How to crop images for social media without guessing pixels

Social placements care about shape first. A square crop and a 9:16 story crop behave differently even when both files are sharp. PixelConvert’s image cropper locks the crop box to a ratio so the shape stays correct while you reframe.

Ratios that match common placements

• Instagram square uses 1:1.
• Instagram portrait uses 4:5.
• Instagram landscape uses about 1.91:1.
• Stories and Reels use 9:16.
• YouTube thumbnails use 16:9.
• LinkedIn cover images use a very wide 4:1.
• Profile photos, including WhatsApp, are usually square.

These are aspect-ratio presets, not a promise that a network will display a specific pixel dimension. Networks resize uploads. A 1:1 crop stays square whether the file is 800 pixels wide or 2000.

How to frame the crop

Upload the image, choose the placement, and drag the crop box. Zoom in when you need to check a face or a product edge. The live dimensions under the preview tell you the pixel size of the crop you are about to export.

If a placement is not listed, enter a custom ratio. A width of 1200 and a height of 800 locks the box to 3:2. You can then resize the cropped image if a site also asks for a maximum width.

Export

Download PNG if you will edit again, or JPG and WEBP if the crop is a finished photo. The cropped file remains available in the tab, so compression does not require another upload.