How to post a photo on Instagram in full size, without a crop

How do I upload a photo on Instagram from my phone?

Five steps in the Instagram app, on iPhone and Android alike. These steps follow Instagram’s help page “Post a photo on Instagram”, read 17 October 2026.

1. 1

   Tap Create

   Open the Instagram app and tap Create, the plus at the top left of Feed. You can also swipe right anywhere in Feed.

   

2. 2

   Tap POST, pick the photo, then Next

   POST is selected at the bottom. Tap the photo in your library. The expand button at the bottom left of the preview shows the whole photo instead of a square. Tap Next.

   

3. 3

   Tap Ratio to set the shape, then Next

   The editing screen has Audio, Text, Overlay, Filter, Edit and Ratio along the bottom. Ratio sets the shape of the post. Tap Next when it looks right.

   

4. 4

   Tap Edit to adjust, then Done

   Edit opens Adjust, Lux, Brightness, Contrast and more. Change what you like and tap Done. Skip it to keep the photo as it is.

   

5. 5

   Write a caption and tap Share

   Add a caption, and audio, people or a location if you want them, then tap Share. The photo goes to your Feed and your profile.

   

Can I post pictures on Instagram from my computer?

Yes. instagram.com in any browser posts photos, and Instagram’s computer help names JPG, PNG and HEIC as the formats it takes. We ran every step below in Chrome on 17 October 2026 with our butterfly photo, a 6,048 × 4,024 JPG, and stopped before Share.

1. 1

   Click Create, then Post

   Click Create in the left menu. A small menu opens with Post, Live video and Ad. Click Post.

   

2. 2

   Click Select From Computer

   The Create new post box opens. Click Select From Computer and pick your photo, or drag the file onto the box.

   

3. 3

   Open the size menu at the bottom left

   Instagram opened our landscape photo as a 1:1 square, cutting off both sides. Click the two-arrow button at the bottom left. It offers Original, 1:1, 4:5 and 16:9.

   

4. 4

   Choose Original, then Next

   Original showed the whole photo, nothing cut, with bands above and below in the preview. Click Next at the top right.

   

5. 5

   Pick a filter or Adjustments, then Next

   The Edit screen has Filters and Adjustments. Original is the filter that changes nothing. Click Next.

   

6. 6

   Write the caption, then click Share

   Type a caption of up to 2,200 characters, add a location if you want, and click Share at the top right.

   

How do I upload a full photo to Instagram without cropping?

Keep the photo between 1.91:1 and 3:4, and pick Original on the crop screen. Instagram’s resolution page says a photo inside that range keeps its shape, and any other shape “will be cropped to fit a supported ratio”. At 1080 pixels wide, that range runs from 566 to 1440 pixels tall.

So the shape of your photo decides what you lose. We worked it out for the common shapes. A 3:2 camera photo fits the range as it is. Picked as 4:5 or 1:1 instead, it loses 46.7% or 33.3% of the picture.

What each crop costs, by photo shape

Only shapes taller than 3:4 lose pixels under Original. A 2:3 portrait loses 11.1%, and a 9:16 phone screenshot loses 25%. Of our 18 photos, 5 were that tall. A 16:9 frame loses only 6.8% at 1.91:1, and a square loses nothing at 1:1 but 20% at 4:5.

Too tall to fit, or you want the full photo on a 4:5 tile? Place it on a white or coloured background at 1,080 × 1,350 before you post. Our resize image for Instagram tool does exactly that, with nothing cut. On a phone, Instagram’s crop page says to pinch the photo and move it within the frame.

How to make a photo 1080 × 1350 before you post it

A 4:5 portrait is the tallest common shape that stays inside Instagram’s range, so it fills the most of the screen. Here is how to make one without losing the edges of your photo. We ran each step with the butterfly photo.

1. 1

   Drop the photo on the Instagram resizer

   Open the resize image for Instagram page and drop the photo on the box, or click browse. No signup.

   

2. 2

   Keep IG portrait and Fit

   The editor opens on IG portrait, 1,080 × 1,350, with Fit on. Fit keeps the whole photo and fills the rest with white. Pick another fill colour if you like.

   

3. 3

   Or choose Crop to fill the frame

   Crop cuts the photo to 4:5 instead. Drag the frame to the part you want. Our 3:2 photo lost both sides this way.

   

4. 4

   Click Save

   Save at the top right downloads the JPG. Post that file with Original on the crop screen.

   

How to post high-quality photos on Instagram

Upload a photo at least 1080 pixels wide, inside the range. Instagram sizes anything wider down to 1080 pixels and enlarges anything narrower than 320 pixels. A bigger file never shows more detail.

The shape decides how many pixels you keep. Our 8 landscape photos kept a median of 0.78 megapixels at 1080 wide. Our 5 portraits kept 1.56 megapixels, twice as many, because a tall photo is taller at the same width.

Every file was small. Our largest 1,080 × 1,350 JPG from the engine was 244.7 KB, against a median of 275.4 KB for a plain quality 92 export. A smaller upload finishes sooner on a slow connection.

Can you add a photo to an Instagram post already posted?

No. Instagram’s page on posts with several photos says you cannot add new photos after you share. You can reorder or remove photos, and edit the caption, location and tags. To swap the picture, delete the post and share it again.

One post holds up to 20 photos and videos, the same page says. Tap SELECT MULTIPLE after POST. The shape you pick, square, portrait or landscape, applies to every photo in that post. Stories, reels and profile pictures have their own sizes, in our Instagram story size guide. Every other network is in the social media image resizer.

How we tested

• The photos: the owner’s own 18 files, 13 camera photos from 2,250 × 4,000 to 6,720 × 4,480 and 5 PNG illustrations. Shapes read after each photo’s rotation tag.
• The crop math: the share of pixels a centre crop removes to reach each shape, computed from the width and height. Instagram’s range is the one on its resolution page.
• The files: each photo cut from the centre to every size with sharp 0.35.4, then saved by Blinkimg’s engine, version 9, as a JPG at Auto, and by sharp as a JPG at quality 92. Measured 2026-10-17.
• The steps: the instagram.com screenshots are our founder’s own account in Chrome on 17 October 2026. Other people’s posts, his name and his avatar are blurred, and the draft was discarded without sharing. The Blinkimg screenshots are our own site. The phone steps are screenshots of the Instagram app on his iPhone the same day, nothing shared, checked against Instagram’s help page. How we measure covers the rest.