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Instagram Carousel Size (2026): Dimensions, Ratios and Slide Count
The right Instagram carousel size in 2026 (1080×1350 or 1080×1440), aspect ratios, the 20-slide limit, seamless panoramas, and how many slides top carousels use.
Short answer: design your carousel at 1080 × 1350 pixels (4:5), or 1080 × 1440 (3:4) if you want it to fill the profile grid with nothing cropped. You can post up to 20 slides, and every slide takes the shape of the first one.
The rest of this guide covers the details, plus something spec guides don’t: how long the carousels that actually outperform tend to be.
Instagram carousel dimensions at a glance
- Portrait 4:5: 1080 × 1350 px. The safe default and still the most common choice.
- Portrait 3:4: 1080 × 1440 px. Supported since 2025 and the same shape as the profile grid tiles.
- Square 1:1: 1080 × 1080 px. Works, but takes up less of the feed.
- Landscape 1.91:1: 1080 × 566 px. The widest Instagram allows; rarely a good idea for carousels.
Instagram displays posts 1080 pixels wide, and accepts heights from 566 px (1.91:1) up to 1440 px (3:4). Anything outside that range gets cropped.
4:5 or 3:4: which should you use?
Both work. Here’s the trade-off:
- 4:5 (1080 × 1350) is what most templates, design tools and scheduling apps expect. It takes up plenty of the feed, and every tool supports it.
- 3:4 (1080 × 1440) is slightly taller, so it takes up a little more of the feed. It also matches the profile grid exactly: since early 2025 the grid shows posts as 3:4 tiles, so a 4:5 post loses a sliver on the left and right in your grid, while a 3:4 post shows in full.
If your workflow is built on 4:5, keep using it and leave a margin of about 50 px on each side so nothing important gets trimmed in the grid. If you’re starting fresh and your tools support it, 3:4 is the more future-proof choice.
Every slide takes the first slide’s shape
You can’t mix shapes in one carousel. Instagram applies the first slide’s orientation to the whole post and crops the other slides to match. If slide one is 4:5, a square image on slide four gets cropped or padded. Export every slide at the same size.
How many slides can a carousel have?
In the Instagram app, up to 20 photos or videos. That limit went up from 10 in 2024.
Some scheduling tools still stop at 10, because Instagram’s publishing API has historically capped carousels there. If your scheduler won’t take slide 11, post from the app.
How many slides should a carousel have?
This is where real data helps. Across 7,394 carousels we scored against their own creator’s usual engagement, longer carousels were more likely to outperform:
- 2–3 slides: 16% reached 2× their creator’s usual
- 6–7 slides: 25%
- 10 slides: 26%
- 11–15 slides: 28%
- 16–20 slides: 25%
The outliers in our library most often land around 8 slides, and the 10–15 range does slightly better than average. Very short carousels underperform. The full breakdown is in our study of 7,394 carousels.
Seamless (panorama) carousel size
A seamless carousel is one wide image split across slides, so it scrolls like a panorama. Design one long canvas, then slice it into equal pieces:
- 3 slides: 3240 × 1350 px (4:5) or 3240 × 1440 px (3:4)
- 5 slides: 5400 × 1350 px or 5400 × 1440 px
- 10 slides: 10800 × 1350 px or 10800 × 1440 px
The formula is 1080 × number of slides wide, at your chosen height. Keep text away from the cut lines, and check the slices line up before posting.
File types and quality
- Images: JPG or PNG. Export at exactly 1080 px wide. Bigger files don’t look sharper, because Instagram compresses everything to 1080 px anyway.
- Text-heavy slides: PNG often keeps small text crisper after compression.
- Video slides: a carousel can mix photos and videos. Keep video slides short. Instagram doesn’t publish a clear per-slide limit, and tools commonly cite 60 seconds.
- Music: you can add a song to a photo carousel when you post it.
Recent carousel changes worth knowing
- Up to 20 slides per carousel (2024).
- 3:4 support and the 3:4 profile grid (2025).
- Reordering slides after posting started rolling out in 2026.
- Replacing a post’s audio after publishing arrived in mid-2026.
Instagram rolls features out gradually, so some of these may not have reached your account yet.
Design checklist
- Canvas: 1080 × 1350 (or 1080 × 1440), same size for every slide.
- Margins: keep text at least 50–80 px from the edges.
- First slide: a hook of 6–10 words, readable at thumbnail size. See carousel hook patterns that outperformed.
- Length: 8–12 slides unless the idea really needs more.
- Last slide: give people a reason to save, share or comment.
See what outperforming carousels look like
Frequently asked questions
What size is an Instagram carousel in 2026?
1080 pixels wide. Use 1080 × 1350 (4:5) as the safe default, or 1080 × 1440 (3:4) to match the profile grid. Square 1080 × 1080 and landscape down to 1080 × 566 also work.
How many slides can an Instagram carousel have?
Up to 20 photos or videos in the Instagram app. Some scheduling tools still stop at 10 because of the publishing API.
Can carousel slides have different sizes?
No. Instagram applies the first slide’s shape to every slide and crops the rest to match, so export every slide at the same size.
What size is a seamless Instagram carousel?
1080 pixels wide per slide at your chosen height: 3240 × 1350 for three slides, 5400 × 1350 for five and 10800 × 1350 for ten. Design one long canvas and slice it into equal parts.