What is the Perfect Instagram Reel Size? Complete Guide 2024

With over 2 billion members, Instagram is still one of the most popular social media platforms in 2024. With the app’s Reels feature, you can use entertaining short-form videos to interact with your audience. Reels are among the greatest methods to discover new fans and introduce them to your page. This is why you need to know about the right Instagram Reel Size.

What is the most effective approach to using Reels? How should they be used, and what size should they be? These are important questions in this matter that will help you grow your account naturally if done right. In this article, we’ll go over the best practices and the optimal Instagram reels size to assist you increase your Instagram view count. 

Importance of Instagram Reel Size

As you probably guessed by now, Instagram has a certain type of sizes and ratios for each one of its content types. This is why following the guidelines will guarantee that your material continues to be shareable on Instagram.

However, your audience’s perception of you is also important. Following Instagram’s rules will make your material look more professional and give your audience a better watching experience.

A more easier posting and distribution process might also result from adhering to Instagram’s rules and guidelines. Instagram’s algorithm gives preference to videos with images that have a good quality, size, and subject. This increases the likelihood that your videos will be seen by a larger Instagram audience, increasing your reach and engagement. Just imagine a beauty blogger video that doesn’t fit your screen. That doesn’t give a good impression, right? 

These all make it essential to know what size and ratio to use when publishing your content in the future.

What are The Right Instagram Reel Dimensions

The ideal IG reel size is the one that fits the screen when someone watches full-screen videos on their phone. It doesn’t matter if it is horizontal or vertical, they should fit the screen.  

Your Instagram reel should fill the entire screen when you post it. If your movie can do that without automatically cropping, pixelating, stretching, or distorting images, you’ve nailed the Instagram reel size. This fact plus an interesting and unique Instagram caption can raise your success rate a lot. 

Now let’s discuss Instagram reel size in a more detailed way:

1. The Best Instagram Reel Pixel Size 

Because Instagram reels are oriented vertically, videos and photos should be 1920 pixels high and 1080 pixels wide and the best Instagram reel pixel size is the number mentioned here.

You’re more likely to get the perfect IG reel proportions if you record your videos straight from the Instagram app. Make sure to use editing software to produce a file with a maximum resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels.

2. The Best Instagram Reel Aspect Ratio

Well, because the best Instagram reel size is 1080 pixels by 1920 pixels a good Instagram reel ratio will be the one to fit the whole screen, so 9:16. A 16:9 aspect ratio is also supported for horizontal viewing. Nevertheless, the same video will be automatically cropped to a 4:5 aspect ratio when viewed as one of the Instagram feed posts without full-screen mode.

3. The Best Instagram Reel Thumbnail Size

A nice feature that Instagram provides you with is the reel thumbnails. You can crop the image you’ve chosen for the Instagram Reels cover so that it becomes a thumbnail for your main feed.

The thumbnail that is shown on your feed crops is a 1:1 square, even though the cover is in a 9:16 proportion. Therefore, to achieve the best visual results, choose an image that is 1080 x 1920 pixels with an area of 1080 × 1080 pixels, which will allow you to crop it comfortably and have a good Instagram reel size.

4. The Best Instagram Reel Compression Size

Aim for a maximum resolution of less than 1080 pixels. This way you will have the best quality for your videos because Instagram will compress everything over 1080 pixels. However, make sure that images and movies with a minimum resolution of 320 pixels are submitted to the reel. In this manner, Instagram will not resize your Instagram reel because it falls within 1.91:1 and 4:5. This is an important detail you need to know about Instagram reel size.

5. The Best Instagram Reel Length

The maximum time that a video in Instagram reels can have is 15 minutes. You can post a short film that is less than fifteen minutes long. However, the ideal for a short-length reel should be between 7 -15 seconds. This number goes up to 15 – 30 seconds which is still a short time. Make sure to use trending reel songs to grab your audience’s attention as well. 

But as you may have observed, you can only record videos up to 90 seconds long using the Instagram app. This is where you may be confused.

The point is that you will need to use video from a non-native camera if you wish to submit longer reels. You can post these lengthy films using editing software available in the market. Just make sure to consider all the details mentioned before about Instagram reel size.

What Is the Best Instagram Reel Caption Length

Captions provide a special area for adding more details about the post or more information to your Instagram videos. The length of an Instagram caption should be less than 2,200 characters. 

However, keep in mind that the majority of Instagram users focus more on the video than the description. Therefore, you shouldn’t ramble on and write about unnecessary details. It’s best to keep it brief and direct.

Keep these captions interesting by including emojis and arranging them so that they are easy to read. However, once more, hashtags, punctuation, emojis, and spaces will lengthen the Instagram reel caption but have their benefits as well just like a good Instagram reel size.

FAQs

All of these details about Instagram reel size can be somewhat confusing. So here we will go through some of the most common questions on the Internet that might be your question as well:

1. How Long Can Instagram Reels Be?

Well, reels can only be 90 seconds long at this time. It’s a good idea to divide larger videos into manageable parts, send viewers to another video-sharing website, or use live-streaming capabilities to reach as many people as possible.

However, keep in mind that this restriction is for videos taken by Instagram itself and not another camera for example.

2. What Is the Best Instagram Reel Cover Size?

A cover photo for an Instagram reel should be 1080 by 1920 pixels with a 9:16 aspect ratio. 

Selecting an image that grabs your audience’s attention is crucial when making a reel cover photo. You have the option of making a unique design, especially for the cover photo or selecting an image from the reel itself.

3. What is the size limit for Instagram?

The limit for Instagram videos is 4GB. However, this number is way too high for regular users so you as a content creator must try your best to reduce this size or you will lose your audience over time. 

Conclusion

Instagram as one of the most popular social media on the market has a huge impact on many of our lives. We can’t deny that. The best we can do is to learn how to work with it and cherish its details and beauty.

In this article, we went through all these details about Instagram reel size and how to use it to your advantage. We hope it helps you in your journey. Make sure to use it and see the difference for yourself.