Guides

How to resize a photo for Instagram without cropping

Updated 21 October 2026

Tool for this guide: Resize for Instagram

Short answer: open resize for Instagram without cropping, add your photo and download. The whole picture is placed inside a 1080 × 1350 (4:5) frame with a white or coloured border, so Instagram has nothing to cut off. Choose 1080 × 1080 for a square post.

Why Instagram crops your photos

Instagram feed posts must be between 4:5 portrait and 1.91:1 landscape. Most phone photos are 3:4 or 9:16, which are taller than 4:5, so Instagram crops the top and bottom. Panoramas are wider than 1.91:1, so the sides are cut.

Instagram sizes

Step by step

1. Open resize for Instagram without cropping.
2. Add up to 50 photos.
3. Keep Portrait 1080 × 1350, or pick Square or Story / Reel.
4. Pick the border colour: white, black or any colour that matches your feed.
5. Download and post the new image as it is.

Everything runs in your browser, and nothing is uploaded.

Without a border: crop yourself

If you'd rather fill the frame, crop the photo to 4:5 and drag the frame to keep the important part. You choose what's lost instead of Instagram.

Reel covers

A Reel cover is 1080 × 1920, but the feed shows only the middle 1080 × 1350. Keep faces and text in the centre. Make the cover with the social media image resizer (Story / Reel preset), and add a title with add text to image.

Carousels

All photos in a carousel use the shape of the first one. Resize every photo to the same size, 1080 × 1350 is best, so nothing is cropped on the later slides.

Questions

How do I make a picture fit Instagram?

Fit it into 4:5 or 1:1 with a border using resize for Instagram, or crop it to 4:5 yourself.

Will Instagram reduce the quality?

Instagram re-compresses every upload. Starting at exactly 1080 pixels wide avoids an extra resize, which keeps it sharper.

What about other networks?

See social media image sizes for Facebook, TikTok, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest and YouTube.