There’s too many variables, and therefore the most reasonable approach is to standardise all images, even if it ends up being parity or just a check. It needs to be that way because it doesn’t make logical sense to assume that the user’s compression is better than their own. In the feed you usually see the 1080px wide version.Įvery image is compressed.It then makes copies of that compressed image, resizing at 150px, 240px, 320px, 480px, 640px and 1080px in what’s called a source set (srcset) so that it can show you the most relevant size of your image depending on where it’s viewed.

The upload process looks a little like this: In fact, by doing so, you’re actually making your end image worse than what it could be.

I’ve seen some people say that if you set your export settings to 75% quality, or if your images are under 500kb, you’ll somehow magically bypass the compression algorithm. However some people find problems with it, and that’s where this article comes in.īut first, let’s dispel a myth that there’s a ‘quality’ or file size you can get to in order to avoid the compression algorithm. Some image compression techniques are better than others, and to be quite honest, Instagram’s is actually quite good - a decent quality for the file size. Warning: this next bit gets a tad technical. Instagram is optimising for images to load as fast as they can for the best experience, so they try and reduce the file sizes of your images so there’s less to download and thus your feeds load quicker. The reason why they do this is the same reason why many websites squash images too (including this website you're reading this on!) - performance. Some other things we do know, though, is that Instagram also uses what’s called an image compression algorithm on all images that get uploaded to their servers.

They will always be cropped to fit at 1080 pixels wide unless it’s exactly that size.

Aspect ratios will be between 1.91:1 and 4:5.

So, Instagram has some recommended guidelines for images. Read about the basics of Exposure and the Exposure Triangle!

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