Meta ad sizes: Facebook and Instagram image specs for key placements

By AdflowKit · October 18, 2026 · 13 min read

Meta lists more than twenty placements across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Audience Network, and each one has its own page in the Ads Guide. The good news is that they share just a few aspect ratios. This guide covers the sizes to make for the main placements, the safe zones that keep Stories and Reels text visible, the file and text limits, and how to upload one set so each placement gets an image made for it.

Three ratios cover the main placements

Meta's image placements fall into two families. Feeds (Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, Marketplace, search results and most smaller placements) show the image inside a post, with your name above it and the text and button below. Stories and Reels show it full screen, with the interface drawn on top of it. Each family has one recommended ratio, and a square image fills the gaps.

That's why Meta now recommends 4:5 for feeds instead of the old landscape and square images: on a phone, a taller image simply takes more of the screen. Whether that turns into more clicks for your ads is worth testing, but as a starting point, if you can make only one image, make the 4:5. If you can make two, add the 9:16.

Sizes by placement

The figures below come from Meta's Ads Guide pages for Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed, Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories and Instagram Reels, checked on October 18, 2026. Facebook Reels and the smaller placements have their own pages in the guide. Meta updates it from time to time, so check the page for each placement you use before a big launch.

Two things in this table cause most "wrong size" problems:

• The tolerance is small. A 1080×1350 image is exactly 4:5. A 1080×1400 one is 3.7% off, which is outside even Facebook Feed's 3%, so Meta crops it. Export at the exact ratio instead of trusting the crop.
• Instagram Feed doesn't go taller than 4:5. Upload a 9:16 image to the feed and Meta crops the top and bottom away, often the headline and the logo with them.

1080-pixel versions of the same ratios (1080×1350, 1080×1920, 1080×1080) are still valid and are what many guides list. Meta's guide now recommends 1440 pixels wide for feeds, Stories and Reels. If your source image is only 1080 wide, export at 1080. Upscaling it to 1440 adds file size without adding detail.

File and text limits

The text next to the image matters as much as the image. These are Meta's recommendations, not hard limits: longer text is accepted, but it gets cut off behind a "See more" or an ellipsis.

If one ad runs in all placements, write for the tightest one. Put the offer in the first 40 characters of the primary text, so it survives in Reels, and keep the headline under 27 characters, so it fits Facebook Feed.

Safe zones for Stories and Reels

In Stories and Reels the image fills the screen, and the app draws its own interface on top: your profile name and the progress bar at the top, the caption, the call-to-action button and the reply field at the bottom. Meta's Ads Guide pages for Instagram Stories, Instagram Reels and Facebook Stories ask you to keep text, logos and other key elements out of these areas (checked October 18, 2026):

The bottom 35% is the one people underestimate. It's more than a third of the screen, so a layout that puts the headline at the bottom, which is natural for a feed post, puts it right under the button in Stories. Move the text block up to the middle of the frame and let the product or the background fill the bottom.

What happened to the 20% text rule

For years Facebook limited the share of an ad image that could be covered by text, first as a rule and then as a reach penalty. Meta dropped it in 2020, and Ads Manager no longer checks text coverage. You can put a full headline, a price and a button on the image.

The reason for the rule hasn't changed, though. People scroll past images that look like a block of text, and small text on a phone screen is hard to read. A practical limit: one headline of up to six or seven words, one supporting line or price, and the logo. The rest goes into the primary text, where Meta can show and translate it.

Uploading one set for all placements

With Advantage+ placements on, which is Meta's default, one ad can show across all the placements your campaign is eligible for. If you upload a single image, Meta crops it, adds bars or, with Advantage+ creative options switched on, generates extra background to fill a taller frame. Sometimes that works. Often the crop cuts off the logo or the generated background doesn't match the product.

The better way is placement asset customization. Which placements you can customize depends on the ad format, the objective and the placements selected, so the options you see may differ. In a typical single-image ad, upload the 4:5 image, then choose to customize assets per placement and attach the 9:16 version to the Stories and Reels group and the 1:1 to the placements that use square. Each placement then shows an image designed for it, and all of them stay in one ad, so the results stay in one place too.

Check the preview for every available placement before you publish. That preview is the final test, not any rule of thumb in this guide. It shows the interface on top of your image, which is the fastest way to catch a headline under the CTA button.

One message, three layouts

Cropping doesn't work in either direction. A 9:16 frame cut out of a 4:5 image keeps the full height but loses the sides, which is where a wide headline or a logo in the corner sits. A 4:5 cut out of a 9:16 loses the top and bottom. Each ratio needs its own arrangement of the same elements:

Choose the message before arranging the elements. Our 20 Facebook image ad examples show product, service and software concepts you can adapt to these ratios.

• 1:1: the tightest layout. Image on top, headline below, logo small. Carousel cards are also seen side by side, so keep the style the same on every card.
• 4:5: the main version. Write and design for this one first: feeds are where Meta recommends 4:5, and the other two versions are easier to adapt from it.
• 9:16: move the logo, headline and offer into the middle half of the frame. Don't put your own button in the bottom 35%: Meta adds a CTA button there anyway, and two buttons look like a mistake.

Design the 4:5 first, then check the 9:16 with the safe zones on. Keeping the headline in the middle half avoids the most common problem, and the placement previews confirm the rest.

Short headlines need a clear brief. Our guide to writing banner prompts shows how to narrow a campaign down to one message that fits a phone screen.

A worked example: one ad, three ratios

To make this concrete, here is one demo ad taken through all three steps. The brand and offer are made up for illustration, and there are no campaign results here, only layout. The ad is for a coffee subscription: a product photo of a bag of beans, the logo, the headline "20% off your first bag" and the line "Fresh roast, delivered monthly".

Step 1: the crop that goes wrong. The 4:5 master is 1440×1800, with the logo in the top-left corner about 80 px from the edge and the headline across the lower part of the frame, roughly 1180 to 1400 px from the top. If you let a 9:16 be cut from it, the frame keeps the full 1800 px height but only 1012 px of the width, so about 214 px goes from each side. The logo is gone, and the 1280 px wide headline loses its first and last letters. The headline also sits at 65–78% of the height, which in a Stories frame is inside the bottom 35%, under the CTA button.

Step 2: a separate layout for each ratio. The same elements, placed for each frame:

In the 9:16 version there's no button drawn on the image. Meta adds its own CTA at the bottom, and the product photo fills the area behind it.

Step 3: the preview. Attach each version to its placements and open the preview for every placement the campaign can use. Check three things: the logo isn't under the profile name, the headline isn't under the caption or button, and the 1:1 headline is still readable at the size the right column shows it. If one of them fails, move that element and preview again. The pixel positions above are a starting point, not a rule. The preview decides.

Reusing the set for Google Ads

Google's image assets overlap with a Meta set, but the two Google campaign types don't use the same ratios. According to Google's pages on responsive display ads and Performance Max asset requirements (checked October 18, 2026):

So the 1.91:1 and 1:1 images carry over to both, the 4:5 to Performance Max and the 9:16 to responsive display ads. Two differences to keep in mind:

• Google's uploaded display banners use fixed pixel sizes, such as 300×250 and 728×90, and a 150 KB file limit instead of Meta's 30 MB. Those need their own layouts, covered in our guide to Google Display banner sizes.
• Google treats text on images differently. For responsive display ads it advises against text on the image and adds your headlines itself. A Meta 4:5 with a big headline on it works on Meta but isn't the best image asset for Google. More on that in why Google disapproves banners.

However the set is used, the same people will see it again and again. Plan a refresh before the numbers drop. Our article on ad creative fatigue shows which metrics to watch in Meta Ads Manager.

Making the Meta set in one run

Making each ratio by hand means redoing the layout three or four times, and the 9:16 is where the logo usually ends up under the interface. In AdflowKit you choose the Meta Ads preset, and the studio renders one design natively in landscape 1200×628, square 1200×1200, portrait 960×1200 and story 1080×1920. The headline, CTA and logo are placed separately for each shape instead of being cropped from one picture. These sizes are above Meta's minimum widths. Meta recommends 1440 pixels wide for the sharpest result, so check the export against your own quality bar before a big campaign. The on-brand checklist helps keep the colors and logo the same across all four.

A pre-upload checklist

• A 4:5 image for feeds and a 9:16 image for Stories and Reels, each exported at the exact ratio
• A 1:1 image for carousels and square placements, if the campaign uses them
• JPG or PNG, at least 600 px wide for Facebook Feed and 500 px for the rest
• In the 9:16 version, no text or logo in the top 14%, the bottom 35% or 6% at the sides
• No CTA button drawn into the bottom of the 9:16 image
• The headline on the image has six or seven words at most and is readable on a phone
• The offer is in the first 40 characters of the primary text, and the headline is under 27 characters
• Each image is attached to its placements with placement asset customization
• The preview checked for every available placement before publishing

FAQ

What is the best image size for Facebook ads?

1440×1800, a 4:5 vertical image, for Facebook and Instagram feeds. Add 1440×2560 (9:16) for Stories and Reels. 1080×1350 and 1080×1920 are also accepted if your source image isn't large enough for 1440.

Is 1080×1080 still a good size for Instagram ads?

It works, but it's no longer the best choice for the feed. A square image takes less screen height than 4:5, and Meta now recommends 4:5 for feeds. Test the two against each other if square has worked well for you. Keep 1:1 for carousels and for placements that show square images.

Can I use the same image for the feed and for Stories?

You can, but Meta will crop or extend it to fit, and the result often hides the headline or the logo. Upload a separate 9:16 version with placement asset customization, where your ad format allows it, and check the preview.

What size are Facebook and Instagram carousel images?

1:1, at 1080×1080 or larger. A carousel takes 2 to 10 cards, and all of them should use the same ratio.

Does Meta still limit text on ad images?

No. The 20% text rule was removed in 2020. Short text still works better, because people read ads on a phone while scrolling.

What happens if my image doesn't match the ratio?

Meta allows a small tolerance, 3% for Facebook Feed and 1% for most other placements. Outside that, it crops the image or adds space around it. Export at the exact ratio so you decide what's in the frame.