How to resize an image for Instagram story
- Select Choose files and pick your photo, or drop it on the box.
- The tool fills a 1080×1920 frame and trims equally from the longer side, so the middle of your photo stays. The file keeps the format of your original.
- Select Download and upload the result.
About the 1080×1920 size
Instagram stories and reels use a tall 9 to 16 canvas, commonly published as 1080×1920 pixels at the time of writing. Check the app, since layouts and overlays change.
1080×1920 is a 9:16 portrait frame (width divided by height is 0.563) with 2,073,600 pixels, or 2.07 megapixels. A landscape photo is a poor fit for a tall frame: a 4:3 photo keeps only the middle 42 percent of its width. Portrait phone photos fit far better.
What happens to your photo
The table shows how common source images are treated when the tool fills 1080×1920.
| Source | Scaling | Part of the picture kept |
|---|---|---|
| 4000×3000 phone photo | reduced to 64 percent | 42 percent |
| 3024×4032 portrait photo | reduced to 48 percent | 75 percent |
| 1920×1080 screenshot | enlarged 1.78× | 32 percent |
| 1080×1080 square | enlarged 1.78× | 56 percent |
Sources smaller than the frame are enlarged because the output size is fixed, which can look soft. Platforms change their guidance over time, so check Instagram story requirements before you publish.
Tips
- Leave space at the top and bottom, where the app shows its own buttons and captions.
- Shoot or pick a vertical photo to avoid heavy cropping.
- For feed posts see Instagram portrait or the square post.
- See also: Instagram post size, resize for TikTok cover, resize for Instagram portrait post, crop tool.
Your photos stay on your device. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no sign-up.