Best Instagram Upload Resolution in 2025
- Stephen Knight
- May 8
- 6 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
For many years, the general consensus has been that the optimal image upload resolution size to Instagram for the best image quality was 1080 pixels (px) wide / horizontal edge, with the popular 4:5 aspect ratio being 1080x1350px. At the time of writing, this is what Instagram still recommend. However, in 2025, this appears to no longer be the case. This article takes a look at the background, and my own testing.
Update 09/05/2025 - Facebook and Reddit resolutions also added to the article.
Background
I recently came across this excellent article on Reddit by user NoirAngelPhotography. This article goes into a lot of detail, has challenged the status quo, and is well worth reading. The overview is as follows.
Desktop (web UI) uploads:
Allowed desktop (web UI) upload ratios in "original" mode vary between 16:8.296 (approx. 16:9) landscape to 4:5.05 (approx. 4:5) portrait.
The maximum resolutions vary between 2160x1440px 3:2 landscape to 1440x1818px 4:5.05 portrait.
This is 1440px on the short edge.
The exception is between 16:8.296 and 3:2 where the limitation is 2160px on the long / horizontal edge.
Mobile app uploads:
Allowed mobile app upload ratios vary between 1.91:1 or 16:8.377 to 4:5.
The maximum resolutions vary between 1440x754px landscape to 1440x1800px portrait.
This is 1440px wide / horizontal edge.
In general:
The desktop (web UI) allows for higher resolution landscape orientation uploads than the mobile app.
All uploaded images are compressed. Desktop uploads have better image quality than mobile app uploads due to less compression.
The Instagram grid chops off some pixels on each side of images when displayed in the grid only.
Images uploaded at higher than the above resolutions will be compressed more and downscaled. There is no benefit to higher resolution (than recommended) uploads to Instagram.
Web developers and dev tool data have also confirmed most of the above information.
Testing
Just to see if this advice applies to "real world" use of Instagram, I decided to do my own testing. I cropped part of a 6000x4000 light painting photo with fine details and lots of colours to 4:5 ratio, which ended up at 2863x3579px. This photo was then exported 4 times at 4:5 ratio, jpeg 92% quality, with the variables being resolution and Instagram post upload method.
Desktop (web UI) upload, 1080x1350px.
Mobile app upload 1440x1800px.
Desktop (web UI) upload, 1080x1350px.
Mobile app upload 1440x1800px
Test light painting photo crop
My personal analysis was using the Chrome web browser on the desktop using a 1080x1920px 15" laptop display (100% sRGB), and Instagram mobile app on a Google Pixel 6 Pro phone 1440x3120px display (73.8% DCI-P3 in natural mode). I also asked my Instagram followers to review the 4 posts and vote for which one was their favourite for overall image quality in an Instagram story poll I asked them to zoom in to the images (if possible) when making their evaluation. This test would have been using a wide range of devices simulating "real world" use. 53 people voted, and the results were rather interesting:
Desktop upload, 1080x1350px - 28%
Desktop upload 1440x1800px - 40%
Mobile app upload, 1080x1350px - 6%
Mobile app upload 1440x1800px - 26%
The results showed a preference for photos uploaded to Instagram on the desktop at 68%, and preference towards photos uploaded at 1440x1800px at 66%. I also received messages from 3 people who could not differentiate between any of the photos. Personally, I could only see the improvement with the higher resolution posts, and couldn't differentiate between desktop and mobile uploads (maybe marginally higher saturation in the mobile app uploads). The improvements in image quality at the higher resolution were most noticeable when zoomed in using the mobile Instagram app, and to a lesser extent when viewed in the mobile app feed. All photos suffered from Moire when viewed on the 15" laptop display.
Screenshots of zoomed mobile app upload - left 1080px, right 1440px.
The above test only considered 4:5 portrait uploads, and as previously mentioned the desktop (web UI) allows for much higher resolution landscape photos to be uploaded. So I did another test for landscapes. I cropped part of the same 6000x4000 light painting photo to 3:2 ratio, which ended up at 3579x2386px. This photo was then exported twice, jpeg 92% quality, with the variables being resolution and upload method.
Desktop upload, 2160x1440px.
Mobile app upload 1440x960px.
The higher resolution desktop upload had slightly more detail when zoomed in on the mobile app, and was marginally sharper in the mobile app feed. In the grid, the difference was negligible, with the desktop upload just having the edge.
Whilst the desktop (web UI) uploads to Instagram appear to have better image quality, it should be taken into account that there are limitations with uploading posts via this method (including the inability to add music). It is possible to upload via the desktop, and then edit in the mobile app, but this is long winded. Given the improvement from 1080px to 1440px uploads in the mobile app, I'm likely to continue using the app for uploads to Instagram due to the better functionality and convenience (I often upload to insta on my bus commute home from work).
A few notes:
This testing only covered photo post uploads to Instagram and not video/reels.
Instagram make functionality changes quite frequently, so this information is subject to change.
What about Facebook and Reddit?
I uploaded three full resolution photos in 3:2, 4:3, and 4:5 aspect ratios to Meta's Facebook desktop web UI (in Chrome web browser) and Android App. The resulting "intrinsic resolutions" in Chrome dev tools were:
3:2 aspect ratio Desktop = 2048x1365px
4:3 aspect ratio Desktop = 2048x1536px
4:5 aspect ratio Desktop = 1639x2048px
3:2 aspect ratio App = 2048x1365px
4:3 apect ratio App = 2048x1542px
4:5 aspect ratio App = 1637x2048px
This is 2048px on the longest edge, and different to Instagram.
Uploads to Threads have not yet been tested.
For Reddit, I looked at a set of photos in a long exposure photography sub-Reddit. All photos were stored at original resolution (the largest was over 7000px wide), and could be zoomed in. I'm not sure if this behaviour is consistent in all sub-Reddits. Image display was 982px wide on a 1080x1920 FHD display.
Conclusion
For desktop (web UI) uploads:
The optimal photo upload resolution to Instagram desktop (web UI) is 1440px on the short edge as long as the aspect ratio is between 3:2 and 4:5 (ish). The exception is 2160px wide / horizontal edge for uploads between 16:8.296 and 3:2.
16:8.296 aspect ratio = 2160x1120px
3:2 aspect ratio = 2160x1440px
4:3 aspect ratio = 1920x1440px
1:1 aspect ratio = 1440x1440px
4:5 aspect ratio = 1440x1800px
4:5.05 aspect ratio = 1440x1818px (unless you are pedantic, just use 4:5)
3:4 and 2:3 portrait photos will be cropped.
The desktop (web UI) allows for higher resolution landscape uploads.
For mobile app uploads:
The optimal upload resolution to the Instagram mobile app is 1440px wide / horizontal edge for all aspect ratios.
16:8.377 aspect ratio = 1440x754px
3:2 aspect ratio = 1440x960px
4:3 aspect ratio = 1440x1080px
1:1aspect ratio = 1440x1440px
4:5 aspect ratio = 1440x1800px
3:4 and 2:3 portrait photos will be cropped.
In general:
The above recommended upload resolutions result in better image quality on Instagram than the "traditional" 1080px uploads.
These image quality improvements are most noticeable when zoomed in on the mobile app.
In some parts of the UI such as the grid, the differences in image quality may be negligible.
Landscape photos can be uploaded at higher resolution on the desktop (web UI). However, the desktop UI has some posting limitations (e.g. no music).
There was a reviewer preference for 4:5 portrait image quality uploaded on the desktop (web UI) even though the upload resolutions were the same. This may be due to differences in compression.
Uploading at a higher resolution than the above upload resolutions will result in image quality degradation due to an increase in image compression and downsizing.
Facebook has different optimal upload resolutions - 2048px on longest edge.
Reddit appears to allow full resolution uploads.
I hope you have found this article useful. Please feel free to browse the rest of my website articles, or my store where I sell professional quality Lightroom presets and prints.
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