How do you plan an Instagram grid, and what does the grid show?
Short answer
Instagram’s Help Center has no grid planner that we found; its pages describe how the grid behaves. Posts appear newest first by default, up to 3 can be pinned to the top, tagged posts can be added to the grid, and a photo is kept as it is between 1.91:1 and 3:4 and cropped outside that. Instagram’s head called the January 2025 layout a “tall grid”. A plan is a posting order in a sheet, and the nine-post one below is ours.
What Instagram’s pages say the grid does
| Behaviour | What the page says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Order | Tagged posts you add appear in reverse chronological order by default, “unless you reorder your grid”. | Help Center |
| Shape | In January 2025 Adam Mosseri, who heads Instagram, wrote that it had launched a new tall grid, because most photos and videos uploaded are vertical and rectangles show them better. | Threads |
| What a photo keeps | A photo 320 to 1080 pixels wide is kept as it is when its shape is between 1.91:1 and 3:4 (1080 pixels wide, 566 to 1440 high); other shapes are cropped to fit. | Help Center |
| Pins | Up to 3 posts can be pinned to the top of the profile with Pin to main grid; an unpinned post returns to its original spot. | Help Center |
| Tagged posts | A post you’re tagged in can be added to your main grid from a DM, the post or your Tags grid; it carries a tagged icon, and removing it doesn’t delete the original. | Help Center |
| Carousels | The profile shows the carousel’s first photo or video with an icon; people swipe to the rest. | Help Center |
| Trial reels | A trial reel stays off the profile’s main grid and Reels tab until you share it to everyone. | Help Center |
| Reel covers | The recommended cover size is 420 by 654 pixels, and the page says you can’t edit your cover photo after you’ve uploaded it. | Help Center |
Mosseri’s thread also said that Instagram would improve the ability to customise thumbnails and was building a tool to reorder the whole grid, and added that the plan might change. The tagged-posts page above mentions reordering your grid, but we found no Help Center page that gives steps for it, so we don’t describe any.
What we couldn’t find on an Instagram page
The grid’s own aspect ratio as a number, and how many posts sit in a row. Mellow’s grid maker and size guide work from a 3:4 grid three posts across, which matches the tallest shape Instagram says it keeps; treat that as ours and check it against your own profile.
A nine-post plan (ours)
The assumptions are the ones above: newest first, three across, no pinned posts. The invented account is a coffee roaster with three pillars: Beans, Brewing and People. Post #1 first and #9 last; #9 ends top left.
| Posted | Pillar | Format | Job of the post | Lands at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | People | Reel | The roaster at work, with a voiceover. | Row 3, right |
| #2 | Brewing | Photo | One brew method, one photo. | Row 3, middle |
| #3 | Beans | Carousel | Five lots, one slide each. | Row 3, left |
| #4 | People | Carousel | Who packs the orders, in five frames. | Row 2, right |
| #5 | Brewing | Reel | The same method in 20 seconds. | Row 2, middle |
| #6 | Beans | Photo | The new arrival, packed. | Row 2, left |
| #7 | People | Photo | A customer’s counter, with their say-so. | Row 1, right |
| #8 | Brewing | Carousel | Grind sizes side by side. | Row 1, middle |
| #9 | Beans | Reel | Opening a fresh bag. | Row 1, left |
Once all nine are up, the profile reads like this:
| Left | Middle | Right | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Row 1 | Beans, reel (#9) | Brewing, carousel (#8) | People, photo (#7) |
| Row 2 | Beans, photo (#6) | Brewing, reel (#5) | People, carousel (#4) |
| Row 3 | Beans, carousel (#3) | Brewing, photo (#2) | People, reel (#1) |
Two things come from the arithmetic, not from Instagram. Rotating three pillars on a grid three across puts one pillar in each column, as above; rotate four themes if you don’t want columns. And every new post moves the rest along by one place, so a plan only looks like this on the day the ninth post goes up. If you pin posts, they sit at the top of the profile ahead of the plan.
Tools for the order
- Drafts. Instagram says drafts are saved on your device only and are lost if you uninstall the app (Help Center).
- Scheduling in the app. For a public account, up to 25 posts a day and 30 days ahead; product tagging, collaborative posts, sponsored posts and fundraisers aren’t compatible with scheduled content (Help Center).
- A sheet. One row per post with the pillar, the format and the job, in posting order. The content calendar template is a start.
- The free grid maker. Splits one picture into 3, 6, 9 or 12 posts that join up on the grid, numbered in the order to post; the reels cover maker shows how a cover sits on the grid.
Where Mellow Hub fits
Hub schedules posts to Instagram, in the order and at the times you set, and it doesn’t draw your profile grid: the grid appears only in the free tools above. A scheduler posts through Instagram’s API, which in Mellow’s size guide (checked 1 October 2026) takes photos up to 4:5 and 10 items in a carousel, against 3:4 and 20 items in the app, so a grid built from tall 3:4 posts is posted from the app. The post size answer has the table.
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.
Questions people also ask
How many posts can I pin to my Instagram grid?
Up to 3, using Pin to main grid on a post’s options. Unpinning returns a post to its original spot in the grid, according to Instagram’s Help Center.
Is there an official Instagram grid planner or preview?
We found no Instagram Help Center page that describes a grid preview or planner. The pages describe drafts, which are stored on your device, and scheduling for public accounts, which is where planning inside the app happens.
Can I reorder my Instagram grid?
Instagram’s head said in January 2025 that it was building a tool to reorder the whole grid, and a Help Center page about tagged posts mentions reordering. We found no page with steps, so check your own app.
What size should posts be for the grid?
Instagram keeps a photo as it is between 1.91:1 and 3:4, which is 1080 by 1440 pixels at the tall end. The post size answer has each shape and what the grid does with it.
Do tagged posts show on my grid?
Only if you add them. Instagram describes three ways to add a tagged post to your main grid, and removing it from the grid doesn’t delete the original post or take it out of your tagged tab.
Sources
- Adam Mosseri on Threads: Profile roadmap, the new tall grid (20 January 2025)
- Instagram Help Center: Image resolution of photos you share on Instagram
- Instagram Help Center: Pin a post to the top of your profile on Instagram
- Instagram Help Center: Add tagged posts to your Instagram profile grid
- Instagram Help Center: About trial reels on Instagram
- Instagram Help Center: Share a post with multiple photos or videos on Instagram
- Instagram Help Center: Reel size and aspect ratios on Instagram
- Instagram Help Center: Save a post as a draft on Instagram
- Instagram Help Center: How to create and manage scheduled posts and Reels on Instagram
Other companies’ features change. Every statement about them rests on these pages, as they read on the date above.