Quick reference: Meta ad image sizes by placement
These are Meta's current recommended sizes. Ratio matters more than exact pixel count — anything sharp at that ratio will work.
| Placement | Recommended size | Aspect ratio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feed (square) | 1,080 × 1,080 px | 1:1 | Safest default — works on almost every placement |
| Feed (portrait) | 1,080 × 1,350 px | 4:5 | Takes more mobile screen space, often higher CTR |
| Stories & Reels | 1,080 × 1,920 px | 9:16 | Full-screen vertical — keep key content out of top/bottom ~250 px |
| Carousel card | 1,080 × 1,080 px | 1:1 | Same size for every card so the swipe feels seamless |
| Collection ad cover | 1,200 × 628 px | 1.91:1 | Wide cover image above a grid of products |
| Right column (legacy) | 1,080 × 1,080 px | 1:1 | Rare placement now, still accepts square |
| Minimum resolution | 600 × 600 px | — | Technical floor — too soft for most screens |
| Max file size | 30 MB | — | JPG or PNG |
Why ratio matters more than resolution
Meta doesn't reject an image for being the "wrong" size the way Amazon or eBay do — it crops. Upload a landscape photo into a Stories placement and Meta crops the sides off automatically to hit 9:16, often slicing your product in half or pushing it off-frame. The fix isn't a bigger image, it's the right ratio for each placement. That's also why our product image size guide lists Meta ads with three separate ratios instead of one — square, portrait, and vertical are genuinely different crops, not the same image scaled.
Feed ads: square vs portrait
Square (1:1) is the safe default — it's the size Meta shows in the ad-preview tool by default and it survives being resized into most other placements without awkward cropping. Portrait (4:5) claims noticeably more vertical space in a mobile feed, which is why it often out-performs square on click-through — more screen real estate for the same scroll. If you're only making one image, make it square; if you can make two, add the 4:5 portrait for feed specifically.
Stories & Reels: design for the full screen, not just the crop
9:16 isn't just a taller square — it's a completely different canvas. The top and bottom roughly 250 px are covered by the profile name, CTA button and progress bar, so keep your product and any text centered in the middle two-thirds. A square photo padded with plain background top and bottom looks obviously recycled; a photo actually composed for vertical — product large, background filling the frame — reads as native content instead of a shrunk-down feed ad.
Carousel & collection ads
Carousel cards are square (1:1) and should all share the same crop and lighting — inconsistent framing between cards is the fastest way to make a multi-product ad look unfinished. Collection ads use a wide 1.91:1 cover image above a grid of smaller product thumbnails pulled from your catalog feed; the cover is the one placement on this list that isn't square, so don't reuse a 1:1 hero shot for it without a wider version.
Text on the image: what still hurts your ad
Meta retired the hard 20%-text rejection rule in 2020 — an image with a headline or price overlay won't get auto-rejected anymore. But text still has two costs: Meta's delivery system can quietly rate a text-heavy creative as lower quality (showing it to fewer people for the same budget), and text placed near the edges gets covered by the CTA button or profile bar in Stories and Reels. If you need a callout, keep it short, centered, and away from the bottom third.
Rule of thumb: produce one 1:1 square master per creative, then a 9:16 vertical version composed specifically for Stories/Reels — not a cropped square. Those two cover essentially every placement Meta serves ads into.
Getting every placement from one product photo
Shooting a separate photo per placement isn't realistic for most sellers running more than one ad at a time. Mercatus generates a set of product images from a single upload — including the square hero and vertical, UGC-style compositions that work as native Stories and Reels creative — so testing a new ad angle doesn't mean booking another shoot. Our free Facebook image resizer also handles the quick 1,200 × 1,200 px crop if you already have a photo and just need it sized correctly.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best image size for a Facebook or Instagram ad?
1,080 × 1,080 px square is the safest single size. Add a 1,080 × 1,920 px vertical version if you're running Stories or Reels placements.
Does Meta still enforce the 20% text rule on ad images?
No — that rule was retired in 2020. Heavy text can still lower delivery quality and gets covered by UI elements in some placements, so keep it minimal.
What is the minimum resolution for a Meta ad image?
600 × 600 px technically, but 1,080 px on the shortest side is the practical minimum for a sharp result on modern screens.
Can I use one image for every ad placement?
You can, but Meta will crop it to fit — often cutting off the product in Stories. A square plus a vertical version covers nearly every placement correctly.