The Instagram Story / Reel size (1080×1920px)
Instagram Stories and Reels are full-screen vertical experiences, and 1080x1920 at 9:16 fills the entire phone display edge to edge. Uploading at this exact size means no black bars, no letterboxing, and no forced zoom, so your content looks intentional the moment it opens.
The single biggest gotcha with the Story format is the safe zone. Instagram overlays your username and profile photo across the top and stacks reply boxes, action buttons, and captions across the bottom. Those interface elements eat roughly the top 250 pixels and bottom 250 to 340 pixels, so anything critical placed there gets covered.
For Reels specifically, this frame is also your cover thumbnail, which later appears cropped in your profile grid. That means a Reel design has to work both as a full-screen 9:16 video cover and as a square grid tile. Keep headlines, prices, and calls to action in the central band, and treat the outer edges as decorative space that may be obscured or trimmed.