Aspect ratio requirements per social platform
A living reference table of accepted image and video aspect ratios across Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and more.
By André LugMost platforms accept a far wider aspect-ratio range than they recommend. Instagram enforces 4:5 to 1.91:1 for images but documents 0.01:1 to 10:1 for video at upload; Threads accepts up to 10:1 for both. Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, X, and Telegram publish no hard bound — off-recommendation uploads get cropped, padded, or letterboxed rather than rejected.
"Aspect ratio" questions come up constantly when a media pipeline publishes the same asset to several platforms at once, because the accepted range is rarely the single number a design brief assumes. Most platforms document a wide, permissive range for what the upload API will accept, separate from a much narrower range they actually recommend for how the asset displays. Uploading outside the accepted range gets your request rejected; uploading inside the accepted range but outside the recommended range usually just means the platform crops, pads, or letterboxes the asset instead of showing it as-is.
Where PostGate's own adapter code enforces an aspect-ratio bound tighter than what a platform actually documents (or vice versa), that's called out explicitly below — see packages/adapters/src/capabilities.ts for the source of PostGate's own enforced values.
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How should you read accepted vs. recommended ranges?
Two platforms in this table — Instagram and Threads — document accepted ranges far wider than most people expect. Instagram's image aspect ratio is genuinely tight (4:5 to 1.91:1), but its video container accepts a documented range of 0.01:1 to 10:1 at upload time; what actually displays on the platform still crops toward 9:16, 4:5, or 1:1 regardless of what the API let through. Treat the "accepted" column as what won't get your request rejected, and the notes column as what you should actually design for.
Aspect ratio reference table
| Platform | Image aspect ratio | Video aspect ratio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Pages | No hard documented bound | No hard documented bound | Meta does not publish a strict aspect-ratio ceiling for Facebook Feed photos or video in current docs. Feed accepts landscape, square, and vertical; Reels follow the 9:16 vertical recommendation. Unconfirmed beyond that. |
| 4:5 to 1.91:1 (0.8–1.91) | 0.01:1 to 10:1 (documented) | Image range is tight and enforced by both Meta and PostGate. The video/Reels range is documented as extremely permissive at upload, but the on-platform player still crops toward 9:16, 4:5, or 1:1 — design for those, don't rely on the wide accepted range. | |
| Threads | Up to 10:1 (0.1–10) | Up to 10:1 (0.1–10) | One of the most permissive accepted ranges of any platform in this table — Meta's Threads posts docs allow near-panoramic and near-vertical extremes for both media types. |
| No hard documented bound | No hard documented bound | LinkedIn's current API docs don't publish an aspect-ratio ceiling. 1.91:1 (landscape) and 1:1 are the commonly recommended shapes for feed images; vertical video up to 9:16 displays natively. | |
| TikTok | No hard bound (carousel photos) | No hard bound via Content Posting API | 9:16 (1080×1920) is the recommended full-screen shape; 1:1 and 16:9 are also accepted and displayed pillarboxed. No documented hard rejection ratio. |
| YouTube | — | No hard bound; 16:9 standard, 9:16 for Shorts | No aspect-ratio validation at upload. 16:9 is the standard landscape shape; 9:16 vertical is used for Shorts. Anything else gets pillarboxed or letterboxed by the player, not rejected. |
| 2:3 recommended (not a hard bound) | 2:3 recommended (not a hard bound) | Pinterest documents 2:3 (1000×1500) as the recommended shape for standard Pins, with taller ratios (up to roughly 1:2.1) accepted for longer-form Idea Pins. This is stated guidance, not an enforced upload-time bound. | |
| X (Twitter) | No hard documented bound | No hard documented bound | 16:9 and 1:1 are the commonly recommended shapes; X's API reference does not publish a strict rejection range for either media type. |
| Bluesky | No hard bound | Not supported | Video publishing isn't supported through PostGate's Bluesky adapter — the AT Protocol video path is a separate upload-and-poll flow this integration doesn't implement. Images display at their original ratio. |
| Mastodon | Instance-configurable | Instance-configurable | Mastodon has no network-wide aspect-ratio rule — each instance's software configuration governs media handling. Confirm on the specific instance if it matters for your use case. |
| Telegram | No hard bound | No hard bound | The Bot API doesn't constrain aspect ratio for photos or videos sent via sendPhoto/sendVideo. |
| Google Business Profile | Near-square recommended (not a hard bound) | Not supported via API | Video posting is a Business Profile app / Google Maps feature only — it is not reachable through the Business Profile API at all. For photos, Google recommends near-square images (close to 1:1) for consistent cropping across Search and Maps. |
How does PostGate handle aspect ratios?
PostGate's media pipeline probes every asset's real dimensions before it reaches a provider, and the platform capability matrix exposes each target's enforced aspect-ratio bounds (where PostGate enforces one) so a media-invalid rejection during validation is a cheap, immediate error instead of a silent per-target publish failure discovered later.
Frequently asked questions
What aspect ratios does Instagram accept for images and video?
Instagram's image range is tight and enforced: 4:5 to 1.91:1 (0.8 to 1.91). Its video container is the opposite — the documented accepted range at upload is 0.01:1 to 10:1 — but the on-platform player still crops toward 9:16, 4:5, or 1:1 regardless of what the API let through, so design for those shapes rather than relying on the wide accepted range.
What is the difference between accepted and recommended aspect ratios?
The accepted range is what the upload API will take without rejecting your request; the recommended range is what actually displays well. Uploading outside the accepted range gets the request rejected, while uploading inside the accepted range but outside the recommended one usually just means the platform crops, pads, or letterboxes the asset instead of showing it as-is.
Does TikTok reject videos that are not 9:16?
No — there is no documented hard rejection ratio via the Content Posting API. 9:16 (1080x1920) is the recommended full-screen shape, and 1:1 and 16:9 are also accepted; they simply display pillarboxed rather than filling the screen.
What aspect ratio should Pinterest Pins use?
Pinterest documents 2:3 (1000x1500) as the recommended shape for standard Pins, with taller ratios up to roughly 1:2.1 accepted for longer-form Idea Pins. This is stated guidance rather than an enforced upload-time bound, so other ratios are not rejected outright.
Can I post video to Bluesky or Google Business Profile through an API?
Video publishing is not supported through PostGate's Bluesky adapter — the AT Protocol video path is a separate upload-and-poll flow that integration does not implement. For Google Business Profile, video posting is a Business Profile app / Google Maps feature only and is not reachable through the Business Profile API at all; for photos, Google recommends near-square images close to 1:1.
