How to Resize a Photo for Social Media

Guide · about 5 minutes to read

Each social network crops and compresses photos in its own way. A picture that looks sharp on your computer can be cut off, stretched or blurry once it's posted. Resizing the photo yourself before you upload gives you control over what people see.

Start from the right shape

Most networks show a square, a portrait or a landscape frame, and each has its own preferred ratio. Decide which frame you're posting to first. A square crop suits a profile grid, a tall portrait suits a story, and a wide landscape suits a header or video thumbnail.

Use the sizes tool

The Resize for social media tool offers sizes for Instagram, YouTube, X, Facebook, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Drop in your photo and pick the destination. You can fit the whole picture inside the frame, which adds space around it if needed, or crop it so the frame is filled.

Check the preview before you download. Pay attention to faces and text near the edges, because they're the first things a crop removes.

Fit or crop?

Use fit when the whole picture matters, such as a product photo or a chart. Use crop when you want a bold, filled frame, such as a profile picture or a header. Cropping never stretches the photo, but it does remove edges, so keep the subject centred.

Keep the file small

Large photos upload slowly and get compressed harshly by the network. A typical social image is a few hundred kilobytes. If your file is much bigger, convert it to JPG at a high quality setting. The JPG compression guide explains how to find the right balance.

Common mistakes

• Uploading a tiny image and letting the network enlarge it, which makes it look soft.
• Putting text close to the edge of a square or story frame, where it gets cut off.
• Forgetting that a portrait photo may show as a smaller thumbnail in a grid.

Quick checklist

Choose the destination, pick fit or crop, check faces and text in the preview, download, then upload and look at the post on your phone before you share it.