How many pictures
Instagram's app takes up to 20 photos or videos in one carousel. Until August 2024 it was 10.
Few carousels need all twenty.
A trip or a wedding can use every one, while a how-to usually fits in five to eight, one step per picture.
If a picture is only there to make the post longer, take it out.
A run of weak pictures is where people stop swiping, and the good one after them never gets seen.
Choose the shape before you make anything
Every picture in a carousel takes the shape of the first one.
Instagram crops the rest to match, so a wide photo placed after a tall cover loses its sides.
Pick one shape and make every picture in it:
- 1080 x 1350 (4:5) is the one to pick if you're unsure, since it's the tallest shape every app posting to Instagram can send and it fills the most of a phone screen.
- 1080 x 1440 (3:4) is what most phone cameras shoot, and Instagram's own app has taken it since May 2025, but other apps may be refused.
- 1080 x 1080, the square, suits a quote or a product shot and is the smallest of the three on a phone.
Your profile grid has shown every post as a 3:4 tile since early 2025, and it uses only the first picture.
A 1080 x 1350 cover loses about 34 pixels from each side there, so keep words and faces away from the left and right edges.
The first picture makes a promise
Most people decide whether to swipe from the first picture alone.
Give it something the rest will finish, like a question or a before shot whose after is a few swipes away.
"5 mistakes from my first sourdough" in big letters over the first loaf gives people a reason to swipe that the nicest photo of the bread doesn't.
Show that there's more
A small "1/6" in a corner tells people how far there is to go.
A picture that runs off the right edge and carries on in the next one is hard not to swipe, and cutting one wide photo into slices gives you exactly that.
Keep any words big. If you'd have to zoom in on your own phone, they're too small.
Picture two gets a second chance
Adam Mosseri, who runs Instagram, said in 2024 that when someone sees a carousel and doesn't swipe, Instagram often shows it to them again, starting on the second picture.
So give picture two a headline of its own: for some people it's the first one they see.
End with one thing to do
The last picture is where people stop, so it's the place to ask for something.
Ask them to save it, to follow you for part two, or to find the link in your bio, and pick only one of those.
The caption works like any other post's.
Only its first line shows under the cover before "more", so that line has to stand on its own.
Sending a carousel with Tublish
In Tublish, a carousel is a post with more than one picture:
- Open Posts and press Add pictures, up to 20 for one post.
- The first picture is the cover, and the arrows move the others until the order is right.
- Tick where it goes, and a platform that takes fewer pictures says how many before you send.
- Post it now, or pick a day and a time and let Tublish send it.
Threads and LinkedIn take all 20 pictures.
Instagram, Facebook, Discord and Telegram take the first 10, and Bluesky and Mastodon the first 4.
If a picture is taller than Instagram lets other apps send, the Instagram row says it may be refused.
Carousels work on every plan. The free plan connects two platforms, and more of them take a paid plan.