How to post grid photos on Instagram

The tool below is set to 6 tiles (2 rows of 3) in 3:4. Choose your picture, download the tiles, and they're already numbered in the order to post them.

Before you post

Split the picture first. A 2-row grid needs 6 tiles and a 3-row grid needs 9. The numbers on the preview show the posting order: tile 1 is the bottom-right piece and the highest number is the top-left piece. The file names in the zip follow the same order, so sorting the files by name lines them up.

Save the tiles to your phone's photos, or keep them on your computer if you post from instagram.com. Use the largest version of your picture you have. Instagram keeps photos up to 1080 pixels wide and sizes larger ones down, so each tile here is 1080 pixels wide.

Post the grid from the Instagram app

These steps follow Instagram's own help for posting a photo on iPhone and Android. Repeat them once per tile.

1. Tap Create at the top, or swipe right anywhere in Feed.
2. Tap POST, then select tile 1 from your phone's library.
3. Tap Next, then Next again. Add a caption if you want one.
4. Tap Share.
5. Go back to step 1 and post tile 2, then tile 3, and so on until the last tile.

Leave the crop alone when Instagram shows it. If you zoom or move a tile, its edges no longer meet the tiles next to it. Use the same filter on every tile, or none at all, so the colours match across the joins.

Post the grid from a computer

Instagram's help gives these steps for instagram.com:

1. Click Create on the left.
2. Click Post, then Select from computer, and choose tile 1. Instagram accepts JPG, PNG and HEIC/HEIF files.
3. Select the size of your photo, then click Next.
4. Skip filters and adjustments, or use the same ones on every tile, then click Next.
5. Click Share. Then do the same for tile 2 and every tile after it.

Pick the size that matches your tiles in step 3. If the frame is a different shape, Instagram trims your tile and the picture won't line up.

Why a carousel won't work for a grid

A carousel is one post with up to 20 photos that people swipe through. Instagram's help says your profile shows only the first photo of a carousel, so the rest of the grid would stay hidden. Each tile needs to be its own post.

If you want a picture that flows as people swipe, that's a seamless carousel, a different job. Our seamless carousel maker for Instagram cuts a wide design into slides for that.

Keep the grid together

Post all the tiles in one go. Every post you add later pushes the grid along by one place, so anything you share between tiles splits the picture apart. After the grid is up, post in groups of three if you want it to stay lined up in rows.

Before you start, look at your profile for anything that sits ahead of your newest posts and plan the grid around it.

Keep faces and small text away from the edges of each tile. Anything that crosses a cut is split between two posts, and each post also appears on its own in people's feeds.

For a bigger picture across more rows, see the Instagram puzzle grid maker, which splits up to 15 tiles at a time. For more on tile sizes, the Instagram tiles maker explains which size to pick. Other image sizes for each network are in our social media image sizes guide.