Social media visuals matter for more than just aesthetic reasons—many consumers say a product’s visual appearance plays a key role in their purchasing decisions. Since a customer’s perception of a brand is often informed by more than a single touchpoint, social media marketers have many opportunities to capture the attention of their followers with on-brand, compelling visuals.
Proper image sizing is a critical part of creating compelling visuals, as it prevents your images from appearing too pixelated or blurry. However, with most social media channels constantly updating their algorithms and design recommendations, providing high-quality visuals can be challenging.
Read on for an in-depth look at different platform’s recommended image dimensions for 2024.
Why does image sizing matter?
How many low-quality images do you come across when scrolling through your feed? Not many, right? And, even when you do, do you interact with the accounts that post them? Probably not.
Social media algorithms tend to push quality content that elicits positive reactions and provides better experiences for their users. And, audiences will always appreciate high-quality visuals, as they’re more interesting and portray professionalism.
With over two-thirds of small businesses already on social media competing for the same audiences, you can’t afford not to care about platforms’ size guidelines. Correct image sizing results in high-quality visuals, which can encourage engagement. It can also improve your load times, enhance user experiences, and, ultimately, boost search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
On the other hand, incorrect image sizing often leads to pixelated graphics and cropped images, which can limit your reach, engagement, and the success of your social media marketing strategy.
Image size guidelines for each social media platform
What are the most recent recommended image sizes for different platforms? Read on to find out:
With over 3 billion monthly active users, Facebook remains the world’s most popular and largest platform, making it ideal for any business that wants to boost its social media presence. However, your success here is contingent on how well you portray yourself.
To achieve your social media goals on the platform, you need attractive visuals that align with Meta’s image size recommendations. These are:
- Facebook cover photos: 851 x 315 pixels with a maximum file size of 100 kilobytes (kb) and an aspect ratio of 16:9
- Facebook profile photos: 320 x 320 pixels, but it allows 196 x 196 pixels on smartphones, 176 x 176 pixels on computers, and 36 x 36 pixels on feature phones
- Facebook post images: 1,080 x 1,350 pixels
- Facebook event cover photos: 1920 x 1005 pixels
- Facebook ads: 1,200 x 1,200 pixels for advertisements on Facebook Marketplace, 1,080 x 1,920 pixels for ads on Facebook stories, 1,200 x 1,200 pixels for right-column image ads, and 1,080 x 1,350 pixels for Facebook Feed ads
Note, the image sizes mentioned above are the platform’s recommendations. You can still upload minimum image sizes of 400 x 150 pixels for cover photos, 180 x 60 pixels for your profile picture, and 400 x 150 pixels for event images.
As a primarily visual site, it comes as no surprise that Instagram prioritizes the quality of its visuals. To enhance your visibility on the platform, you need to follow its size guidelines—the social network’s algorithm assesses visual quality when determining which content to push. Here are Instagram image sizes to keep in mind:
- Instagram profile picture: 110 x 110 pixels
- Instagram posts: 1080 x 1080 pixels for square posts, 1080 x 1350 pixels for portrait, and 1080 x 566 pixels for landscape
- Instagram thumbnail images for videos: 161 x 161 pixels
- Instagram stories: 1080 x 1920 pixels
Snapchat
With over 800 million monthly active users, Snapchat holds its own in the battle of social media platforms. It’s one of the best sites to showcase your business’s fun side and tell stories, thanks to its Story feature, fun filters, and super active user demographic.
Tailored images can enhance your visibility and engagement on the platform, as its users often interact with high-quality visuals. The more interactions you get, the more Snapchat’s algorithm displays your content and further enhances your reach. The platform’s size guidelines are:
- Snap Ads: 1080 x 1920 pixels with an aspect ratio of 9:16
- Geofilters: 1080 x 1920 pixels with an aspect ratio of 9:16
- Profile images: 320 x 320 pixels
TikTok
As the source of some of the most popular social media trends, TikTok needs no introduction to anyone with a mobile device. But, even with millions of active daily users, visibility isn’t assured—brands must invest in the quality of their visuals to meet the needs of the platform’s aesthetics-driven audience.
TikTok is dominated by short-form video content provided by millions of creators. This means you’re facing a lot of competition on the site. To maintain video quality, maximize your reach, and boost viewer engagement, you need correct video dimensions and aspect ratios. Tiktok image and video specs are:
- Profile cover photos: 200 x 200 pixels
- Video posts: 1080 x 1920 with an aspect ratio of 9:16
- Carousel images: 1080 x 1920 pixels with a 1:1 or 9:16 aspect ratio, but you can also upload pictures with a 4:16 aspect ratio
X (Twitter)
We know what you’re thinking—why post images on X when it’s primarily a text-based platform? While you don’t have to, adding visual elements to your text tweets can increase retweets by 35%.
But, as with other platforms, your engagement and visibility can depend on your image size. Incorrectly sized images are cropped, sometimes resulting in unfavorable-looking results that can affect your interactions. For optimal engagement, here are Twitter image sizes to follow:
- Profile photo image size: 400 x 400 pixels
- Header photos: 1500 x 500 pixels cropped to an aspect ratio of 3:1
- In-stream photos: 1600 x 900 pixels with an aspect ratio between 2:1, 3:4, and 16:9 on mobile and 2:1 and 1:1 on desktop
- Shared image size: 900 x 450 pixels
The last thing you want is for potential employers or partners to see blurry or pixelated images on LinkedIn. The quality of your visuals on the platform matters, as it can impact how other professionals perceive you and whether they’ll be willing to work with you. Here are the recommended LinkedIn image sizes to help you maintain a professional appearance:
- LinkedIn profile pictures (personal and business profiles): 400 x 400 pixels or more with an aspect ratio of 1:1
- LinkedIn banner images: 1584 x 396 pixels for personal banners and 2000 x 600 pixels for business banners
- LinkedIn post images: 1200 x 627 pixels
- Company page photos: 1128 x 376 pixels for the main image and 900 x 600 pixels for company photos
Pinterest can drive a lot of traffic to your site when you use high-quality images, as it’s primarily a visual platform where people search for inspiration. If your images are interesting, users will want to know more about them, so they’ll click on your site. The recommended Pinterest image sizes are:
- Pinterest pins: 1000 x 1500 pixels with an aspect ratio of 2:3
- Pinterest profile images: 165 x 165 pixels
- Pinterest cover photos: 800 x 450 pixels with a 16:9 aspect ratio
- Board display size: 222 x 150 pixels for large thumbnails and 55 x 55 pixels for small thumbnails.
If posting on the platform, choose vertical photos over horizontal ones, as they’re easier to scale—Pinterest limits the widths of images but allows you to scale their lengths, making vertical images easier to handle. Further, vertical images perform better because of the platform’s layout and because most people access Pinterest on their mobile devices. With vertical images, they don’t need to turn their phones to see your creations.
YouTube
YouTube and images—seems contradictory, right? While YouTube is primarily a video-sharing platform, it allows various images, including profile pictures, channel banners, and video thumbnails.
To maximize clicks, you need to ensure visual clarity not only in your YouTube videos (video size should be at least 1280 x 720 pixels to meet HD standards) but also in images like thumbnails, as they can determine whether or not your target audience clicks to watch your content. Recommended image sizes are:
- YouTube channel profile images: 800 x 800 pixels
- Channel cover images: 2560 x 1440 pixels
- Video thumbnail size: 1280 x 720 pixels with an aspect ratio of 16:9
Best practices for creating and uploading images
Is adhering to different platforms’ image size recommendations enough to portray your business in the best light? Simply put: no. But it’s an excellent first step.
What else can you do to ensure you create and upload high-quality images? Read on to find out:
Choose the right file format
Most social media sites allow users to upload a wide range of file types. However, not all formats are ideal for all uses.
Consider the kind of images you plan to upload before selecting a file format to maintain your pictures’ visual quality and ensure fast load times. Here are some common file formats and their ideal use cases:
- JPEG/JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): These formats are popular because users can easily reduce their file sizes to meet the needs of various platforms. However, what they offer in compression versatility they lack in quality—the more you compress these files, the more their image quality reduces. Ideally, these formats would only be suitable for photographs and images that don’t require editing or feature texts.
- PNG (Portable Network Graphic): Think of PNG as the GIF’s more advanced cousin. It has a more efficient compression algorithm, can support more colors, and allows you to maintain a transparent background. It’s best used for graphics with transparent backgrounds and images with hard edges or text.
- WebP: This is a modern format designed by Google to eliminate inefficiencies and combine the advantages of other file formats. It carries the compression versatility of JPEGs, the animation possibilities of GIFs, and the transparent background capabilities of PNGs.
Optimize images for web use
Image optimization is crucial as it reduces the time it takes to upload and download images and promotes faster-loading pages. Optimize all your social media images to improve user experiences and send positive signals to platforms’ algorithms. However, be careful not to reduce image quality, as this can hurt your visibility and engagement. For optimal image resizing:
- Start with high-resolution images.
- Make small adjustments to your images at a time to maintain quality.
- Take social networks’ minimum image sizes into consideration to prevent site adjustments that could affect your quality.
- Leverage image optimization tools like TinyPNG, Compress Now, and Compressor.io.
Test images across devices
You can’t really predict which devices your target audience will use to view images. So, make sure they look good on all of them—desktops, tablets, and smartphones—to encourage engagement. The best way to ensure this is to embrace a responsive design by using flexible images that adapt well to various devices.
Also, test your images’ responsiveness before uploading them to relevant sites. You can use design tools that provide image previews for different devices, like Figma, or test with real devices to see how your images appear.
Maintain visual consistency
Keep a consistent visual style across all social media platforms to enhance brand recognition. Ideally, your layout, font, and color schemes should be similar to make it easier for audiences to recognize your content across platforms.
If you decide to work with social media experts, create a style guide for social media images to ensure everyone’s on the same page and maintain consistency. In the guide, you should cover aspects like color palettes, fonts, posting frequency, and editing styles.
Maximize your visual impact and boost social media success with Bitly
Observing the recommended or minimum image sizes different platforms allow can help you maintain visual clarity and boost engagement. If unsure whether to follow platforms’ recommended sizes or their minimum image sizes, experiment with different resolutions to see what works best for specific audiences.
Bitly lets you do just that, thanks to its comprehensive tracking capabilities. When you add Bitly links in posts, you can easily evaluate the performance of different social media image sizes to see which ones maximize your engagement rates and inform future image size decisions.
Create a Bitly account today for in-depth analytics on your images’ performance to help elevate your social media reach, engagement, and overall success.
