The short answer
You only need four shapes. Export at these pixel sizes and every major platform will accept the file without re-compressing it into mush:
- 1:1 square — 1080 × 1080. Safe everywhere. Good for quotes, offers, product shots.
- 4:5 portrait — 1080 × 1350. The biggest space a feed post can occupy on Instagram and Facebook.
- 9:16 vertical — 1080 × 1920. Stories, Reels, TikTok, YouTube Shorts.
- 16:9 landscape — 1920 × 1080. X, LinkedIn link cards, YouTube thumbnails.
Sizes by platform
| Platform | Placement | Pixels | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed post (portrait) | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | |
| Feed post (square) | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 | |
| Story / Reel | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | |
| Carousel slide | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | |
| TikTok | Video / photo post | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
| Feed post | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 | |
| Story | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | |
| Feed image | 1200 × 1500 | 4:5 | |
| Link preview | 1200 × 627 | ~1.91:1 | |
| X | In-feed image | 1600 × 900 | 16:9 |
| Threads | Feed image | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 |
| YouTube | Shorts | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
The mistakes that cost you reach
Letterboxing a wide photo
Dropping a 16:9 photo into a 9:16 frame leaves black bars top and bottom. It reads as recycled content and eats the space your caption card could use. Crop or zoom into the subject instead so the frame is filled edge to edge.
Text too close to the edge
Stories and Reels cover roughly the top 250px and bottom 350px with usernames, captions and buttons. Keep any words you need read inside the middle of the frame.
Uploading one square everywhere
A square works on every platform, but it never wins any of them. Portrait posts take up about 30% more screen on a phone feed than a square, and vertical video is the only shape that fills a Reel or TikTok.
Re-exporting an already compressed file
Every download-and-repost cycle degrades the image. Export once from the original at the sizes above and keep the master file.
How many sizes do you actually need per post?
For a typical week: one 4:5 for the feed, one 9:16 for stories and short video, and one 1:1 if you also post to a platform that crops hard. That is three exports of the same idea, not three different ideas.
Doing it automatically
Revel generates each creative at the ratio the platform expects, using your brand colours, fonts and logo, so you pick the platform and the export is already correctly sized. You never crop by hand and never get black bars.