Instagram grid maker: one photo across your profile

Instagram grid size now: 3:4 tiles

Instagram profiles no longer show square thumbnails. When we checked instagram.com on 26 October 2026, every profile tile measured exactly 3:4, with a 1 pixel gap between tiles, and each thumbnail filled its tile from the center. Instagram shows posts at up to 1080 pixels wide, so a full-size grid tile is 1080 x 1440 px, the tallest shape its help center lists.

A post in any other shape is trimmed at the sides to fill its 3:4 tile. This is how much of each post shape stays visible on your profile:

That is why a grid cut into squares or 4:5 pieces no longer lines up: each piece loses a strip on both sides, and the picture breaks at every seam.

Grid sizes and number of posts

Each profile row holds three posts. The table shows the photo shape each grid fits with nothing cropped, and the whole-image size in case you design the picture in another app first and split it here.

Until you pick a grid yourself, the tool starts with the closest one and says how much Crop to fit cuts off. A 9:16 vertical photo fits 3 x 4 exactly, and an upright 3:4 phone photo fits 3 x 3 exactly. A 4:5 photo gets 3 x 3 with 6% cut at the left and right. A square photo gets 3 x 2 with 11% cut at the top and bottom, and a 4:3 landscape gets 3 x 2 with 16% cut at the left and right. Choose Extend to fit instead to keep every pixel.

To divide a photo into 3 posts that sit side by side in one profile row, use 3 x 1. A 16:9 landscape starts there, with 21% cut at the top and bottom, and a 9:4 panorama fits with nothing cut. Post the right piece first. If you would rather keep the three pieces together as a single post that people swipe through, use the Instagram carousel splitter. A carousel is one post, so it fills a single tile on your profile, while a 3 x 1 grid shows the whole picture across a row and uses three posts.

Posting order, and how to keep the grid lined up

The newest post always takes the top left spot, so a grid is built backwards: post 1 is the bottom right piece and the last post is the top left. The files are numbered that way, so sort them by name and upload them one at a time.

Posting the whole grid in one sitting is the simplest way to keep it lined up. Anything you share later pushes every tile one place along, and the picture only lines up again after three more posts, a full row. If a piece went up out of order or another post slipped in between, fix it in the Instagram app with Reorder grid: tap and hold any post on your profile grid, choose Reorder grid, then long press a tile and drag it into place. Instagram says the changes are saved at once and every visitor to your profile sees them.

Pinned posts always come first, and Instagram lets you pin up to 3. Pinning one or two posts shifts the whole grid out of line; pinning none or exactly three keeps the rows intact.

Your profile shows only the first slide of a carousel, so a grid piece can also be slide 1 of a carousel with more photos behind it.

Posting through a scheduling app that uses Instagram's publishing API? Its reference page still lists JPEG only and shapes from 4:5 to 1.91:1, so choose 4:5 tiles and JPG for that route, knowing the profile will trim them, or post from the Instagram app.