Every social platform silently re-compresses your image. Upload something too big and they crush it. Upload something at the wrong ratio and they crop out your face or logo. The fix is to prep your image once, at the right size and quality — then upload something you know will survive the trip.
This guide has the specific numbers each major platform uses, and the exact settings that keep quality intact without a fight.
Why platforms compress your uploads
Instagram, X (Twitter) and LinkedIn re-encode every image you upload to save bandwidth across billions of daily views. They do it aggressively, using strict quality caps and target file sizes. If your image is close to what they expect, the re-encode is invisible. If it’s twice the resolution or ten times the file size, the algorithm has to work harder — and quality suffers.
The practical rule: upload at the platform’s intended dimensions, at moderate compression, so their algorithm has less to strip.
Instagram: 1080 px feed, 1080 × 1920 story
Instagram scales anything wider than 1080 px down to 1080 px. Anything smaller than 320 px gets scaled up. Uploading at exactly 1080 px on the long edge avoids both scaling steps.
- Square post: 1080 × 1080 px (1:1)
- Portrait post: 1080 × 1350 px (4:5)
- Landscape post: 1080 × 566 px (1.91:1)
- Story / Reel: 1080 × 1920 px (9:16)
- Format: JPG at ~85% quality. File under ~1 MB.
Portrait 4:5 posts take up the most vertical space in the feed and typically get the most engagement — worth defaulting to unless you have a landscape shot you love.
X (Twitter): 1600 × 900 landscape, 1080 × 1350 portrait
X supports higher resolutions than most people expect, but it re-compresses everything aggressively. Aim for 1600 px on the long edge for feed images.
- Landscape: 1600 × 900 px (16:9)
- Portrait: 1080 × 1350 px (4:5) — the tallest ratio that shows without cropping in the feed
- Format: JPG at ~90% quality. File under ~5 MB.
- Text-heavy graphics: use PNG instead of JPG. X’s JPG re-encoder smears sharp text.
LinkedIn: 1200 × 627 for shares, 1200 × 1500 for posts
LinkedIn keeps aspect ratios wider than Instagram. Its feed favours horizontal images for shared links, and taller ones for standalone posts.
- Shared link preview: 1200 × 627 px (1.91:1)
- Feed post image: 1200 × 1500 px (4:5)
- Format: JPG at ~85% quality. File under ~2 MB.
Facebook: 1200 × 630 shared, 1080 × 1350 feed
Facebook mirrors LinkedIn’s approach for shared links (1200 × 630) and matches Instagram for feed posts (1080 × 1350).
The one-step process that works for all of them
Instead of guessing, do this every time:
- Start with the highest-resolution copy you have.
- Open the Image Resizer and set the long edge to the platform’s target (1080 for Instagram, 1600 for X, 1200 for LinkedIn). Keep the aspect-ratio lock on.
- Open the Image Compressor, set quality to 80–85%, and preview the result. If it still looks perfect, ship it. If you see banding in gradients or blur in details, bump to 90%.
- Upload. Done.
Both tools run entirely in your browser — nothing uploads to a server, and there’s no signup or size cap.
The quality mistake almost everyone makes
People upload their raw phone photos direct from the camera — 4032 × 3024 px, 3 MB — and assume the platform will handle it. The platform’s job is to make it fit fast; it will hit the file size target regardless, but the image you see will be re-encodedfrom the platform’s heavier compression pipeline, not yours.
A pre-compressed 1080 px image at 85% quality has already made the important quality decisions. The platform’s re-encode has less work to do, and your image looks sharper.
Format quick reference
- Photos: JPG. Universal, small, forgiving.
- Graphics with text: PNG. Preserves sharp edges. X, Instagram and LinkedIn all accept PNG.
- Screenshots for feed: PNG, then resize to platform width.
- Anything with transparency (logos, cutouts): PNG.
For a deeper look at when to use which format, read our PNG vs JPG vs WebP guide.
Two quick tips that matter
Colour profile: save as sRGB. Adobe RGB and Display P3 look great on your laptop but wash out on most phones because platforms strip the colour profile.
Text placement: keep important text at least 10% from every edge. Different feeds crop differently — Instagram Reels covers the top 20% and bottom 20% with UI, X sometimes crops in the timeline.
The bottom line
The best social image is one you’ve pre-sized and pre-compressed before the platform gets it. It takes 30 seconds with a browser tool and saves you the crisp-vs-blurry lottery every time you post.
Ready to put this into practice? Zevqi has the tools built in — free, no signup.