What this tool is for
Instagram supports three carousel aspect ratios, and they don't all behave the same way. The same design renders differently in the feed than on your profile grid, the first slide locks the format for every other slide, and Portrait carousels lose ~34 pixels off each side when displayed in the grid. This tool lets you pick a format, drop in up to 20 slides, see them auto-cropped to spec in a phone preview, watch the profile-grid crop applied live, and download every slide as a PNG at the exact pixel size Instagram expects.
Instagram carousel dimensions & aspect ratios (all 3 sizes)
These are the exact pixel dimensions Instagram uses for carousel posts in 2026. Anything narrower than 1080 px gets upscaled and looks soft; anything with a different ratio gets cropped on upload.
| Portrait — feed (recommended) | 1080 × 1350 px (4:5) |
| Portrait — grid crop | 1012 × 1350 px (~3:4) |
| Square | 1080 × 1080 px (1:1) |
| Landscape | 1080 × 566 px (1.91:1) |
| Minimum width | 320 px (upscaled below 1080) |
| Max slides | 20 |
| Supported formats | JPG, PNG, HEIC |
| Max file size per slide | 30 MB |
Which aspect ratio should you pick?
- Portrait (1080×1350) — recommended for most posts. Takes up the most vertical space in the feed, which is where most views happen. Trade-off: profile-grid crop slices ~34px off each side.
- Square (1080×1080) — safe default. No crop surprises in the grid. Slightly less feed real estate than Portrait.
- Landscape (1080×566) — only when you're repurposing wide imagery (event photos, YouTube thumbnails, product shots already shot wide).
Instagram carousel size for 3, 4, 5, 7, 10 or 20 slides
A common misconception: the size does not change with the number of slides. A 3-slide carousel and a 20-slide carousel use identical dimensions. What changes is how much of the story you can tell — and how many people are still swiping by the end.
| 3-slide carousel | 1080 × 1350 px — same size |
| 4-slide carousel | 1080 × 1350 px — same size |
| 5-slide carousel | 1080 × 1350 px — same size |
| 7-slide carousel | 1080 × 1350 px — same size |
| 10-slide carousel | 1080 × 1350 px — same size |
| 20-slide carousel (max) | 1080 × 1350 px — same size |
The one exception is the seamless (panorama) carousel, where a single wide image is sliced across slides. Each slide is still 1080×1350 — you design at 3240×1350 for three slides, 5400×1350 for five, and cut it into 1080-px-wide pieces. Upload the pieces in order and the image appears continuous as people swipe.
Instagram carousel safe zone (the profile-grid crop)
Instagram doesn't publish an official carousel safe zone, but two things reliably cover your design. In the feed, the slide counter (“1/7”) sits in the top-right corner and the carousel dots sit just below the image. On your profile, the grid thumbnail crops a 1080×1350 slide down to the center 1012×1350 — roughly 34 px trimmed off each side.
- Keep headlines, faces and logos at least 60–80 px from every edge. That clears both the grid crop and the slide counter.
- Toggle the grid-crop overlay in the tool above — the inner blue rectangle is the area that survives on your profile.
- Swipe arrows, page numbers and "1/7"-style indicators belong in the bottom-right, inside the visible area.
- Stories and Reels have a much larger safe zone (155 px top and bottom) — use the Story Safe Zone checker for those.
Instagram carousel preview & checker
The tool at the top of this page doubles as an Instagram carousel preview and checker: upload your finished slides and swipe through them in a phone mockup exactly as followers will see them, before anything goes live. It catches the four things that are impossible to judge from a design canvas — whether slide 1 stops the scroll at feed size, whether text survives the profile-grid crop, whether the swipe cue is visible on every slide, and whether a background or arrow lines up across consecutive slides in a seamless carousel. Nothing is uploaded; the preview runs in your browser.
How many slides should an Instagram carousel have?
The cap is 20 slides, but the cap is not the target. Swipe-through drops steeply after slide 5, so every slide past that has to earn its place. In practice:
- 3–5 slides — one idea, a punchline and a CTA. Best completion rate; best for announcements, quotes and single tips.
- 7–10 slides — the sweet spot for educational and story carousels. Enough room for a hook, a build-up and a payoff without swipe fatigue.
- 11–20 slides — only for saveable reference content (checklists, step-by-step guides) where people expect to come back. Expect most viewers to stop early; front-load the value.
Whatever the count, the size stays 1080×1350 and the ratio must match slide 1 — see the slide-count table above.
How to use it
- Pick a format. If unsure, start with Portrait — it is what most creators ship.
- Drop in up to 20 slides. Each gets auto cover-fit to the chosen aspect ratio.
- Drag thumbnails to reorder. Slide 1 is the hook, the last slide is the CTA.
- Use the phone-mockup arrows to swipe through and verify continuity.
- Toggle the profile-grid crop overlay on Portrait to confirm titles and faces stay inside the visible area.
- Download all slides as a ZIP — every PNG arrives at exact spec, ready to upload.
Design notes that matter
- Slide 1 has to earn the swipe — make it the most provocative line, not a title card.
- Visible swipe affordance on slides 1–9. Keep it inside the right ~80px so it survives the grid crop.
- Last slide is a CTA: save, share, follow, or click. Skip thank-you cards.
- 7–10 slides is the sweet spot for most narratives. Drop-off after slide 5 is steep.
Related tools & guides
- Instagram carousel maker — describe the idea, get the slides written and laid out at 1080×1350.
- How to make an Instagram carousel — planning, design, export and posting, step by step.
- Instagram Story size — 1080×1920 auto-resizer for Stories and Reels.
- Instagram Story safe zone checker — see exactly where the Story UI covers your design.
- LinkedIn slideshow generator — repurpose the same slides as a LinkedIn PDF carousel.
- Instagram carousel templates — pre-sized 1080×1350 layouts you can edit in the browser.
- Carousel engagement benchmarks — why carousels out-perform single images.
Sized your slides — now design them
This tool gets the dimensions right. Carousel Maker handles the rest: AI-generated copy from a single prompt, 100+ professional templates, drag-and-drop editing, and PDF/PNG export with no watermarks.