Getting Instagram ad sizes wrong is one of the most avoidable reasons your creative gets cropped, blurred, or rejected before it even reaches an audience. This guide covers every placement with exact pixel dimensions, aspect ratios, file size limits, and character counts — so you can build or generate creatives that work the first time.

Instagram Feed Ads (Photo and Carousel)

Feed ads appear in the main Instagram scroll between organic posts. They support multiple aspect ratios, but not all are created equal.

| Format | Recommended Size | Aspect Ratio | Max File Size | |--------|-----------------|--------------|---------------| | Square | 1080 × 1080 px | 1:1 | 30 MB | | Landscape | 1080 × 566 px | 1.91:1 | 30 MB | | Portrait | 1080 × 1350 px | 4:5 | 30 MB |

Best practice: Portrait (4:5) takes up the most vertical real estate in the feed, which typically drives higher engagement. If you're only generating one format, start here.

Text limits for Feed ads:

Primary text: 125 characters (longer is truncated with "more")
Headline: 40 characters
Description: 30 characters

Carousel ads use the same square (1:1) format. Each card can have its own headline and description. Minimum 2 cards, maximum 10.

Instagram Stories Ads

Stories ads run full-screen between organic Stories. They're one of the highest-performing placements on the platform — and one of the most format-sensitive.

| Format | Size | Aspect Ratio | Duration | |--------|------|--------------|----------| | Image | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 | 5 seconds shown | | Video | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 | Up to 60 seconds |

Safe zones: Instagram overlays UI elements at the top (200 px) and bottom (250 px) of Stories. Keep all critical content — your headline, product, CTA — in the middle 1080 × 1470 px zone.

File specs:

Image: JPG or PNG, max 30 MB
Video: MP4 or MOV, max 4 GB, min 1 Mbps bitrate

Text overlays in the creative tend to outperform relying on the ad copy fields alone. Stories move fast — make the message readable in 3 seconds without sound.

Instagram Reels Ads

Reels ads appear in the Reels feed and between organic Reels content. Same vertical format as Stories, different placement behavior.

| Format | Size | Aspect Ratio | Duration | |--------|------|--------------|----------| | Video | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 | 15–90 seconds | | Image (static Reel) | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 | — |

Key difference from Stories: Reels loop automatically. If your video has a clear loop point, users will watch it multiple times — which Meta's algorithm rewards with lower CPMs.

Safe zones for Reels: Similar to Stories — avoid placing important content in the bottom 35% where the caption and action buttons overlay.

Instagram Explore Ads

Explore ads appear in the Explore feed discovery surface. Users land here when browsing topics, so it's a higher-intent placement than the main feed.

| Format | Size | Aspect Ratio | |--------|------|--------------| | Square | 1080 × 1080 px | 1:1 | | Portrait | 1080 × 1350 px | 4:5 | | Landscape | 1080 × 566 px | 1.91:1 |

Explore uses the same specs as Feed. You don't need to build separate creatives — Feed ads automatically extend to Explore in most campaign setups.

Instagram Shopping Ads

For ecommerce brands, Shopping ads link directly to product pages and include price and product name overlays.

| Format | Size | Aspect Ratio | |--------|------|--------------| | Product image | 1080 × 1080 px | 1:1 | | Collection cover | 1080 × 1080 px or 1080 × 1350 px | 1:1 or 4:5 |

Shopping ads prioritize clean product imagery. Cluttered backgrounds or text-heavy creatives tend to underperform — let the product do the work.

General Instagram Ad Requirements

Regardless of format, all Instagram image ads share these baseline requirements:

Minimum resolution: 1080 px wide (lower resolution ads look blurry on Retina displays)
File formats: JPG, PNG (for images); MP4, MOV, GIF (for video)
Text in image: Meta recommends less than 20% of the image area as text. Heavy text doesn't get rejected, but it can reduce delivery
Safe aspect ratio range: 0.8:1 to 1.91:1 for images; 4:5 to 9:16 for video. Content outside this range gets cropped

Why Getting Sizes Right Matters More Than Ever

Instagram's algorithm rewards engagement signals in the first 24 hours after a campaign goes live. An ad that gets cropped, pixelated, or overlaid with UI because of incorrect dimensions loses that early signal — and you pay for lower performance indefinitely.

This is also why generating ad creative in the correct format from the start beats resizing after the fact. Resizing a landscape image to portrait doesn't just crop it — it recenters the subject, cuts off text, and produces creatives that were never designed for vertical consumption.

If you're managing multiple placements, you need purpose-built vertical creative for Stories and Reels, not repurposed Feed assets.

Browse Ad Examples

Looking for inspiration? Browse real ad examples by industry and platform:

Generate Instagram Ads in Every Size — Without Photoshop

Instead of building each format by hand, AdsCreator generates all Instagram ad sizes simultaneously from your website URL. Paste your URL, and the AI extracts your brand colors, fonts, and visual identity, then outputs Feed (square + portrait), Stories, and Reels creatives — all correctly sized, all on-brand.

It's the fastest way to launch across every Instagram placement without a designer or a multi-hour Canva session.

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