I remember how happy I was when Instagram's CEO, Adam Mosseri, broadcasted on his personal Instagram account that they were shifting Instagram from being a photo-focused platform into a video-focused platform! Because I love video! THEN when they announced the move from SQUARE (oh so tiny!) to PORTRAIT (oh so much bigger!) in July 2021, that made my tuneful whistling ditty into a full-blown song! (yes, I'm a whistler, and when you hear me whistling, you know I'm happy!)
You can still watch that update here:
Since that update, there have been dozens of changes and updates from Instagram this year! Some of my favourites (updates directly from Meta):
👉Edit Your Messages, Pin Your Chats and More Instagram DM Updates (March 4, 2024) - great to avoid mistakes/typos in DMs!
THEN ...
👉Music (for Instagram only, not Facebook) on Carousels - it's awesome - keeps people on your carousel pages for longer, so I really love this feature! (June 2024)
👉Carousels increased from 10 pics, to 20 pics! (August 8, 2024)
👉 Photos and carousels with music are now eligible to appear in the Reels tab - helping you reach more people who don’t follow you! (October 2024)
👉Publish reels up to 3 minutes long (from 90secs) which is great when you want to tell stories - Instagram said they wanted to change how long-form content is recommended to be seen by non-followers in places like the Reels tab and Explore - interesting! (January 21, 2025)
But...
On January 20, 2025, there was a massive change which unfolded, during the same weekend as the US (temporarily) lost TikTok and Capcut, and a bunch of other crazy social media updates went down ... it got a lot of people losing their cool over it, because if you've got a heavily curated Instagram grid, and you hadn't been using the profile size for posting over the last couple of years since it was introduced (a lot of people stuck to square, and why, I'll never know! ) then the grid can look super messed up! (It's an easy fix, I shared that here)
Here's what the new grid looks like:
New post, video, and reel sizes!
We've compiled a list of the new January 2025 post, video, and reel sizes for Instagram. Check them out below, and you can also bookmark this blog so you can always come back here later for new Instagram size updates! If you want updated sizes for other platforms, click here.
1. Instagram static graphic posts
For all static graphic posts, we've gone from a 1:1 (SQUARE) to 4:5 aspect ratio, or 1080 x 1350 pixels (PORTRAIT). This is awesome because your graphic / image is taking up more space on someone's phone! Less opportunity for them to be distracted by the noise above and below their scroll!
For Instagram's New Grid: You Can't Upload 3:4 Ratio Content. Even though the new grid preview is taller, Instagram limits content dimensions to a maximum width of 1080 px and a maximum height of 1350 px (4:5 ratio). Stick to the 4:5 ratio for feed posts and carousels.
2. Video posts
Important to note: If you don't want to change the size of your video into a reel size, you'll see a black space on top of and below your video, taking up the extra space that you didn't fill in because you're still using the old video size instead of the reel size. Let me show you!
It's important that you always turn all your future video posts into a reel and change the size into a reel size. Which brings me to my next topic.
3. Instagram Reels
Instagram and Facebook Reels are video storytelling. I call them snackable content. They're bite-size, engaging, fun and completely addictive!
According to Meta, Reels are responsible for 20% of the overall time spent on the platform. That's quite a chunk when you think there are many other places a scroller can be spending their time ... and it's growing day by day!
On their recent update, Instagram also introduced Trial Reels - the concept is that you can mark your reel as a trial, meaning the app will show it to random Instagram users. As a result, your reel won’t appear on your profile or in your reels tab, and it will be invisible to your followers. The only people who will see it are users who don’t follow you. Based on their interactions with your reel, you can then decide whether to publish it on your profile. (which for me is awesome and can give you insights about your non-followers too!)
So if you're not creating Reels yet, make sure that you jump on the Reels bandwagon to reach more people, raise awareness of your brand, and drive more traffic to your bio (which in turn aims to drive more traffic to your website!).
Important to note: If you're adding text overlay to your Reels, make sure that you place them as close to the centre as possible, definitely not at the very bottom or within the circle in the photo below (so, avoid the bottom 1/3 of the screen) PLUS not too close to the edges. You don't want your important words/message getting lost or covered by captions, audio info etc! See an easy guide for that, here.
Instagram has a feature called Automated Captions that anyone on the platform can turn on (I do!) So, whenever I watch a reel (with Automated Captions turned on), I see the caption floating over the video, so if there is text there, chances are, I won't be able to read your words properly!
4. Instagram Reel cover
For your Instagram Reel cover, it should still be the reel size which is 1080 x 1920 but take note of where to put your important bits!
5. Instagram Stories
The updated size for Instagram Stories is 9:16 ratio, or 1080 x 1920 pixels. This means that you can share your Reels into your Stories anytime.
Important to note: Don't add important information or stickers too close to the edges because they won't work.
Found that helpful? Yep, thought so! Join our Hello Media Facebook group where I'm sharing algorithm updates what feels like as often as I put on a clean tee-shirt! CRAAAAZY how fast this digital marketing game changes ... but we help you with that inside our group. Join here!