Instagram shows the same cover image in two very different places: the full-screen player and the cropped profile grid. This tool gives you the exact pixel dimensions and the safe centre-crop region for each content type so your thumbnails read clearly in both.
How it works
Each Instagram surface has a native canvas size and an aspect ratio. The grid applies a centre square crop on top of that:
Reels cover (player) = 1080 × 1920 (9:16)
Reels grid crop = centred 1080 × 1080 (1:1)
Feed video thumbnail = 1080 × 1350 (4:5 portrait, max feed size)
Square post = 1080 × 1080 (1:1)
Story = 1080 × 1920 (9:16)Because the grid always crops to 1:1, the rule is simple: design your full cover at its native ratio, but keep every essential element — faces, logos, headline text — inside the centred square so nothing important is lost on your profile.
Tips and notes
Export covers as JPG for photographic backgrounds or PNG for sharp text and flat graphics, and keep files under roughly 30 MB so Instagram does not heavily re-compress them. When a brief calls for a uniform grid look, set every Reels cover to the same template with a centred title block — that guarantees a tidy profile no matter how the player crops the full 9:16 frame.