The Ideal Dimensions For Instagram Stories And Best Practices [2025]

If you want to create Instagram stories that stand out, you should master the ideal dimensions for Instagram stories. This article reveals the technical sizes and recommended specifications for optimal display. Also, we’ll provide design tips and creative strategies for engaging content.

About Instagram Stories

Before we explore Instagram Stories dimensions further, let’s take a quick look at the foundational knowledge to gain a comprehensive understanding of Instagram Stories.

What Are Instagram Stories?

First introduced in August 2016, Instagram Stories is a feature that lets you temporarily share your moments in a slideshow format. This feature allows you to capture the everyday, highlight the special moments, or express yourself with text, music, interactive stickers, filters, and GIFs to bring your stories to life.

You can see stories of yourself and others in a bar at the top of the feed, choose to share your Stories with all your followers or your Close Friends list, and even add them to your profile as story highlights. After 24 hours, these photos and videos will disappear from your profile. Instagram stories always appear vertically in full-screen mode on mobile devices.

Why Use Instagram Stories? Benefits For Brands

Instagram Stories offer numerous advantages for brands. Here are the benefits you can expect when using the proper dimensions for Instagram stories.

• Boost interaction: Interactive content elements in stories can encourage views and engagement effectively.
• Build real-time connections: Stories about what happens behind the scenes of businesses bring businesses a new and authentic way to connect with followers and foster strong customer relationships.
• Driving website traffic: By adding swipe-up, clickable links to stories, you can direct traffic to your websites or landing pages.
• Feature user-generated content (UGC): Instagram stories allow businesses to repost UGC testimonials on their profile and save them to Instagram Highlights.

Now that you know how Instagram stories can benefit you, let’s explore what are IG stories dimensions.

What Are Instagram Stories Dimensions?

The perfect dimensions for an Instagram Story are 1080 pixels wide by 1920 pixels high, which corresponds to a 9:16 aspect ratio. Therefore, the content of your Story should be portrait-oriented in order to fit the screen perfectly.

The Story file formats that are accepted by Instagram are PNG, JPG, MP4, and MOV. For images, the maximum size is 30MB, while for videos it is 4GB. Thus, it is advisable to keep the files within these limits for easy and quick uploads.

Even though both MP4 and MOV formats are video-friendly, MP4 is still the favored one because it is the most widely used format and can be played on almost all devices without losing quality and with smaller file sizes.

Choosing the right Instagram Story dimensions is significant if you upload media that does not meet the requirements, it can lead to your content being displayed in a blurry way, losing quality, or being cropped in an awkward manner on the screens of viewers.

Dimensions For Instagram Stories: Recommended Sizes and Specifications [2025]

To ensure that the Stories you create are eye-catching and properly displayed on any device, it is vital to adhere to Instagram’s most recent size guidelines. The following is a list of the revised dimensions and requirements for Instagram Stories in the year 2025.

• Aspect ratio for IG stories: 9:16 (recommended), 4:5 to 1.91:1 (technically allowed).
• Best resolution: 1080×1920 pixels
• File size for Instagram stories:
  • Images: Up to 30MB
  • Videos: Up to 4GB
• Instagram story length:
  • Images: 6 seconds
  • Videos: 1-15 seconds
• Supported file types:
  • Images: JPG, PNG   
  • Videos: MP4, MOV (H.264 codec recommended)

* Instagram story safe zone

Although Meta doesn’t make official recommendations about the safe viewing zone for Instagram stories, you should be aware of this.

Understanding this safe zone will ensure that your important content is visible to all viewers on different screen sizes and devices. 

As a leading digital marketing agency that successfully serves hundreds of international brands, GDT Agency understands what dimensions will bring back the optimized results. Below are our recommendations:

• Optimal display area: 1080×1420 pixels.
• Top buffer: 250 pixels
• Bottom buffer: 250 pixels
• Side buffer: 65 pixels

Create your stories based on the recommended Instagram story sizes, mind the safe zone, and test across different devices to confirm proper display.

>>> Might you like: A Full Guide To Instagram Carousel Dimensions

Ideal Instagram Story Dimensions For Ads [2025]

Meta’s recommended specifications for Instagram story ads are a bit different from organic stories.

Here’s a breakdown:

• Aspect ratio: 9:16
• Resolution: 1440×2560 pixels
• File type: JPG, PNG, MP4, MOV, GIF
• Ad length:
  • Images: 5-16 seconds
  • Videos: 1-3600 seconds
• Maximum file size:
  • Images: 30 MB
  • Videos: 4 GB
• Minimum width: 
  • Images: 500 pixels
  • Videos: 250 pixels

* Instagram story ad safe zone

When designing Instagram story ads, you must pay more attention to the safe zone to avoid your message being covered by the profile icon and call to action.

Here are the guidelines provided by Meta that you should follow:

• Optimal display area: 1270×1689 pixels.
• Top buffer: ~359 pixels (2560 * 14%)
• Bottom buffer: 512 pixels (2560 * 20%)
• Side buffer: ~85 pixels (1440 * 6%)

Keep your essential elements (images, key messages, CTA) inside the central rectangle of 1270×1689 pixels to maximize the display of your story ads.

>> Explore more: Best Time To Run Ads On Instagram

How to Create An Instagram Story

You can create an Instagram story easily using a mobile device. Here’s how:

1. Open the Instagram app.
2. Swipe left or tap the (+) icon at the bottom of the screen and select Story.
3. Add media from your camera roll or capture a new video/image.
4. Add music, text, stickers, and other interactive elements if you would like to.
5. Finally, tap Share to publish your story.

Instagram will give you the option to share your story with all of your followers or share a story with only your Close Friends list. You can also share a post from your Instagram profile or reshare a post from a different Instagram page to feature in your story.

Instagram Story Tips & Ideas

Instagram Stories are a very powerful tool in the hands of users. By using the IG Stories, one can showcase their products, advertise the brand (either personal or corporate), and through this, the followers have the updated news and developments that keep them interested. Here are some tips and ideas you can use in your Instagram Stories to increase engagement and interaction with your followers:

• Call-to-Actions by Adding a Link: To add a link to your Instagram story, you just have to tap the sticker tool icon in the top menu, choose the “Link” sticker and paste your URL, and then place the link button on your story. You can modify the text, size, and appearance of the link sticker as per your requirement since Instagram allows that.
• Sneak Peeks and Behind-the-Scenes: Instagram Stories can be used to reveal what goes on behind the scenes in your daily life or your company. A few sneak peeks can generate a lot of interest for the upcoming content and product launches.
• Instagram Story Poll: A Poll on Instagram is one of those features that will benefit you greatly in terms of engagement and getting important feedback from your followers. To make an Instagram story poll, simply press the “Poll” sticker from the sticker menu.

Beyond Dimensions: How To Craft Engaging Instagram Stories?

The story format of Instagram can enable true connections between users and brands. Whether it’s an organic or paid story, there are some general tips to help you improve its performance.

• Speed: Capture attention from the first second and maintain a fast pace to keep the audience staying with you.
• Stories-first: Design the post vertically in the 9:16 ratio for the story format. Ensure no crucial info is cropped. 
• Multiple scenes: Use short, concise scenes instead of long and slow scenes.
• Motion: Add movement, even to static images, using GIFs and effects.
• Mobile shots: Try mobile shots, they often outperform professional studio shots. 
• Mix media: Combine images and videos in your stories.
• Brand: Show your brand logo and elements at the start of your story.
• Objective-driven: Design your story around your marketing objective. For example, stories for awareness should focus on people; stories for sales should focus on products.
• Limit prices: Don’t mention specific prices in your Instagram stories for better performance.
• Text & focal point: Put your key message at the visual focal point of the story for better attention.
• Sound: Add voiceovers and music for better results.
• Stickers: Use stickers naturally and strategically. Don’t spam.
• CTA: Use strong and clear calls to action, like Shop Now or Swipe Up. Follow the recommendations for the Instagram story safe zone so that the CTA button won’t cover key elements.

By following these suggestions and having knowledge of this format, you can deliver captivating stories for your brands. Don’t skip testing to ensure the best results.

Troubleshooting Common Dimension Issues With Instagram Stories

Below are some common issues related to dimensions for Instagram stories and how to resolve them.

• Blurry images: Use high-resolution images, follow the recommended resolution, and optimize file compression.
• Unexpected cropping: Use the optimal 9:16 aspect ratio and consider the safe zone for organic posts and ads.
• Inconsistent design: Create cohesive visual guidelines and Instagram story (ad) templates for your brand.

Instagram Story Mistakes to Avoid

Prior to clicking “share” on your first Story, ensure that you are not committing these mistakes that can negatively impact your engagement or even result in follower loss, as they are quite common in Instagram Stories.

Long and Repetitive Stories

Though the maximum duration of each video on Instagram Stories is set to 60 seconds, there’s no limit for how many videos you can post at once. However, quantity does not always mean quality. If your Story becomes lengthy, it is most likely that the viewers would swipe away even before they could see the whole thing. So, make your Stories concise, captivating, and direct so that your audience is not lost.

Over-Promotion

The incessant announcement of the sale or the features of the product might give an impression of spamming. Try to mainly do value activities (entertain, educate, inspire) and then very occasionally do a follow-up with a sales post or a call-to-action. This way of working will keep your customers curious.

Too Much Text

Text can be hard to read on Instagram, a platform that relies heavily on visuals, and the majority of users prefer simple, quick-to-understand content. Long paragraphs can scare off the viewers and make them skip your Story. Thus, keep your text concise, understandable, and meaningful, and let the pictures do most of the talking.

Irrelevant or Excessive Hashtags

Using hashtags in your Stories can give them a chance to be seen by a bigger audience, but on the other hand excessive or wrong tagging may result in a chaotic look, as well as confuse the algorithm of Instagram. So, select a handful of relevant hashtags that correspond with your Story’s theme and area. By doing this, your post will be more visible without appearing forced or like junk.

Conclusion

This guide to the best dimensions for Instagram stories is vital for developing successful content. By following the recommended specifications together with the given practices in this article, you can create stories that hit the right notes with your customers.

Follow if you find it useful