Mockup sizes for social media posts

Every feed has its favourite shapes. Platforms adjust their exact pixel specs from time to time, so it’s safer to think in aspect ratios than in fixed numbers. Get the ratio right, export at a generous resolution, and you’ll be fine almost everywhere.

Here are the shapes that matter, and how to fit a product mockup into each.

The four shapes

Ratio	Shape	Where it tends to show up
1:1	Square	Feed posts, carousels, profile grids
4:5	Portrait	Feed posts where you want more height
9:16	Tall vertical	Stories, reels, short video covers
16:9 (or wider)	Landscape	Link previews, video thumbnails, banners

Before you post, check the platform’s current guidance for exact dimensions. The ratios above are the starting point. The details can shift.

Square (1:1)

The safe all-rounder. A square sits well in almost any feed and looks tidy on a profile grid.

What fits: one phone, upright, centred. Or a laptop with a bit of space above and below.

Layout tips:

• Leave clear margin on all sides so the device doesn’t touch the edges.
• Put a short headline above or below the device, not over the screen.
• For two phones, overlap them slightly rather than squeezing them side by side.

Portrait (4:5)

A little taller than square, so it takes up more room in a scrolling feed. More room means more attention.

What fits: a single phone, nice and large. A phone plus a short headline. A tablet in portrait.

Layout tips:

• Use the extra height for a headline at the top and the device below it.
• Let the phone be big. This is the best shape for showing a mobile screen at a readable size.
• Keep the bottom of the frame calm. Feeds often overlay captions or buttons nearby.

Tall vertical (9:16)

Full-screen on a phone. Immersive, but crowded with interface: profile names at the top, reply boxes and buttons at the bottom.

What fits: a phone mockup, large and centred. A close-up of one feature. A short sequence across several frames.

Layout tips:

• Treat the top and bottom strips as unsafe. Keep headlines and the key part of the screen in the middle area.
• A single device, slightly smaller than full height, leaves room for overlays.
• For a sequence, keep the device in the same position in every frame so only the screen changes. It feels like the app is moving.

Landscape (16:9 and wider)

Wide formats show up as link previews, video thumbnails and page banners. Often small, often cropped.

What fits: a laptop or browser mockup. A phone and a laptop together. A phone on one side with a headline on the other.

Layout tips:

• Assume it will be viewed small. Use one bold device and a few words, not a detailed scene.
• Keep the important bits away from the edges, since some previews crop a little.
• Side-by-side layouts suit this shape: text left, device right, or the reverse.

Choosing a device for each shape

A quick matching guide:

• Phone → 4:5 and 9:16 love it. Square works. Landscape needs company.
• Laptop or browser → landscape and square. Too small in tall vertical.
• Tablet → portrait or square.
• Phone + laptop together → landscape or square, with plenty of padding.

If your product is web-first, a browser frame in landscape plus a phone view in portrait gives you coverage for most posts.

One mockup, many crops

You don’t need to design every post from scratch. Build one master scene, then crop.

1. Design wide. Start with a generous canvas and plenty of background around the device.
2. Keep the subject central. Put the device and the main screen area in the middle.
3. Crop to each ratio. Square, portrait, vertical and landscape from the same scene.
4. Nudge the headline. Text usually needs repositioning per shape. The device rarely does.

This keeps every post on-brand and saves a lot of time on launch day. The same crops also sit neatly in a photo grid slide when you need to show the whole set of posts in a review.

Export settings that keep things sharp

• Export at a size comfortably larger than the smallest display you expect. Platforms compress uploads, and starting bigger helps.
• Use PNG for crisp interfaces and text. Use high-quality JPEG only if file size becomes a problem.
• Check the export on your own phone before posting. Small text that looked fine on a monitor often isn’t.

Keep the background quiet

Social feeds are noisy. A calm background makes the device pop:

• a solid brand colour
• a soft two-colour gradient
• a gently blurred scene, if you want a photo feel

Busy patterns behind a detailed screen make both hard to see. Let the product carry the detail.

The same calm helps when the posts end up in a campaign deck for the rest of the team. If that deck is a regular job, keep one master version the whole team builds from.

A quick checklist

• Right ratio for the placement?
• Key content inside the safe area?
• Screen readable on a phone?
• Device big enough to notice in a fast scroll?
• Same style as your other posts?

For the bigger picture on cropping and framing, see how to present product screenshots. Sharing project shots from your portfolio? How to build a design portfolio presentation has framing rules that carry over. When you want the same scene in several shapes, Mockups can place your screenshot and help you take it from there.