Upload a square photo of at least 1080 × 1080 pixels and keep the important part in the middle. Instagram doesn't publish an official size: it shows your picture as a circle, and crops away the corners.
| Image | Upload | Shown as |
|---|---|---|
| Profile picture | 1080 × 1080 | A circle, 150 px wide on a computer and smaller on phones |
| Highlight cover | 1080 × 1920 | A small circle cut from the middle |
Why 1080 × 1080
On instagram.com your picture shows 150 pixels across, but Instagram keeps a larger copy (1024 × 1024 when we checked) for sharp screens and for when people tap to enlarge it. A 1080-pixel square covers both, and it's the same width Instagram uses for posts.
Design for the circle
- Keep faces and logos inside the middle 80%. The corners never show.
- Leave a little space around a logo so it doesn't touch the edge of the circle.
- Use a plain or high-contrast background. The picture is tiny next to comments and in DMs.
- Check it small: shrink it to the size of a fingernail and make sure you can still tell what it is.
Highlight covers
A highlight cover is a circle under your bio. You choose it when you create a highlight, or later: tap and hold the highlight, tap Edit highlight, then Edit cover. Covers are cropped from a story-sized picture, so design them at 1080 × 1920 with the icon or word in the very center.
Matching covers, same background and simple icons, make a profile look organized. For post and story sizes, see Instagram post size and Instagram story size.
Turn comments into conversations
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