How to post a carousel on LinkedIn: the PDF document post

Key takeaways

• A LinkedIn carousel is a document post: one PDF, shown a page at a time.
• LinkedIn accepts files up to 100 MB and 300 pages, and advises converting to PDF for the best quality.
• Make every page the same size: 1080 × 1350 (4:5) or 1080 × 1080 (square).
• The words on the slides are pictures, so the post’s own text is the only searchable part.

How do carousels work on LinkedIn?

As documents. LinkedIn has no button marked “carousel” for an ordinary post. What it has is the document post: you attach a file, and LinkedIn shows it one page at a time with arrows to move between the pages. A PDF with a slide on each page is, to anyone scrolling past, a carousel.

This is why LinkedIn carousels are made differently from Instagram ones. On Instagram you upload a set of images. On LinkedIn you upload one file.

It wasn’t always the only way. LinkedIn did once have a carousel post of its own for images and video, and retired it. Its notice to members read: “Starting on December 14th, 2023, we’ll be removing all carousels and profile videos from LinkedIn” (as reported by Social Media Today, November 2023). The document post outlived it.

What does LinkedIn accept?

A file of up to 100 MB and 300 pages. LinkedIn’s help page gives both limits in one line: “The file size cannot exceed 100MB and 300 pages” (LinkedIn Help, Upload and share documents on LinkedIn).

It takes five file types: PPT, PPTX, DOC, DOCX and PDF. And it’s clear about which it prefers: “Convert files to PDFs whenever possible to ensure the highest quality upload.”

So use a PDF. Its fonts and layout are fixed in the file, so it is shown as you made it.

Three hundred pages is far more than a carousel needs. Five to ten slides is the useful range.

What size should the slides be?

LinkedIn’s help page for document posts doesn’t give one. A document is shown at whatever shape its pages are, so the choice is yours.

Two shapes are in common use:

• Portrait, 4:5 (1080 × 1350 pixels). Takes up the most room in the feed on a phone, and it’s the same shape as an Instagram carousel, so one set of slides serves both.
• Square, 1:1 (1080 × 1080 pixels). Sits comfortably on a desktop screen, and LinkedIn is often read at a desk.

Whichever you pick, make every page the same size. A PDF can hold pages of different sizes, and a carousel whose slides change shape as you click through looks broken.

How do you make the PDF?

Export your slides as images, then join them into one PDF, a slide to a page, in order. Add your images below, arrange them, and download the file. It’s made in your browser, so the slides aren’t uploaded anywhere on the way.

Drop your slides here, in order. PNG or JPEG.

Choose your slides

Nothing is uploaded: the PDF is made in your browser.

Each page comes out exactly as large as its picture, with no white border, which is what you want: any margin in the PDF shows as a frame round every slide.

If you design in a tool that exports PDF directly, that works too. Check two things in the result: that each page is the slide and nothing else, and that the pages are in the right order.

How do you post it?

Five steps.

1. Start a post on LinkedIn, on the web or in the app.
2. Choose to add a document. It’s among the attachment options, beside photo and video.
3. Upload your PDF.
4. Give the document a title if you’re asked for one, and treat it as a headline: it’s shown with the post.
5. Write the post text and publish.

The text matters more than it does on Instagram, for a reason that’s easy to miss. Every page of a PDF made this way is a picture, so none of the words on your slides can be searched, selected or read aloud by a screen reader. The post text is the only part of the carousel that’s real text. Use it to say what the carousel covers, not just to announce it.

What’s different about writing for LinkedIn?

The reader and the screen. The same structure works as anywhere else: a cover that makes a promise, one idea to a slide, a close with one request. How to make a carousel post covers that. Three things shift.

It’s read at a desk as well as on a phone. Slides are seen larger, so you can afford a little more text per slide than on Instagram. A little. One idea to a slide still holds.

The first slide competes with text posts. Much of the feed around it is words. A cover with a clear headline and plenty of space stands out more than a busy one.

People download it. LinkedIn says that “members who can view your post will be able to download your document as a PDF”. A carousel that works as a one-page-at-a-time reference, a checklist or a framework, gets kept. Put your name or handle on the last slide, because the file will travel without the post.

Which mistakes come up most?

• Uploading a slide deck in place of a PDF. LinkedIn’s own advice is to convert to PDF first.
• Pages of different sizes. Export every slide at the same dimensions.
• A white border round every slide. The PDF’s page is larger than the picture on it. Each page should be the slide, edge to edge.
• Slides in the wrong order. Number the files before you join them.
• Nothing in the post text. It’s the only searchable, readable part of the post.
• Too many slides. The limit is 300 pages. The right number is nearer seven.

Sources

• LinkedIn Help, Upload and share documents on LinkedIn, retrieved 12 October 2026: linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/97459
• Social Media Today, LinkedIn Says That Previously Posted Carousel Posts Will Be Deleted, 9 November 2023 (quoting LinkedIn’s notice to members), retrieved 12 October 2026: socialmediatoday.com
• LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Help, Carousel Ads advertising specifications, retrieved 12 October 2026: linkedin.com/help/lms/answer/88137

Questions

How do I post a carousel on LinkedIn?

Make a PDF with one slide on each page, start a post, add it as a document, give it a title and publish. LinkedIn shows the PDF a page at a time, with arrows to move between pages.

What size should a LinkedIn carousel be?

LinkedIn sets no size for document posts. 1080 × 1350 pixels (4:5) takes up the most room in the feed on a phone, and 1080 × 1080 (square) suits a desktop screen. Keep every page the same size.

How many slides can a LinkedIn carousel have?

A document can have up to 300 pages and be up to 100 MB. A carousel reads best at five to ten slides.

Does LinkedIn still have a carousel post?

Not as a separate post type. LinkedIn told members it would remove carousels from 14 December 2023. Posting a PDF as a document is how carousels are made there now.