With this guide, we give you all the recommended image sizes for the most popular social media platforms in 2024, providing you with a comprehensive toolkit to ensure your visual content stands out in a crowded digital landscape.

Visuals surely impact the performance of your social media content. This isn’t just a claim but a fact supported by data on social media trends.

Recent statistics highlight that tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than those without, and Facebook posts with images see 2.3 times more engagement than those without images.

The numbers clearly show the importance of having images in your social posts. However, simply adding images will also not work. You’ve got to optimize these images so they encourage interaction.

While adding tags is considered to be one of the most efficient ways to optimize images, they also need to be the right size.

Why? 

Because the right image size is not just about aesthetics; it's about communication effectiveness and engagement.

Each social media platform has its own set of dimensions for optimal display of images. From profile pictures to cover photos and from post images to advertisements, the right dimensions ensure that your visual content looks its best, conveys your message effectively, and is fully visible without awkward cropping or distortion. 

Moreover, with the increasing use of mobile devices for accessing social media, it’s important to consider how these images appear on various screens. The right image size enhances the user experience, ensuring your content is engaging and accessible across all devices. 

Maintaining various social media platforms' basic image size requirements is essential for effective digital communication. Here's a quick rundown of the most common image dimensions across major platforms:

Instagram's visual-centric platform demands particular attention to image dimensions. Here are the recommended sizes:

Instagram favors high-resolution images, ensuring your content looks crisp and engaging on all devices.

Facebook, with its diverse content types, has specific requirements:

X values concise, high-impact visual content, making image optimization crucial for engagement. Here are the basic sizes. 

LinkedIn, the professional network, has its own set of image guidelines:

TikTok, predominantly a video platform, still has specific requirements for its few image dimensions:

Profile Picture: 200x200 pixels.

Video Thumbnails: 1080x1920 pixels, matching the video aspect ratio.

Stories: 1080x1920 pixels.

Over the years, Instagram has evolved from a simple photo-sharing app to a diverse social media platform encompassing a variety of content types. Originally focused on single-image posts, Instagram now thrives on various visual formats, including Stories, Videos, Carousels, Reels, and various advertising options. Each feature requires specific image dimensions to ensure optimal display and engagement. 

Let's explore the recommended sizes for each type of content on Instagram: 

The profile picture appears as a circle, so choosing an image that fits well into this shape is important. This is often the first visual interaction users have with your profile, so clarity and recognizability are key.

When Instagram started, it focused on square images but now accommodates landscape and portrait orientations. Choosing the right dimensions ensures your images look their best without being cropped unexpectedly.

Instagram Stories offers a full-screen, immersive experience. Images and videos here should follow a 9:16 aspect ratio. Proper sizing is crucial as Stories are often used for more engaging, time-sensitive content.

‍It may vary but generally follows the dimensions of Instagram posts.

Carousels allow you to share a series of images or videos in a single post. The size of each carousel slide should be consistent with the dimensions of standard Instagram posts, ensuring a cohesive viewing experience.

Reels, Instagram's answer to TikTok, are full-screen vertical videos and should follow the same sizing as Instagram Stories. This size ensures your content is fully visible without cutting off any important elements.

Depending on the ad format, Instagram ads should be tailored to fit the standard post sizes. Properly sized ads will blend seamlessly with organic content, enhancing user engagement. It is also important to note that a headline should have 40 characters and a maximum of 30 hashtags. 

Ads in Instagram Stories should use the same sizing as organic Stories content. This consistency in size ensures a natural and unobtrusive user experience.

X (formerly known as Twitter) is a platform where concise content reigns supreme. However, images play a crucial role in enhancing the impact of these brief messages. Understanding the ideal image sizes for X is key to ensuring your visuals are as compelling as your words. Moreover, it is advised to use a "Twitter photo resizer" to adjust your images to the perfect size without losing quality.

Below are the recommended image sizes for various types of content on the platform.

Your header photo is one of the first things users notice when visiting your profile. The banner-like image should represent your personal or brand identity. The recommended size ensures that your header photo looks great without any important elements getting cropped out.

In-stream photos are the images you tweet. These photos can significantly increase engagement and interaction with your content. The recommended size of 1600 x 900 pixels, with an aspect ratio of 16:9, ensures that your images are displayed clearly within the Twitter feed.

Twitter Cards enable you to attach rich media to tweets, enhancing engagement. This size ensures the image is displayed effectively within the Twitter feed and when the tweet is expanded.

Using the right image sizes for advertisements on X is crucial to ensure optimal display and click-through rates. 

Facebook remains a dominant platform in the social media landscape, with its advertising capabilities being particularly impactful. The ability to target specific demographics makes Facebook ads a powerful tool for businesses and individuals alike. To maximize the effectiveness of your presence and ads on Facebook, it's crucial to use the right image sizes. 

Another significant factor here is that 98% of active Facebook users access the platform through a mobile device. So, your content has to be optimized for mobile and tablet viewing sizes. 

Here’s a guide to the recommended image dimensions for various types of content on Facebook: 

Facebook Image Size for Cover Photos: 851x315 pixels.

Facebook Timeline Photo and Post Sizes: 1200x630 pixels.

Facebook Event Cover Photo Image Sizes: 1200x628 pixels.

Facebook Image Sizes for Panorama or 360 Photos:

‍Panorama or 360 photos offer an immersive experience. The ideal size varies, but maintaining a 2:1 aspect ratio is typically recommended to ensure the photo displays correctly.

Facebook Image Sizes for Facebook Stories: 1080 x 1920 pixels.

Facebook Image Sizes for Ads: Facebook allows users to advertise in different formats. One can upload stories, make carousel posts or slideshow ads to display multiple products or services. Different types of ads may have specific size recommendations, so it's essential to choose the right dimensions based on your ad format. 

Single Image and Carousel Ads: 1080x1080 pixels (1:1 aspect ratio) or 1200 x 628 pixels (1.91:1 aspect ratio).

In-Stream Video Ads: 1080x1080 pixels (1:1 aspect ratio).

Slideshow Ads: 1280x720 pixels, with various aspect ratios supported.

Marketplace Ad Sizes: 600x600 pixels for images; 120x120 pixels for videos

All these sizes are especially important for those who run online stores via social media platforms. Using the correct image sizes for your Facebook ads is critical for engagement and conversion. Facebook recommends uploading the “highest resolution source video available without letter or pillar boxing” for all video format ads. 

If you want to optimize your LinkedIn presence, it's important to ensure your images are sized correctly. Here are the recommended LinkedIn image sizes for different types of images:

Your LinkedIn profile photo is an important part of your personal brand. It's the first thing people see when they visit your profile; make sure it looks professional and high-quality. 

For your company page, upload a logo with a tagline and brand offerings written on the banner to give a peek into your brand. 

Pinterest is a visual discovery platform that allows users to discover and save creative ideas. As a business, having a strong presence on Pinterest is important, and that starts with understanding the correct image sizes to use.

Remember that the profile image on Pinterest, like Facebook and Instagram, appears round, but you have to upload a square image. 

Collections Pins are a new type of Pin that allows users to save multiple products from the same brand in one Pin. 

Pinterest image sizes for ads: 1000x1500 pixels with an aspect ratio of 2:3.

Pinterest image sizes for carousels: 1000x1000 pixels.

On Pinterest, 5 images can be added on a carousel, but ensure all images have the same aspect ratio. 

Snapchat is a popular social media platform that allows users to share photos and videos that disappear after a certain amount of time. 

Snapchat Geofilters are location-based overlays that users can add to their snaps. If you want to create a custom Geofilter for an event or location, you'll need to follow Snapchat's guidelines for image size and format. 

This file should be saved as a PNG with a maximum file size of 300KB. Avoid using copyrighted images or logos, as Snapchat may reject your filter if it infringes on someone else's intellectual property.

If you're looking to create a YouTube channel or optimize your existing one, knowing the correct image sizes for your channel art, videos, and thumbnails is essential. 

One of the first things visitors see when they land on your YouTube channel is your banner image. This image spans the top of your channel page and is a great way to showcase your brand. To ensure your banner looks great on all devices, you should upload an image that is. However, it's important to note that the safe area for text and logos is 1546 x 423 pixels. 

YouTube supports a range of resolutions, from 240p all the way up to 8K. Remember that the higher the resolution, the larger the file size, which can impact the time it takes to upload and process your video.

Your video thumbnail is the first thing viewers see when browsing YouTube, so make it eye-catching and relevant to your video. Keep in mind that thumbnails should be in the 16:9 aspect ratio and under 2MB in size.

If you're planning to create videos or post images on TikTok, here are the recommended image sizes for TikTok:

In addition to the recommended image sizes, it's also important to consider the file size of your images and videos. TikTok recommends keeping your file size under 287.6 MB for videos and under 20 MB for images. This ensures your content loads quickly and doesn't take up too much storage space on the user's device.

When you use properly optimized social media image sizes, it helps to keep your profile professional and visually appealing. Each social media platform has its own image size requirements, and using the wrong size can result in stretched, pixelated, or cut-off images.

Using the correct image sizes ensures that your images are displayed in the best possible way and are not distorted or blurry. This can help make your posts more engaging, leading to more likes, comments, and shares.

Using the correct image sizes can also help to improve your brand's credibility. By making an extra effort to ensure your images are correctly sized for each platform, you can create a cohesive and visually appealing brand identity across all your social media channels. This can increase brand recognition and build trust with your audience.

While this is a cheat sheet with updated social media image sizes, designing posts across multiple platforms can be tedious. The mistake of uploading an Instagram post on a Twitter account can seem odd since the audience on these platforms is different. It is best to rely on social media management software to ensure all your social media is seamlessly managed. 

This is where Highperformr comes in. Leverage the free tools and scheduling features to create a solid social media content calendar for upcoming months. It will save time and help you frame crisp copies for your posts. Among the many free tools, you can use the free image resizer tool to utilize the same post for different platforms.