Instagram carousel size: dimensions, ratios and the 20-slide limit

Key takeaways

• The safe default is 1080 × 1350 pixels a slide, a 4:5 portrait.
• Instagram accepts photos between 1.91:1 and 3:4, at least 1080 pixels wide; the taller 3:4 (1080 × 1440) arrived in May 2025.
• Every slide in a carousel has one shape. Mixed shapes are cropped to match.
• A carousel holds up to 20 slides. Wider than 1080 pixels gains nothing: Instagram sizes it down.

What size should an Instagram carousel be?

1080 × 1350 pixels for each slide, which is a 4:5 portrait shape. It’s the safe default: tall enough to fill most of a phone screen, and accepted without cropping.

Two other sizes are worth knowing. Since May 2025 Instagram has accepted a taller 3:4 slide, 1080 × 1440 pixels. And a square, 1080 × 1080, still works where the picture suits it.

Whichever you choose, use it for every slide in the post.

What does Instagram itself say?

Three things, each on its own help pages.

On width and shape: “Upload a photo with a width of at least 1080 pixels with an aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 3:4” (Instagram Help Center, Image resolution of photos you share on Instagram). So 1.91:1 is the widest shape it takes and 3:4 the tallest. Everything in the table above falls inside that range.

On larger files: a wider photo is sized “down to a width of 1080 pixels”, and one outside the supported shapes “will be cropped to fit a supported ratio”. There’s nothing to gain from uploading a slide wider than 1080 pixels, and something to lose from uploading an odd shape: Instagram chooses the crop, not you.

On mixing shapes: “You can’t select a different orientation for each photo or video” (Instagram Help Center, Share a post with multiple photos or videos on Instagram). A carousel has one shape. If your slides differ, some of them get cropped to match.

That last rule is the one that catches people. Design a carousel with a square cover and portrait slides behind it, and the portrait slides lose their top and bottom.

Should you use 4:5 or the newer 3:4?

Either, as long as you’re consistent. They’re close: a 3:4 slide is 90 pixels taller than a 4:5 one at the same width.

The 3:4 shape arrived in May 2025. Instagram’s head, Adam Mosseri, announced it as “the format that almost every phone camera defaults to” (Threads, 28 May 2025). Before that, 4:5 was the tallest photo Instagram would show uncropped.

So the choice follows from where the slides come from:

• Photographs from a phone are already 3:4. Post them at 3:4 and nothing is cut off.
• Designed slides can be either. 4:5 is the long-standing standard, and most templates are built for it. If you also post the same slides to LinkedIn, 4:5 suits both.

One caution applies to both. Your profile grid shows each post as a cropped preview, and since early 2025 those previews have been upright rectangles, not squares. Keep the cover’s headline towards the middle of the slide, so a crop at the top and bottom can’t reach it.

How many slides can a carousel have?

Up to 20. Instagram’s help page puts it plainly: “You can share a post with up to 20 photos and videos as a single post, also known as a carousel.”

That’s a limit, not a target. Most carousels work best at five to eight slides: a cover, three to five ideas and a close. How to make a carousel post goes through the structure slide by slide.

What size is a seamless carousel?

As wide as all its slides put together. A seamless, or panorama, carousel is one wide picture cut into slides, so the picture you start from has to cover the whole strip.

Three portrait slides need a picture 3240 pixels wide and 1350 tall. Start smaller and the picture is enlarged, which softens it. The carousel splitter does the cutting, and the seamless carousel guide covers where to put the joins.

Where on the slide is it safe to put text?

Away from the edges. Unlike a Reel, a carousel in the feed has almost nothing drawn over the picture: the caption and the likes sit outside it. So there’s no band of interface to avoid.

There are still two reasons for a margin. Text hard against the edge of a slide looks cramped on a phone, and the profile grid crops the cover. A margin of about 6% of the width at each side, and a little less top and bottom, keeps words clear of both. On a 1080 × 1350 slide that’s roughly 65 pixels at the sides and 68 at the top and bottom, which are the margins RapidCreate holds text to on a feed post.

Which file type and quality?

JPEG for photographs, PNG for slides that are mostly flat colour and text. Flat colour compresses badly as a JPEG and can show faint blocks around the lettering; a PNG keeps the edges clean.

Export at exactly 1080 pixels wide. A slide exported larger is scaled down on upload, and scaling is where sharp text goes slightly soft. Exporting at the size it will be shown is the one setting that reliably helps.

The size checklist

1. Width: 1080 pixels.
2. Shape: 4:5 (1080 × 1350), or 3:4 (1080 × 1440) for phone photos.
3. Every slide the same shape.
4. No more than 20 slides, and usually five to eight.
5. Text clear of the edges, with the cover’s headline near the middle.
6. PNG for flat designs, JPEG for photographs.

Sources

• Instagram Help Center, Image resolution of photos you share on Instagram, retrieved 12 October 2026: help.instagram.com/1631821640426723
• Instagram Help Center, Share a post with multiple photos or videos on Instagram, retrieved 12 October 2026: help.instagram.com/269314186824048
• Adam Mosseri (head of Instagram), post on Threads, 28 May 2025, retrieved 12 October 2026: threads.com/@mosseri
• 9to5Mac, No more cropping: Instagram changes standard photo aspect ratio, 29 May 2025 (on 4:5 as the previous limit and the upright grid previews), retrieved 12 October 2026: 9to5mac.com
• The text margins are those RapidCreate’s Post Studio uses for a post in the feed.

Questions

What is the best size for an Instagram carousel?

1080 × 1350 pixels for each slide, a 4:5 portrait. It fills most of a phone screen and is shown without cropping. Use the same size for every slide.

Can an Instagram carousel be 3:4?

Yes. Instagram has supported 3:4 photos since May 2025, which is 1080 × 1440 pixels. It suits photographs taken on a phone, which are that shape already.

Can carousel slides be different sizes?

No. Instagram’s help page says you can’t select a different orientation for each photo or video, so slides of another shape are cropped to match the rest.

How many slides can an Instagram carousel have?

Up to 20 photos and videos in one post, according to Instagram’s Help Center.