Instagram Reel size:
1080 × 1920 — but mind the crops.
Reels play full-screen at 9:16, preview in the feed at 4:5, and crop again in your grid. One video, three crops — here's exactly where to put your content so it survives all three. Plus cover and thumbnail sizes.
Where your Reel gets cut
Full screen (player)
Feed preview
Profile grid
The rule that follows: keep faces, hooks and text in the middle band — the centered 4:5 area survives every crop Instagram applies.
Reel dimensions at a glance
Reel video
1080 × 1920 px, 9:16, MP4 or MOV. Up to 3 minutes for most accounts, ~4 GB max.
Reel cover
1080 × 1920 with everything important in the centered square — it's cropped for both feed and grid.
Grid thumbnail
Cropped from your cover's center. Text near the edges disappears here first.
Export settings
1080p at 30 fps, ~5–10 Mbps bitrate. Clean and modest beats huge — Instagram recompresses everything.
Minimum size
At least 720 px wide, but 1080 is the real floor — anything less looks soft after compression.
Length sweet spot
7–30 seconds for reach. Completion rate drives distribution, and short Reels get finished.
Design for the feed crop, not the player
Most Reels are discovered in the feed, where Instagram shows a 4:5 window cut from the middle of your 9:16 video. Viewers decide whether to tap based on that crop alone — so if your hook text sits at the top of the frame, the people you most need to convince literally never see it. Design the first seconds so everything essential lives in the middle band, and treat the top and bottom quarters as bonus space for atmosphere, not information.
Covers: one image, two crops
Your Reel cover gets cropped twice — to 4:5 in the feed and to a centered vertical rectangle in your profile grid. The practical rule: build covers at 1080 × 1920, put the title inside the centered square, and check the grid preview before publishing. A profile whose covers are designed this way reads like a series; matching highlight covers finish the look.
Compression is the real enemy
Instagram recompresses every upload, and it punishes oversized files hardest. A clean 1080 × 1920 export at 30 fps with a 5–10 Mbps bitrate consistently looks better after processing than a 4K, 60 fps monster. Export modest, upload on Wi-Fi, and never re-export a downloaded Reel — double compression is where the mush comes from.
The rest of the size family
Feed photos follow different rules — the post size guide covers square, portrait and carousel. Stories share the Reel canvas but have UI-based safe zones instead of crop-based ones — mapped in the story size guide. And a perfectly sized Reel still lands better published at the right hour: see the best time to post.
Reel sizes, answered
What size is an Instagram Reel?
1080 x 1920 pixels, 9:16 vertical. That's the full-screen canvas Reels play in. Record or export at that size and your Reel fills the viewer's screen edge to edge.
What size is a Reel cover?
Design covers at 1080 x 1920 (same as the Reel), but keep the essentials inside a centered 1080 x 1350 area — that's what shows in the feed — and inside a centered square for the profile grid crop.
What size is a Reel thumbnail in the grid?
The profile grid crops your cover to a centered vertical rectangle (3:4 preview). If your cover text sits top or bottom, the grid cuts it off — center everything that matters.
Why does my Reel get cropped in the feed?
The feed previews Reels at 4:5, not the full 9:16. The top and bottom of your Reel are invisible in feed preview, so put hooks, captions and faces in the middle band — viewers decide whether to tap based on that crop.
What's the maximum Reel length and file size?
Reels can be up to 3 minutes for most accounts (some have 10-minute limits), MP4 or MOV, up to about 4 GB. Short still wins for reach — the algorithm favors completion rate, and shorter Reels get finished more.
What resolution and frame rate should I export?
1080 x 1920 at 30 fps is the safe standard. Instagram compresses everything, so a clean 1080p export at a reasonable bitrate (~5-10 Mbps) looks better after compression than an oversized file.
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