The Best Video Sizes for Instagram

It’s getting harder to get your company noticed on Instagram with over 1 billion people creating and sharing content every day.  One way to stand out in the crowd is to post video content to your Instagram feed.

When posting videos to Instagram, it’s important to consider the size of your video.  The trick to getting attention in the feed, aside from sharing amazing content, is to take up as much real estate (screen space) as is possible in someone’s feed.

With videos, there are a few video sizes to consider when posting to Instagram.

16:9 or Widescreen Video – NOT RECOMMENDED

Best Resolution: 1920×1080 px

This is the most commonly used aspect ratio in media today.  TV’s are built in this ratio and your smartphone films in this ratio by default (wide or vertical).

The problem with this size is that it doesn’t take up a lot of screen space (see below).  There’s too much text and possibly imagery distracting from your video when scrolling through the feed.

While it’s easy to film in 16:9 we actually don’t recommend posting to Instagram in this format.

1:1 or Square Video

Best Resolution: 1080×1080 px

Square video is the next best thing when it comes to Instagram.  While you don’t quite have the width of full HD 1080, you’ll make up for it in vertical space.  Taking up a lot of the screen is what we’re aiming for here. And using a square video is a great way to do that.

We use square video for several of our clients (example below) and it works out quite well.

4:5 Vertical Video – BEST CHOICE

Best Resolution: 1080×1350 px

In our opinion, using 4:5 vertical video is the absolute best ratio for taking up space in the Instagram feed.  Like square videos, you’ll lose the width of 16:9, but this definitely takes up the most space of any video size.

Since Instagram allows for uploading this size video, we definitely recommend using it whenever possible (example below).  If you’re filming something vertically with your phone, try and post it using this ratio. It’ll look awesome in the feed.

I hope this guide helps you get more attention on Instagram for your business.  If you need help creating awesome videos or social media content, contact us and we’ll be happy to help!

–  Joe