How to Post a Carousel on LinkedIn (PDF): A Step-by-Step Guide

There is no “carousel” button on LinkedIn. The swipeable carousels you see in the feed are document posts: a multi-page PDF uploaded as a document, where each page becomes one slide. Get the file right and the upload itself takes about thirty seconds. This guide covers the exact specs, the step-by-step upload on desktop and mobile, and the design choices that decide whether anyone swipes. Carousels are worth the effort — they are the highest-engagement format on LinkedIn.

A LinkedIn “carousel” is a document post

When you upload a multi-page file as a document, LinkedIn renders it as a card you can swipe through, one page at a time. That is the carousel. The terms “carousel”, “document post”, and “PDF carousel” all describe the same thing.

This is the step most people get wrong. Uploading your slides as a set of separate images posts a gallery, not a carousel, and it does not earn the same attention. One PDF, uploaded as a document, is what turns into the swipeable post that performs.

LinkedIn document-post specs

Before you build anything, here is what LinkedIn accepts. These limits come straight from the LinkedIn Help Center; the recommendations are what tends to perform.

Use PDF unless you have a reason not to. It locks your fonts, spacing, and layout into the file, so the slides look identical on a phone, a laptop, and the LinkedIn app. PPT and DOCX can re-flow or swap fonts depending on the device.

How to post a carousel on LinkedIn (step by step)

Once your PDF is ready, the upload on desktop is quick:

1. Click "Start a post" at the top of your feed.
2. Click "More" (the three-dots icon), then choose the document icon.
3. Click "Choose file" and select your PDF (you can also pull it from Dropbox or Google Drive).
4. Enter a document title and click "Done". The title shows above the carousel in the feed and helps people find the post, so make it specific.
5. Write your post description: a hook in the first two lines, then context, then a call to action like "Swipe through" or "Save this for later".
6. Click "Post".

On the mobile app the flow is the same: tap Post, tap the More icon and choose Document, pick your file from your phone or a cloud drive, add a title and tap Next, write your description, then tap Post. One thing to know before you publish: documents cannot be edited after uploading. You can change the description or delete and repost, but you cannot swap a slide, so preview the PDF first.

Design tips for a carousel that gets swiped

The upload is easy; the design is what earns reach. A few rules carry most of the weight:

• Lead with a hook. Slide one decides whether anyone swipes, so open with a bold claim or an open question, not a title card.
• One idea per slide. A reader should get each slide in about two seconds on a phone.
• Design 4:5 portrait (1080x1350). It takes up the most room in the mobile feed; square (1:1) is the fallback.
• Add page numbers or a small arrow so people know to keep swiping.
• Use large, high-contrast type. If it is hard to read at arm’s length on a phone, it is too small.
• End on a call to action: follow, comment, or save.

Three of our tools help here: the LinkedIn slideshow generator builds the PDF from a post, notes or a URL; the Instagram carousel size tool has the exact dimensions if you repost the same slides on Instagram; and the LinkedIn post formatter cleans up the caption you post alongside the document.

Reposting the same slides on Instagram? The rules there are different — separate images, 1080×1350, up to 20 slides — and we cover them in how to make an Instagram carousel.

Posting carousels for clients rather than for your own feed is a different question, and the one people get wrong most often is the price. We put the 2026 rates in a separate guide to what to charge for carousel design.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• LinkedIn Help Center — Share documents on LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
• Social Media Examiner — 2026 engagement benchmarks (socialmediaexaminer.com)