Where this number comes from: Instagram guidance for feed photos: at least 1080 px wide, aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 3:4 — so 1080 × 566, 1080 × 1080, 1080 × 1350 (4:5) and 1080 × 1440 (3:4) all upload. The profile grid previews posts at 3:4.
Portrait 4:5 is the most valuable shape on Instagram because it occupies more of the screen than a square or a landscape crop as someone scrolls past. The ceiling is higher than it used to be: accepted ratios now run up to 3:4 (1080 × 1440), which matches the taller tiles the profile grid has previewed at since 2025. 4:5 is no longer the tallest upload, but it is still the all-round feed size — the one to ship when a single file has to look right everywhere a post appears. That is the whole reason to pick it: the ratio buys attention, not quality.
Uploading a bigger file does not get you a sharper post. Instagram re-encodes everything it receives and serves around 1080 px wide, so a 4000 px original is downscaled on their servers with settings you do not control. Resizing to 1080 × 1350 yourself means the downscale happens once, locally, with the result visible before you post.
The thing most resizers get wrong here is the crop. Forcing a landscape photo into a portrait frame by stretching it distorts every face in the shot. This tool scales the image until it covers the frame and then takes the middle, which loses the edges instead. If the subject is not centred, crop it first and then resize.
Questions
Should I use 1080×1350 or 1080×1080?
1080 × 1350 unless the composition is genuinely square. The portrait crop is taller on screen, so it is visible for longer while someone scrolls. Both are accepted; neither is penalised. 1080 × 1440 (3:4) is accepted too and lines up exactly with the grid tile — the one to pick when the grid crop is what you are designing for.
Will this make my photo blurry?
No, as long as the original is at least 1080 px on the short side. Downscaling discards pixels and stays sharp. This tool never enlarges an image in its Fit modes, because adding pixels adds size without detail.
Does Instagram strip the metadata?
Instagram removes most of it on upload, but the copy on your own device still has it. If you want the GPS coordinates gone before the file leaves your machine, run it through the metadata remover first.
What about carousels?
A carousel uses the ratio of its first image for every slide. Resize all of them to 1080 × 1350 so none get cropped unexpectedly.