Reel Aspect Ratio Checker

Reels are 9:16, full vertical, and the recommended export is 1080 x 1920 pixels. The same ratio covers Instagram stories, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts, which is why one vertical master file can serve all four with no rework. If you shoot once and post everywhere, 9:16 at 1080 x 1920 is the format to standardize on.

Feed posts are different. Square is 1:1 at 1080 x 1080 and portrait is 4:5 at 1080 x 1350. Since 2025 Instagram also shows 3:4 photos uncropped at 1080 x 1440, the shape most phone cameras shoot. A portrait post takes up more screen than a square as people scroll, which is a quiet advantage, so most creators should default to 3:4 or 4:5 for feed content. Landscape 16:9 technically posts to the feed but gets shrunk into a letterboxed strip, and it's rarely worth it.

Instagram doesn't reject most files outright. It crops or scales them, which is worse, because it happens silently. A 16:9 clip posted as a reel either gets big black bars or a center crop that can slice off text and faces near the edges. The will crop status in the results table means exactly that: the platform will accept the file, then trim it to fit, and whatever lives near the edges is at risk.

The fix belongs in your edit, not in Instagram's hands. Keep text, captions, and anything important inside the middle of the frame, since reels also overlay their own UI along the bottom and right edge. If you're converting horizontal footage to vertical, reframe it deliberately in your editor instead of letting the platform guess where to crop.

Mostly, yes. A 1080 x 1920 vertical file passes as perfect for reels, stories, TikTok, and Shorts in this checker, so vertical-first creators only need one master. The exception is the feed: a 9:16 file posted as a regular feed post gets cropped toward 4:5, so if a video matters as a feed post too, export a second 1080 x 1350 version with the framing adjusted. Two exports covers essentially everything.