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Resize an Image for Instagram Story & Reel

1080 × 1920 pixels — the exact size Instagram Story & Reel expects.

🔒 Runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded — verify it in the network panel, or disconnect and try again.

The dimensions

1080 × 1920 pixels, an aspect ratio of about 0.56:1. 9:16 is the universal vertical canvas, and the same dimensions work for Stories, Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts.

Crop, and what you will lose

Keep text away from the top 250 and bottom 340 pixels — the platform overlays its own interface there and will cover anything you place in those bands.

The safe area is smaller than the canvas

The visible area of a Story is the full 1080 × 1920 rectangle, but roughly the top 250 pixels carry the account header and the bottom 340 carry the reply bar and caption. That leaves about 1330 pixels of reliably visible height. Compose for the middle and treat the bands as bleed rather than as part of the design.

How to crop it here

Selecting cover scales your image uniformly until it fills the 1080 × 1920 rectangle, then trims the overflow from the centre. Contain would leave empty bands instead, which is wrong for an image meant to fill a frame, and stretch would distort faces.

Why this runs in your browser

The file is read from your disk by the browser, decoded with the browser's own codecs, and re-encoded in this tab. No upload request is made, nothing is queued on a server, and closing the tab leaves no copy anywhere. You can verify this in the network panel while it works.

How to use it

  1. Drop the image on the drop zone.
  2. Choose the Instagram Story & Reel preset, or type 1080 and 1920 directly.
  3. Set cover mode so the frame is filled without distortion.
  4. Check the crop keeps the subject centred, then download.

Worth knowing

  • Target dimensions are 1080 × 1920 pixels, ratio 0.56:1.
  • Used for stories and reels.
  • Cover fills the frame and crops the overflow; contain letterboxes instead.
  • Aspect ratio is preserved in every mode except stretch.

Limitations

  • Cropping is from the centre — frame the photo before uploading if the subject is off-centre.
  • Upscaling beyond the original size adds no detail.
  • Very small sources will look soft at 1080 pixels wide.
  • Platforms change their internal dimensions without notice; these are current published figures.

Frequently asked questions

What size should a instagram story & reel be?
1080 × 1920 pixels. 9:16 is the universal vertical canvas, and the same dimensions work for Stories, Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts.
Will it crop my image?
In cover mode, yes — the overflow on one axis is trimmed from the centre so the rectangle is filled without distortion. Keep text away from the top 250 and bottom 340 pixels — the platform overlays its own interface there and will cover anything you place in those bands.
Should I upload a bigger image and let the platform resize it?
No. Uploading at the platform's own storage width is the best-quality, smallest-file option; anything larger is discarded, and anything smaller is upscaled and looks soft.
Is anything uploaded to a server?
No. The file is read from your disk by the browser, decoded and re-encoded in this tab. There is no upload request, no queue and no server-side copy — which you can confirm by watching the network panel while the tool runs.
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