighted: the cover is cropped to 4:5 in the feed and 3:4 on your profile grid, so only the central region is visible everywhere.
Up to 3 minutes for standard accounts as of June 2026. Instagram has repeatedly extended Reel length, so check the in-app composer for the current ceiling on your account.
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