Social Media Post Size Guide Introduction:
I’m constantly having to re-google “Social Media Post Size Guide” and no reliable single site ever pops up that I can trust. So i’m always searching for the correct size/quality/ratios for a variety of social media platforms and if I take a break from any I’m always forgetting my previous settings. So as a fail-safe I’m going to document them all here for myself and if you find it useful feel free to bookmark it. I’ll try to timestamp and update it as I find new platforms; I want this to be a working, living Social Media Post Size Guide so if you find an error, let me know. (Drop me a DM via Instagram.) The links to sources are there to help give you confidence that the information is up to date.
Last Updated April 2020
Quick Links (Social Media Post Size Guides):
- Snapchat (TBA)
- Blog/Website(TBA)
- Reddit (TBA)
Workflow TIP:
Plan your content and exports to make it easier for you and ensure a correct naming convention to avoid duplicates. An example of this might be FILENAME-FB2048-ORIG-FILE-NAME.jpg as an export from Lightroom – at a glance you can identify the file size and the intended platform. This might also be suitable for Instagram, as well as avoiding duplicate output files.
You can see more of my Photography Howto Guides on this site.
ZOOM Background Size
If your looking for Free Zoom backgrounds your welcome to use mine
ZOOM Background Sizes
Zoom
JPG PICTURE
- Format: GIF, JPG/JPEG or 24-bit PNG (no alpha). Any transparent areas of PNGs will be shown on a white background.
- Minimum dimension: 960px
- Maximum dimension: 1920px
- Recommended dimensions: 1920px by 1080px (16:9 aspect ratio). If you don’t use an image with an aspect ratio of 16:9, you may see black bars beside the background image.
- Maximum file size: 5 MB
- Virtual Background has a minimum resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels.
Video
- A video (MP4 or MOV file) with a minimum resolution of 480 by 360 pixels (360p) and a maximum resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels (1080p).
TIKTOK – Guide
Rule of Thumb: Tiktok is usually created inside your own mobile app, but if you do want to upload..
Tiktok Video Dimensions
Size and Quality
TikTok Video Specs
TikTok Video Best Practices
- Video File Size: up to 287.6 MB (iOS) and 72 MB (Android) in size
- Video Length Max: 15 seconds
- Can also combine story videos together for up to 60 seconds of video
- Video Captions: Available
- Video Sound: Recommended
TikTok Video Dimensions
- Vertical video is preferred, but horizontal is permitted
- Asset dimensions: 1080 x 1920 (video must use the entire canvas)
- 150px margin on top and bottom, 64px margin on each side.
- Resolution: 9:16 aspect ratio.
- File type: .mp4 or .mov file.
- Video code: H.264 encoded.
- Recommended ratio in Clipchamp: 9:16 (full portrait)
Source
Clip Champ Ultimate Guide to Tiktok (unoffical source)
INSTAGRAM – Social Media Post Size Guide
Rule of Thumb: If you post higher quality photos than a website or service uses, it will resize your images. If you stick to the supported ratios, they will upload in the same quality as you created them. The resizing quality is dependant on your phone and the app, so to keep full control do the resizing yourself before uploading. If you are lucky and it looks OK letting the service resize it, that’s great news, just know that this doesn’t work for all phones/apps/services.
Tips: If you are having trouble uploading video try H265 – this has caused a lot of problems for some trying to upload H264 format.
Instagram Post
Size and Quality
- Ratios (Landscape to square to Portrait )
- Width 1080px,
- So for 1:1 its 1080px x 1080px
- for 4:5 its 1080px x 1350px
Source
Instagram Stoires
Size and Quality
- Ratio (9:16 ) 1080 x 1920 or 9:16
- (Some mixed info out there on this)
Source
Instagram Business Ads Info doesn’t match other IG pages so Just going based on “Saved” stories here.
Instagram IGTV
Size and Quality
- Ratio:Vertical: 9:16 – Horizontal 16:9
- Frame Rate: minimum 30 FPS (frames per second)
- Resolution: minimum resolution of 720 pixels.
- Container: MP4
- Less than 10 minutes Max Size 650MB.
- Videos up to 60 minutes Max Size 3.6GB.
- Cover Photo: 420px by 654px (or 1:1.55 ratio)
- Length of IGTV Videos must be between 15 seconds and 10 minutes long.
- Larger accounts and verified accounts can upload videos up to 60 minutes long, but they must be uploaded from a computer.
- Codec Settings:
Video codec
- Progressive scan (no interlacing).
- High profile.
- 2 consecutive B frames.
- Closed GOP. GOP of half the frame rate.
- CABAC.
- Chroma subsampling: 4:2:0.
Audio codec
- Channels: Stereo or Stereo + 5.1.
- Sample rate 96khz or 48khz.
Cover photo file format
- png or jpg.
YOUTUBE – Social Media Post Size Guide
Rule of Thumb:
Youtube has video as its main format but it is slowly adding new features over time that are accessible to the biggest creators. As a rule of thumb you can upload in the highest quality but YouTube users can pick to watch at lower settings, just because you can upload at a higher resolution it’s not a requirement for the best quality.
Youtube Video
Size and Quality
Encoding Settings:
Video Container: MP4
Audio Codec: AAC-LC
– Stereo or Stereo + 5.1
– Sample 96khz or 48khz
Video Codec: H.264
– Progressive Scan ( No Interlacing)
– High Profile
– 2 consecutive B Frames
– Closed GOP, GOP of half the frame rate
– CABAC
– Variable Bitrate (No limit reccomended below)
– Chroma Subsampling: 4:2:0
Frame Rate
Content should be encoded and uploaded in the same frame rate it was recorded.
Common frame rates include: 24, 25, 30, 48, 50, 60 frames per second (other frame rates are also acceptable).
Interlaced content should be deinterlaced before uploading. For example, 1080i60 content should be deinterlaced to 1080p30, going from 60 interlaced fields per second to 30 progressive frames per second.
Bitrate: (See the full source for more info)
| Type | Video Bitrate, Standard Frame Rate (24, 25, 30) | Video Bitrate, High Frame Rate (48, 50, 60) |
|---|---|---|
| 2160p (4k) | 35-45 Mbps | 53-68 Mbps |
| 1440p (2k) | 16 Mbps | 24 Mbps |
| 1080p | 8 Mbps | 12 Mbps |
| 720p | 5 Mbps | 7.5 Mbps |
| 480p | 2.5 Mbps | 4 Mbps |
| 360p | 1 Mbps | 1.5 Mbps |
Ratios:
The standard aspect ratio for YouTube on desktop is 16:9. If your video has a different aspect ratio, the player will automatically change to the ideal size to match your video and the viewer’s device.
For some combinations of video and device aspects ratios, such as 9:16 vertical videos on desktop browsers, YouTube may add additional padding for optimal viewing. The padding is white by default, and dark gray when Dark theme is turned on.
For best results, avoid adding padding or black bars directly to your video. This interferes with YouTube’s ability to adjust the player dynamically to your video size and the viewer’s device.
For the default 16:9 aspect ratio, encode at these resolutions:
- 2160p: 3840×2160
- 1440p: 2560×1440
- 1080p: 1920×1080
- 720p: 1280×720
- 480p: 854×480
- 360p: 640×360
- 240p: 426×240
Youtube Banner
Size and Quality
- TBA
Source
N/A
Youtube Stories
Size and Quality
- TBA
Source
N/A
Youtube 360 Videos
Size and Quality
- Resolution: 5120 x 5120 and up to 8192 x 8192 (if under 5K, use the maximum possible resolution)
- Frame rate: 25, 29.97, 50, 59.94
- Format: MP4, MOV
- Codec: H.264, ProRes, DNxHR
- H.264 Bitrate: 150 – 360Mbps
- Audio: AAC (for spatial, visit YouTube spatial audio requirements)
- Moov Atom: Write at start of file
Source
Youtube Other Links
Spacial Audio Guide: Spatial Audio Guide
PINTEREST – Size Guide
Rule of Thumb: Pinterest Pins can appear anywhere on the web and they suggest sticking to the below guidelines to ensure your pins are seen how you expect them to be.
Type
Pinterest PIN Image
Size and Quality
- Ratios (2:3)
- File type: .png or .jpg
- Max file size: 10 MB
- Aspect ratio: We recommend using a 2:3 aspect ratio, or 1,000 x 1,500 pixels. Pins with an aspect ratio that’s greater than 2:3 might get cut off in people’s feeds.
Source
TWITTER – Size Guide
Rule of Thumb: Twitter is really a mobile first app and therefore the quality you can get away with is much less.
Twitter Video
TWITTER Video
Size and Quality
We currently support MP4 and MOV video formats on mobile apps.
On the web, we support the MP4 video format with H264 format with AAC audio. You can upload videos up to 512MB, however you will be prompted to edit videos to 2 minutes and 20 seconds or less in length.
Size Guide:
- Minimum resolution: 32 x 32
- Maximum resolution: 1920 x 1200 (and 1200 x 1900)
- Aspect ratios: 1:2.39 – 2.39:1 range (inclusive)
- Maximum frame rate: 40 fps
- Maximum bitrate: 25 Mbps
Source
TWITTER Photo
Size and Quality
- Photos can be up to 5MB;
- Animated GIFs can be up to 5MB on mobile, and up to 15MB on web.
- We accept GIF, JPEG, and PNG files.
- We DO NOT accept BMP, TIFF or other file formats.
- Your photo will be automatically scaled for display in your expanded Tweet and in your gallery.
Twitter Profile and Header Photo
Size and Quality
- Twitter supports JPEG, GIF, and PNG file formats.
- Maximum file size for profile photos is 2MB.
- Recommended dimensions for profile images are 400×400 pixels.
- Recommended dimensions for header images are 1500×500 pixels
- Link to Sample Headers to use
FACEBOOK – Post Size Guide
Rule of Thumb: A lot of people view Facebook on their phone – don’t worry too much about the image quality and what the image is and why you are posting, but remember if we upload what Facebook is expecting, it won’t resize it so we can keep control of the quality.
Facebook Ads
Size and Quality
Facebook has a really good page summarising all the formats found on the link to the right. This covers most ads for images and videos. They also have some good templates to download here: Facebook Size and Ratio Templates
Source
Facebook Feed Image
Size and Quality
- Resize your photo to one of the following supported sizes:
- Regular photos: 720px, 960px or 2048px wide
- Cover photos: 851px by 315px
- To avoid compression when you upload your cover photo, make sure the file size is less than 100KB
- Save your image as a JPEG with an sRGB color profile
Source
Facebook Feed Video
Size and Quality
This is an amazing reference: Facebook One sheeter guide to Video Ratios
Source
Facebook AD Quality
Size and Quality
Format:
- square pixels
- fixed frame rate
- progressive scan
- H.264 video MOV or MP4 format
- Aspect Ratio: No larger than 1280px wide and divisible by 16px
- Frame Rate: At or below 30fps
- Audio: Stereo audio with a sample rate of 44,100hz (AAC audio compression at 128kbps+)
Facebook Story Image
Size and Quality
TBA – not currently in the Social Media Post Size Guide
Source
Facebook Story Video
Size and Quality
TBA – not currently in the Social Media Post Size Guide
Source
Facebook Profile Photo
Size and Quality
- Displays at 170×170 pixels on your Page on computers,
- 128×128 pixels on smartphones and
- 36×36 pixels on most feature phones.
- For profile pictures and cover photos with your logo or text, you may get a better result by using a PNG file.
Source
Facebook Cover Image
Size and Quality
- Displays at 820 pixels wide by 312 pixels tall on your Page on computers and
- 640 pixels wide by 360 pixels tall on smartphones.
- Must be at least 400 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall.
- Loads fastest as an sRGB JPG file that’s 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall and less than 100 kilobytes.
- For profile pictures and cover photos with your logo or text, you may get a better result by using a PNG file.
Source
Facebook 3D Post
Size and Quality
TBA
Source
Facebook LiveStream
Video Requirements
Size and Quality
- Recommended max bit rate is 4000 Kbps (4 mbps).
- Recommended audio bit rate is 96 Kbps or 128 Kbps.
- Max: 720p (1280 x 720) resolution, at 30 frames per second.
- An I-frame (keyframe) must be sent at least every 2 seconds throughout the stream.
- Titles must have fewer than 255 characters or the stream will fail.
- H264 encoded video and AAC encoded audio only.
Source
I hope you found the Social Media Post Size Guide useful, if you find anything wrong please let me know!
Thanks Rob
