New social media sites continue to emerge, new features are added, and algorithms are always being updated, making it tough to go on up with social media best practices.

Still, social media is hither to stay. Co-ordinate to Instagram, there are more than one billion agile users every calendar month and more than than 500 one thousand thousand agile Stories every twenty-four hour period. Fifty-fifty more, ninety% of accounts follow a business on Instagram, making this platform a prime number choice for all types of businesses.

Instagram Stories are a popular trend that isn't going abroad. Pamela Bump, Audience Growth Writer at HubSpot, says, "Instagram Stories serves as an outlet for brands to creatively show their products, services, or happy customers in action. Branded Instagram Stories also enable audiences to larn more than about topics related to your brand's industry. Helpful and valuable content might also allow prospective buyers to trust your brand more than."

Access Now: 22 Free Business Instagram Templates

With this knowledge, you want your marketing squad ready to develop a strategy for your Instagram Stories. To create this strategy, your team should decide what kind of images or videos they desire to postal service.

How do you lot plan on taking those images? With phones or professional cameras?

Beneath, you'll learn the Instagram Story dimensions and why they're important to your Instagram marketing strategy.

Instagram Story dimensions (1080 pixels by 1920 pixels)

If you shoot an Instagram Story video using your phone, the dimensions will likely exist 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels, and then you lot don't have to resize it. If you're using some other photographic camera or a custom setup, however, you'll have to use a video editing app to brand sure your video has the right dimensions.

While this may seem like a lot of piece of work, information technology's exceedingly important for user experience and for ensuring maximum appointment on your Story.

Why are Instagram Story dimensions important?

Instagram has provided these dimensions and sizes to make certain that your Story is uploaded with every bit much quality equally possible. These dimensions are also ideal for most mobile devices, guaranteeing that your video, image, or gif shows up properly across different operating systems and screen resolutions.

Using Instagram Story dimensions also:

  • Helps your brand wait more than professional
  • Ensures that the content looks high-quality
  • Prevents unnecessary pixelation

If y'all don't adhere to these dimensions, your images or videos volition be cut off, and the content that you lot wanted to share won't prove up as intended. That's why it's best to pre-size your images and videos using an Instagram photo editing app.

Speaking of, let's become over the ideal Instagram Story image size. Spoiler alert: information technology'southward the same as the Instagram Story video dimensions, which makes it easy to remember.

Whether you upload a video, prototype, or a mixture of both to your Story, it'due south critical to go on your content in a "safe zone" where it won't exist cut off or hidden.

The Instagram Story Size Safe Zone

The "safe zone" refers to the area in your Instagram Story where the content isn't obstructed or at risk of getting cutting off.

Instagram will automatically show bluish lines if you try to move content out of the safe zone, peculiarly if y'all're calculation stickers or GIFs. When I tried to move the timestamp to the edge of the screen, Instagram didn't let me become toward the border or let me cover my profile picture upwards top.

Instagram Story margin guides

Instagram will also provide guides when y'all're placing elements on your Story, allowing you to heart them perfectly.

Instagram Story centering guidesOn personal Instagram Stories, information technology'southward common to post videos using the front photographic camera of your cell phone. The frame can be tilted, and your face can be cut off; this is all good and well.

On an Instagram business account, however, you'll desire to make sure that all videos are shot professionally and that the particular that you desire to promote takes centre phase on the screen. Most chiefly, if y'all're planning to add polls or stickers, leave enough space in the frame so you can identify this content without obstructing something else.

Below, we'll get over some boosted tips for sizing your Instagram Story.

Instagram Story Size Tips

i. Ensure your content is high-quality before you upload.

Instagram will compress images during the upload process, so an already grainy or pixelated image will simply get worse in one case it gets to the platform.

Cheque that your images are at least 72 ppi resolution before you add them to Instagram.

2. Upload the right size, shape, and attribute ratio.

Instagram is strict virtually adhering to its dimensions to ensure quality photos and videos. When yous upload a vertical image or video from your telephone, you about likely won't have to remember about these dimensions because Instagram will automatically format them.

Still, if you have horizontal photos that don't fit the dimensions, Instagram volition crop your photos, zoom in on content, or zoom out (making your prototype await small and placing it on a background). This typically results in lower-quality images and videos. So, make sure you stick to the 9:sixteen aspect ratio.

Instagram Story aspect ratio (9:16)

3. Use photo editing apps.

Photo editing apps can help you control the quality of your Stories and ensure you're always using the right dimensions. To edit your photos for Instagram, you can use the following tools:

Canva

This is the perfect option for creating images for your Instagram Stories. To become started, Canva has templates that are designed with the Instagram dimensions in mind. Canva offers free and paid plans.

Lumen5

This software makes it easy to produce videos for Instagram Stories. Once yous go started creating a video, you tin can cull the right dimensions on the platform. Lumen5 offers both gratuitous and paid plans.

Easil

Easil has templates for Instagram Stories to help y'all create engaging content. They have templates for unmarried images, and multi-card Stories as well. Easil offers free and paid versions.

Adobe Spark

Adobe Spark makes information technology like shooting fish in a barrel to create images and video graphics for Instagram Stories. Y'all can build your own Stories with their typography and imagery options. Adobe Spark has free and paid plans available.

Embed Social

Embed Social is a different kind of tool for Instagram Stories — with Embed Stories, you tin can make your Stories Shoppable by adding CTAs and creating embeddable lawmaking that yous can add together to your website. Embed Social offers gratis and paid plans.

With these tools, y'all can input the specifications, upload images and videos, and complete the editing procedure. These work well if you take college-quality images taken with a professional camera or desire to add together graphics or text to your images or videos.

4. Upload vertical content.

While Instagram posts are more flexible in orientation and dimensions, Instagram Stories work best in a vertical format. Make sure your photos and videos are vertical before posting. If the content doesn't lend itself to a vertical orientation, consider publishing it as a normal post instead.

5. Stay under thirty MB in file size.

Be mindful of your file size; Instagram will only accept up to 30 megabytes. This should give you enough of jerk room to upload high-quality photos and videos.

If the quality doesn't look right, information technology'southward time to troubleshoot.

How practice I prepare the quality of my Instagram Stories?

In that location might exist instances in which your Stories don't upload with the quality that you'd like. Allow's go over a few questions yous might have virtually quality, plus some troubleshooting tips.

Why are my Instagram Stories blurry? Why does the movie quality change on my Instagram Story?

Your Instagram Story could be blurry for two reasons:

  1. Instagram compressed the video or epitome to a degree that makes it wait blurry.
  2. The dimensions or aspect ratio is off.

To fix this, you lot'll want to double-check the quality of the paradigm or video you uploaded. What's its file size? Is information technology at least 72 ppi? If the file size is as well modest or the ppi is too low, then Instagram'south compression process worsened information technology further. Consider creating a college-quality version so that, when Instagram compresses information technology, it doesn't look as pixelated.

Next, double-bank check the dimensions. To ensure the highest quality possible, try to employ the full 1080 x 1920 size.

If those ii check out and your Story is still blurry, follow the following tips to isolate the trouble.

1. Cheque if the quality is better on other devices.

If your internet connection is poor, Instagram Stories will appear lower quality than they would on a faster connection.

Instagram does this to save resources for user experience as you interact with other areas of the site. Consider asking someone you know if the quality is depression on their end as well. They — and your audience — may be viewing your Stories with no issues.

2. Plow off Data Saver.

Information Saver is a characteristic that prevents videos from loading in advance, which helps reduce your data usage.

If your connection is fine but you're yet having issues with quality, this feature may exist lowering the quality of your feed on your end.

iii. Test photos from different cameras.

Every bit a terminal resort, test whether in that location'south a difference in quality between your phone's integrated camera versus the Instagram photographic camera. The photos you take with your phone'due south camera versus the in-app camera (or vice versa) may atmospheric condition Instagram'southward compression settings improve.

Instagram Story Sizes are Essential for an Instagram Strategy

All marketers should utilize Instagram Stories. While posting regularly on your feed is a keen tactic, adding Stories into your strategy will result in a ameliorate ROI from your time and resources spent on the platform. Instagram Stories tin can improve your discoverability, increment make reputation and awareness, and help you and your business organization grow improve.

Editor'southward note: This post was originally published in October 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

New Call-to-action

New Call-to-action

Originally published Apr 20, 2021 7:00:00 AM, updated November sixteen 2021