How to Resize a Video for Instagram

The fastest way to resize a video for Instagram is to decide which surface it's for, then export at that shape. 9:16 at 1080 x 1920 for reels. Here's what Instagram actually accepts on each surface, and the width ceiling that makes bigger exports pointless.

Open the free Instagram Video Resizer →

Resize a video for Instagram to the shape each surface accepts

The ranges are documented, and they're different. Instagram's Help Center gives an uploadable reel aspect ratio between 1.91:1 and 9:16. Feed media is supported between 1.91:1 and 3:4, at 1,080 pixels wide, a height between 566 and 1,440 pixels.

Read those two ranges side by side and the conflict is obvious: 9:16 is taller than 3:4, so a file shaped for a reel is outside what the feed supports, and a file shaped for the feed leaves blank space or gets cropped full-screen. Meta's publishing documentation recommends 9:16 for reels precisely to avoid cropping or blank space. One file, both surfaces, no compromise that isn't a compromise.

Aspect ratio and resolution are two different problems

Ratio is the shape. Resolution is how many pixels fill it. People conflate them and then export something enormous hoping it survives better.

It doesn't. Instagram states that media wider than 1,080 pixels is reduced to 1,080, and anything under 320 pixels wide is enlarged to that width. So the useful target isn't "as big as possible". It's 1,080 wide, in the right shape, once.

One fixed export target: 1080 × 1920

Montaj sidesteps the whole negotiation by not offering it. Editing is vertical 9:16, and the export is 1080×1920 in HEVC (.mp4). The size that lands unchanged rather than getting scaled down on the way in. There's no export dialogue to get wrong and no watermark, and it all runs on your device, so nothing is sent anywhere while you work. If the reason you keep having to resize a video for Instagram is that the export never matches the target, removing the choice is a real fix.