31% of the frame
The profile row and progress bar over the top 250 pixels, the reply box over the bottom 340. Both opaque.
Free tools
Social Media Image Sizes
Every surface in one table, each figure dated against the platform's own page. Then a checker per surface that draws the crop and the covered areas on your own file.
| Surface | Export at | Ratio | Safe zone | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instagram story | 1080 x 1920 | 9:16 | Yes, drawn in the checker | 22 Sep 2026 |
| YouTube thumbnail | 3840 x 2160 | 16:9 | Yes, drawn in the checker | 22 Sep 2026 |
| Facebook cover photo | 851 x 315 | 851:315 | Yes, drawn in the checker | 22 Sep 2026 |
| LinkedIn profile banner | 1584 x 396 | 4:1 | Yes, drawn in the checker | 23 Sep 2026 |
| Instagram feed post | 1080 x 1350 | 1.91:1 to 3:4 | None | 22 Sep 2026 |
The short version
- Every platform publishes its dimensions, which is why the number is the least useful thing on this page.
- What decides whether a design works is the part the platform covers with its own interface, and that is almost always described in a sentence rather than shown.
- The specs move. YouTube raised its recommended thumbnail to 3840 x 2160 and most pages ranking for that term still print the old figure.
- Every row above carries the date somebody last read it off the platform itself.
What each surface takes from you
The size is public. This is the part that is not, and the part each checker draws on your own image.
The bottom left, plus both sides
Your own profile photo sits over the corner where templates put a logo, and mobile crops about 15% off each edge.
Two different crops
820 x 312 on desktop, 640 x 360 on a phone. Only the overlap is on every screen, roughly the middle 640 x 312.
The bottom right corner
The duration pill, in a solid box, in every feed placement. Small, and exactly where the last word of a hook tends to land.
Why these guides disagree with each other
Search any of these terms and you get a dozen pages printing different numbers. They are not careless. The platforms change the specs and a page that typed its figures into prose has no way to notice, so the wrong number sits there collecting links, and the more links it collects the longer it survives being wrong.
YouTube is the live example: it raised the recommended thumbnail resolution to 3840 x 2160, and most of the band still prints 1280 x 720 as the answer rather than as the floor. That is why every row in the table is read from one file with a date attached, and why each checker prints the source it was read from. Start with the thumbnail checker if that is the one you came for, or the story checker for the surface that hides the most of your frame.
Four ways a correctly sized file still goes wrong
-
Trusting a size guide without a date on it
Fix: check when the figure was last read off the platform. YouTube moved its recommended thumbnail to 3840 x 2160 and most pages ranking for that term still print 1280 x 720 as the answer. Every row above carries the date somebody checked it.
-
Exporting bigger for safety
Fix: export at the recommendation. Above the ceiling the file is resampled by a compressor you cannot inspect, so a 6000 pixel export moves the quality decision out of your own tool and buys nothing.
-
Designing to the full canvas
Fix: design to the part that survives. Every surface here except the YouTube thumbnail covers a meaningful share of your frame with its own interface, and the elements designers reach for first are the ones that get covered.
-
Assuming the file type is fine because it opened
Fix: check it. A webp decodes perfectly in a browser and is refused by YouTube on upload, which is the failure with no error message attached to it.
Social media image sizes: common questions
01 What are the current social media image sizes? +
Instagram feed 1080 x 1350, Instagram story 1080 x 1920, YouTube thumbnail 3840 x 2160, Facebook cover 820 x 360, LinkedIn banner 1584 x 396. The table above is generated from one spec file rather than typed, so every page on this site quotes the same numbers.
02 Why do size guides disagree with each other? +
Because the platforms change the numbers and the guides do not. YouTube raised its recommended thumbnail resolution to 3840 x 2160 and most pages ranking for that term still print 1280 x 720. A guide that types its spec into prose has no way to notice, which is why every figure here carries the date it was last checked against the platform's own page.
03 What is a safe zone? +
The part of your image the platform covers with its own interface. An Instagram story loses roughly the top 250 and bottom 340 pixels to the profile row and the reply box. A LinkedIn banner loses its bottom left to your profile photo. The size is public, the safe zone is usually described in a sentence and never drawn, which is what the checkers here do.
04 Does exporting bigger give better quality? +
Only up to the platform's ceiling. Above it the file is resampled down by a compressor you do not control, so you have moved the quality decision out of your own tool for nothing. Export at the recommended size and the file arrives as you made it.
05 Is anything uploaded when I use these checkers? +
No. Your browser decodes the file and reads its width and height, which is the only thing the arithmetic needs. Nothing is sent to a server, which is why there is no account and nothing to consent to.
Sizing is a solved problem, which is why it takes one table. Selzee is your AI content team: it researches what is worth posting, writes it, makes the image at the right size for the surface, then learns from how it did.
Get started for freeKeep exploring: the YouTube thumbnail checker, the Instagram story checker, the Facebook cover checker, the LinkedIn banner checker.