How do you make a 3-, 6-, 9- or 12-post grid on Instagram?

What the profile grid shows

Posts on a profile are drawn as tiles, 3 to a row, newest first. On 11 October 2026 we measured the tiles on Instagram’s own profile in a desktop browser: 311 × 414 pixels each, a ratio of 0.75, which is 3:4, with the picture cut from its middle. Reels and photo posts shared the one grid. We measured the web page, not the phone app. Adam Mosseri announced the “tall grid” in a Threads post of 20 January 2025, saying most uploads are vertical and that rectangles show them better.

Instagram’s Help Center gives no figure for the grid, on the web or in the app. What it does give is the range of photo shapes the app keeps whole: between 1.91:1 and 3:4, 1080 pixels wide (Image resolution of photos). So 3:4 is the tallest photo the app keeps and also the grid’s own shape.

The hidden strips come back when the post is opened on its own, which is why a good grid layout lets each piece run a little into its neighbour’s slot.

How big the picture must be

The whole picture is as wide as three tiles and as tall as the rows you want. For 3:4 pieces that is three times 1080 pixels. For the shorter shapes it is a little narrower than that, because neighbouring pieces overlap by the strip the grid hides. A smaller picture works too, but it is enlarged and the pieces go soft.

Use 4:5 when the posts will be scheduled through an app rather than shared from the phone: the Instagram API behind scheduling tools accepts photos only from 4:5 to 1.91:1 (Meta for Developers, IG User media, read 11 October 2026).

The order to post the pieces in

Without reordering, the newest post is top left and every older one follows it, row by row. So the first piece you share ends up bottom right, and the last piece you share ends up top left. For a nine-piece picture, the numbers on the files, as they sit on the profile, are:

Share 1 first and 9 last. Anything else you post in between pushes the rest along by one place.

Since 8 June 2026 there is another way. Instagram’s @creators account announced a “Reorder your grid” feature: tap and hold any post on your profile grid, choose “reorder grid” in the menu, long press and drag a post to where you want it. Changes are saved at once and everyone who visits sees them. Instagram’s Help Center has no page for it that we could find on 11 October 2026, and comments under the announcement show it had not reached every account, so we cannot say who has it. If you do, you can post the pieces in any order and drag them into place afterwards.

What breaks a grid puzzle

• Pinned posts. You can pin up to 3 posts to the top of your profile, and an unpinned post goes back to its original spot (Instagram Help). A pinned post is therefore in front of the puzzle: unpin it first, or pin exactly three so they fill a row of their own.
• Reels. A reel you share to Feed appears in the main grid alongside photos and carousels (About Instagram), and takes a place like any post.
• The next post. Every new post moves the whole picture one place, which tears it across the rows. Posting in threes keeps the columns lined up; each set of three moves the picture down one row.
• Carousels. A carousel shows its first photo or video as its tile (Instagram Help), so a puzzle piece can be the first slide of one.

Is a grid puzzle worth it?

It suits a moment when someone landing on your profile should see one picture: a launch, a collection, an event. For everyday posting it asks a lot of a follower, who meets the pieces one at a time and each as a post of its own. If what you want is one post that people swipe through, cut the picture into carousel slides that join edge to edge instead.

What the free grid maker does

The grid maker takes one picture and cuts it into 3, 6, 9 or 12 pieces at 1080 × 1440, 1080 × 1350 or 1080 × 1080, shows the profile as it will look after the last post, and numbers the files in posting order in a ZIP of JPG files. It runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded. It does not post anything, does not know which posts are already pinned on your account, and does not know whether you have the reorder tool; the order it numbers is the one for an account that posts newest first.

Scheduling the pieces with Mellow Hub

Mellow Hub publishes to a professional Instagram account through Instagram’s API, which stops at 4:5 and at 10 items in a post, and it does not measure a picture’s shape before sending: the network judges it. So cut at 4:5, and schedule each piece as its own post, in the numbered order, with times a few minutes apart so that they go out in that order. The free tool can hand its pieces to Hub for this. Hub schedules and publishes; it does not know your grid, so check the order on your profile afterwards.

The first 3 posts are free, however many networks each one goes to, and need no card. After that Hub is paid: plans start at $19 a month (Solo), after a 7-day trial with a card on file that costs nothing if you cancel before it ends, and a monthly plan's first month is 20% off. Publishing is unlimited on every plan, under a fair-use ceiling that stops automated floods (900 publications a month on Solo), where one publication is one post on one account, so a post sent to five networks counts as five toward it. There are no automatic overage charges.