# Instagram grid crop: how 4:5 posts show on your profile

[Canonical HTML page](https://gradiently.design/guide/instagram-profile-grid-crop)

Your profile grid is not a gallery of your posts. It is a gallery of their middles. Here is exactly what Instagram keeps from each shape, and how to design so nothing important falls off the edge.

## The short version

- The Instagram grid crop shows every post on your profile as a 3:4 tile cut from the centre of the image.
- A 1080×1350 portrait post loses only about 34 pixels from each side in the grid, so it is the shape that survives best.
- A square post loses about 135 pixels from each side and a 1080×566 landscape post keeps only its middle 425 pixels of width.
- Reel covers at 1080×1920 lose about 240 pixels from the top and from the bottom in the grid.
- Grids that split one large image across several square tiles no longer line up, because the tiles are now taller than they are wide.

The **Instagram grid crop** works like this: your profile shows every post as a 3:4 tile cut from the centre of the image, whatever shape you uploaded. A 4:5 portrait post at 1080×1350 is the closest fit and loses only about 34 pixels from each side, so keep words and logos a little in from the left and right edges and it will look almost exactly as designed. Squares, landscapes and Reel covers lose much more, in different directions.

## What the grid keeps from each post shape

| Post shape | Upload size (px) | Grid keeps (px) | Cut away |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Portrait 4:5 | 1080×1350 | 1012×1350 | About 34 px each side |
| Square 1:1 | 1080×1080 | 810×1080 | About 135 px each side |
| Landscape 1.91:1 | 1080×566 | 425×566 | About 328 px each side |
| Reel cover 9:16 | 1080×1920 | 1080×1440 | About 240 px top and bottom |

Each figure is the 3:4 slice taken from the centre of the upload. Carousels follow the shape of their first slide.

- Portrait kept: 1012 × 1350
- Square kept: 810 × 1080
- Landscape kept: 425 × 566
- Reel kept: 1080 × 1440

The part of each shape that appears on your profile. All four are the same 3:4 proportion, which is why the grid looks even.

The grid used to be square, and many older guides still assume it is. If your old posts were designed for square tiles, their tops and bottoms now show and their sides are cut, so some may look off centre. That is worth a look before you plan anything new. The upload sizes themselves are covered in [Instagram post size](https://gradiently.design/guide/instagram-post-size).

## Designing 4:5 posts for the 3:4 grid

Portrait is the easy case, but the margin matters more than the crop. The tile is small on a phone, and type that sits right against its edge looks clipped even when it technically fits. A good working safe area for a 1080×1350 post is the middle 920×1150: at least 80 pixels in from each side and about 100 from the top and bottom.

1. **Draw the grid crop** On a 1080×1350 canvas, add vertical guides at 34 and 1046 pixels. That is the tile's edge.
2. **Draw the safe area inside it** Add guides at 80 and 1000 pixels across, and 100 and 1250 down. Words, logos and faces live inside this box.
3. **Set the headline for the tile, not the feed** In the grid your post is about a third of the screen's width. A headline that is comfortable in the feed can be unreadable there, so go larger than feels necessary.
4. **Check at thumbnail size** Shrink your export to about 350 pixels wide and look at it. If you can't read it there, nobody browsing your profile can.

A 1080 by 1350 Instagram post announcing an open ceramics studio, with the headline set well inside the side margins

A portrait post with every word held well inside the 3:4 crop. In the grid it loses only background.

## Squares, landscapes and Reel covers on the grid

The other shapes need their own safe areas. For a square, keep words inside the middle 810 pixels of width, explained in [Instagram square post size](https://gradiently.design/guide/instagram-square-post-size). For a landscape post, the grid keeps only about two fifths of the width, so the subject must sit in the centre; see [Instagram landscape size](https://gradiently.design/guide/instagram-landscape-post-size). For Reels, keep the title between roughly 285 and 1635 pixels down, as covered in [Instagram Reel cover size](https://gradiently.design/guide/instagram-reel-cover-size).

> **Don't rely on adjusting the preview** Depending on your version of the app, you may be offered a way to adjust how a post is framed on your profile. It is useful as a rescue, but it can't create margin that isn't there. Design so the centre works on its own.

## Planning a profile grid that reads well

People judge a profile in a glance at nine to twelve tiles. What reads at that scale is colour, rhythm and one or two words per tile, not detail. Consistency in those three things is what makes a grid look deliberate, more than any single post.

### Avoid

- One image split across several tiles
- Text running to the left and right edges
- A different background style every post
- Long headlines that shrink to nothing in a tile
- Old square crops left looking off centre

### Do

- Each post complete on its own
- Words held inside a planned safe area
- One background family across the grid
- Two to five words, set large
- A quick review of how older posts now crop

Split images, the large picture cut into a three by three puzzle, were built on square tiles. With 3:4 tiles and cropping on every edge, the pieces no longer meet, and a single new post shifts every piece along by one. If you want continuity across posts, use a shared colour system and [a panoramic carousel](https://gradiently.design/guide/seamless-carousel) instead, which keeps the joined image inside one post.

- Night ground: #1b1a2e
- Dusk violet: #3b3363
- Clay: #c86b4f
- Bisque: #f1e4d3
- Glaze gold: #e9b44c

A grid palette for a ceramics studio: a dark ground for most tiles, a warm light ground for announcements, and one gold accent used sparingly.

A palette like this gives you two kinds of tile, dark and light, and lets you alternate them in a pattern people notice without thinking about it. [Instagram grid aesthetic](https://gradiently.design/guide/instagram-grid-aesthetic) has more patterns. Gradiently makes the background part easy to keep: every post can wear your Mark, a living gradient that only you can export with once you claim it, so the grid holds together however much the words change.

## FAQ

### What aspect ratio is the Instagram profile grid?

The grid shows each post as a 3:4 tile, slightly narrower than a 4:5 portrait post, cropped from the centre of the image.

### Does a 1080×1350 post get cropped on my profile?

Only slightly. The grid keeps about 1012×1350 of it, so roughly 34 pixels disappear from each side.

### Why do my old posts look cut off on my profile?

They were probably designed for the old square grid. The 3:4 tiles show more of the top and bottom and less of the sides, so off centre words can be clipped.

### Do split grid posts still work on Instagram?

Not reliably. With taller tiles and edge cropping, the pieces of a split image no longer line up, so it is better to keep each post complete on its own.