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.
How to crop a photo for an Instagram story
- Choose the photo. The cropper opens at Instagram Story / Reel, 9:16, 1080 × 1920 px.
- Look at the red bands over the preview. They mark the top 14% and the bottom 20%, where the app draws the account name and the reply bar.
- Drag the frame until the face or the words sit between the dashed lines. Zoom if the subject is small.
- Press Download crop. The file is 1080 × 1920 px and has no red bands; they exist only in the preview, and the checkbox under it hides them.
Where the covered areas come from
Instagram does not publish a pixel map of a story, so I went looking for what other people measured. On 30 October 2026 Meta's help pages gave me an error instead of text. I fell back on two guides that quote the same advice: Hootsuite quotes Instagram's tip for story ads, to keep about 14% at the top and 20% at the bottom free of text and logos, and Sprout Social gives the same shares. Buffer says 310 pixels on each side. I drew the first pair, because two sources agree on it.
The bands are a guide, not a rule. The app draws the account name over the top and the reply field over the bottom, and what they hide changes with the phone and the app version. A face in the red is not ruined; a headline in the red may be.
What the bands measure on a 1080 × 1920 story
| Area | Share of the height | At 1080 × 1920 px |
|---|---|---|
| Top band | 14% | 269 px |
| Free middle | 66% | 1267 px |
| Bottom band | 20% | 384 px |
The free middle is a 1080 × 1267 px window, a little shorter than a 4:5 post. A vertical photo of a person fits it easily; a wide scene loses its sides when it fills the full story.
| My photo | Source crop at 9:16 | Enlarged to 1080 px wide |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Jasna, 960 × 1200 px | 675 × 1200 px | 1.6 times |
| Red bicycle, 1200 × 800 px | 450 × 800 px | 2.4 times |
A story is a tall slice. From a landscape photo it takes little more than a third of the width, so I start from the largest copy I have.
Keeping the subject in the free middle
I place the subject first and the text second. A portrait works when the eyes sit at roughly a third of the way down the free middle, which is clear of both bands. A product on a table works when it fills the middle and leaves the bottom band for the table edge.
A story that links somewhere puts a button or sticker at the bottom, so the larger bottom band is the one to respect when you add a caption. If you only post the photo, the bands matter less and you can let the subject run into them.
When the photo is not vertical
A landscape photo cropped to 9:16 loses most of itself. Two other routes exist. Put the whole photo on a colour background with Add Border to Photo, or crop the feed shape with the Instagram post cropper and share it as a post instead. I take the story crop when one part of the picture carries the whole idea.
Tips for Instagram stories
- Put the headline and any face between the dashed lines, in the free middle.
- Start from the original photo; a story crop of a small web copy is enlarged, not sharpened.
- Leave the checkbox on while you place the frame and switch it off to judge the picture alone.
- Crop each story from its own photo instead of reusing one crop; the frame resets with the preset.
- Keep your uncropped original. A 9:16 slice cannot be turned back into the wide photo.
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 Instagram story crop size?
The shape is 9:16 and the usual size is 1080 × 1920 pixels. The cropper opens at that preset and saves exactly that many pixels, enlarging a smaller photo unless you tick Prevent upscaling.
How do I crop an image to Instagram story size?
Choose the photo, leave the preset on Instagram Story / Reel, drag the frame over the part you want and press Download crop. The file comes out at 1080 × 1920 pixels.
Can you crop a photo inside an Instagram story?
The app lets you pinch and move a photo, but it gives you no exact frame. Cropping here first shows the 9:16 frame and the covered areas, so you choose the part before you upload.
What size is an Instagram story in 2026?
Sprout Social, Hootsuite and Buffer all give 1080 × 1920 pixels at 9:16 for a story photo. Story ads use the same shape at 1440 × 2560, according to Meta's ads guide.
How big is the Instagram story safe zone?
Hootsuite quotes Instagram and Sprout Social agrees: leave about 14% at the top and 20% at the bottom free. On 1080 × 1920 that is 269 and 384 pixels. Buffer suggests 310 pixels on both sides.
Related tools and guides
- Image Cropper: Crop images to exact ratios or popular preset sizes.
- 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.
- Turn or mirror your photo: Turn a sideways photograph, straighten a tilted horizon or mirror a picture, using the same editor as my image cropper.
- 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.
- Best Time to Post on Instagram in 2026: Days, Hours and Data: Once the story is cropped: when to share it.