Photos
- JPEG is the safest format on every platform — if a photo post fails, the first thing to try is re-exporting as JPEG.
- PNG, WebP, and GIF are accepted for upload, but Instagram in particular can reject non-JPEG containers.
- Instagram takes up to 10 photos per post as a carousel. TikTok takes up to 35.
- Threads takes up to 20 photos as a carousel. Do not mix photos and a video there: only the first photo goes out.
- Facebook posts the first image only.
Video
- MP4 (H.264) is the safest container; MOV and WebM are also accepted.
- Vertical 9:16 (e.g. 1080×1920) is what Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts expect — horizontal video won't appear in the Shorts feed.
- YouTube Shorts: up to 3 minutes, vertical or square.
- TikTok shows your account's maximum video duration in the compose screen.
- One video per post.
Stories
- Stories publish on Instagram.
- One image or one video up to 60 seconds.
- No caption.
Size and storage
- Photos upload up to 50 MB; videos upload directly to storage with no practical size cap.
- Storage is per account: 1 GB per account on Free, 10 GB per account on Creator, 30 GB per account on Power. Media is retained 7 days on Free, 60 days on Creator and 180 days on Power, then cleaned up automatically after posts publish.