Crop Your Instagram Profile Picture With a Circle Preview
Crop a profile picture to a square 320 × 320 px file and see the circle Instagram will show. It runs in your browser; the photo is not uploaded.
How to crop an Instagram profile picture
- Choose the photo. The cropper opens at Instagram profile picture, 1:1, 320 × 320 px.
- The preview shades everything outside a circle. That circle is what visitors see; the file itself stays square.
- Drag the frame until the face is centred in the circle. Zoom in for a tighter head and shoulders crop.
- Press Download crop. The file is a square 320 × 320 px without the shading. Upload it as it is.
A square file for a round picture
Instagram asks for a square and shows a circle. Hootsuite and Buffer both say the app stores the file at 320 × 320 pixels and shows it at about 110, and both say it is cut to a circle. Sprout Social gives 320 × 320 and 1:1 as well. Meta's own help pages gave me an error on 30 October 2026, so those three are what I rely on.
That is why this page does not cut the corners off. A file with transparent corners would be turned into a square again by the app. I save the square and draw the circle only in the preview, so you can judge the crop and still upload what Instagram wants.
What the circle keeps of a 320 × 320 file
| Measure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| File stored by Instagram | 320 × 320 px | Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout Social |
| Shown in the app | about 110 × 110 px | Buffer, Hootsuite |
| Kept inside the circle | 78.5% of the square | my arithmetic, π ÷ 4 |
| Lost in the four corners | 21.5% of the square | my arithmetic |
A fifth of the picture disappears, all of it in the corners. A face that fills the frame loses its ears and its hair; the same face a little smaller does not.
| My photo | Square source crop | Reduced to 320 px |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Jasna, 960 × 1200 px | 960 × 960 px | 3 times |
| Red bicycle, 1200 × 800 px | 800 × 800 px | 2.5 times |
Both photos are far larger than the 320 pixels Instagram stores, so the saved file is a reduction. A crop smaller than 320 pixels would be enlarged and look soft.
Centre first, then zoom
With a round frame the centre carries the picture. I put the eyes a little above the middle of the circle and the chin inside it, then zoom until the shoulders touch the edge. Pictures with the face in a corner crop badly, because the circle has no corner to give.
A logo needs the opposite treatment: leave a margin of empty space inside the circle, since a wordmark that touches the square edge is cut by the round mask. Hootsuite makes the same point about centring whatever you want in focus.
Other round pictures
If you want a file that is itself a circle with transparent corners, use the circle crop; that is the right tool for a website avatar or a sticker. For the same face on another network, the Facebook profile picture cropper uses the same 320 pixel square with its own display sizes.
Tips for an Instagram profile picture
- Keep the face or logo well inside the circle; the corners are never shown.
- Start from a photo larger than 320 pixels, so the crop is reduced and not enlarged.
- A tight crop reads better at 110 pixels than a full figure.
- Upload the square file, not a pre-cut circle.
- Try the crop at arm's length on your phone; it will be about the size of your thumbnail.
Privacy
Your image never leaves your device. Opening, cropping and saving all happen in your browser, so nothing is uploaded or stored, and you do not need an account. The saved file does not keep the original EXIF, GPS or XMP data.
Frequently asked questions
What is the crop size of an Instagram profile picture?
A square. Hootsuite, Buffer and Sprout Social give 320 × 320 pixels at 1:1. This cropper saves exactly that size, so Instagram has nothing left to resize or cut.
Is the Instagram profile picture a circle?
Instagram shows it as a circle but asks for a square file. The preview here shades everything outside the circle; the saved file stays square, with the corners still in it.
Why does my Instagram profile picture look cropped weirdly?
The circle removes about 21.5% of a square, all of it in the corners. A face or logo that reaches the corner is cut. Zoom out and centre the subject before you save.
How do I resize a picture to a circle for Instagram?
You do not need a pre-cut circle. Crop a square here with the circle preview, upload it, and Instagram applies the round mask. For a real circle with transparent corners, use the circle crop.
How many pixels should an Instagram profile picture be?
Upload at least 320 × 320. Instagram displays it at about 110 pixels, according to Buffer and Hootsuite, but keeps the larger file so the picture stays sharp on high resolution screens.
Related tools and guides
- Image Cropper: Crop images to exact ratios or popular preset sizes.
- Crop a Photo for an Instagram Story, With the Covered Areas: Crop a photo to a 1080 × 1920 px Instagram story and see the top and bottom areas the app covers before you save. It runs in your browser.
- Instagram Photo Sizes, Cropped to the Pixel: Crop and resize a photo to the exact Instagram size for a square, portrait, landscape or story post. Sizes checked on 28 October 2026. Runs in your browser.
- Image Resizer: Resize images by pixels, percentage or longest side.
- Put your photos together in one image: Join photos side by side, stacked or in a grid, with adjustable gaps and borders.
- Add text to your photo and keep it readable: Put captions on a photo with a gradient, tint or box behind them and a live contrast check.
- I Built the Tools I Kept Looking For as a Photographer: Why the cropper keeps the file and the preview apart.