Improve Instagram photo quality before you post

According to Instagram's help centre, photos are uploaded at the best resolution possible up to a width of 1080 pixels. A photo between 320 and 1080 pixels wide keeps its resolution if its aspect ratio is between 1.91:1 (landscape) and 4:5 (portrait). Wider photos are reduced to 1080 pixels, and photos outside the ratio range are cropped.

The photo is also compressed again as a JPEG. A clean, full-size photo survives this well. A photo that was already compressed, such as one received in a chat or saved from another account, gets a second round of damage on top of the first. That is when blocks, smearing and halos become obvious.

Most quality problems on Instagram start before the upload. These habits avoid the common ones:

• Post from the original file on your phone, not from a chat copy or a screenshot.
• Crop to a ratio between 1.91:1 and 4:5 yourself, so Instagram does not crop for you.
• Make sure the photo is at least 1080 pixels wide after cropping; heavy crops of small photos fall below that.
• Avoid stacking filters across several apps, since each export can add another round of compression.
• Check the app's settings for a highest-quality upload option, and use Wi-Fi if the app lowers quality on mobile data.

Repairing makes sense when the copy you have is smaller than 1080 pixels wide or shows compression damage. Typical cases are a photo a friend sent you, a crop of a group shot, an older photo from a previous phone, or a picture saved from your own old posts because the original is lost.

Pick the model by the damage. For blocks, smearing or low-light grain, use Enhance; it keeps the size and removes the damage. For a clean but small crop, use Upscale 4×: a 400-pixel crop becomes 1600 pixels, comfortably above 1080. For a photo that is close to 1080 and only a little soft, Enhance is enough; it keeps the size and repairs mild softness.

Repairing a large, clean original does little for Instagram, because Instagram reduces it to 1080 pixels anyway. If your photo is already clean, Enhance leaves it essentially as it is. Spend that effort on framing and light instead.

Upload the best copy you have and run the model that matches the damage. If the photo is both damaged and small, run Enhance first and upscale the result. Compare it with the original at 100 %, looking at faces and hair. Crop to your chosen ratio, export as a high-quality JPG, and post that file directly.

PhotoRescue repairs compression damage and softness and keeps the scene as it was. It does not apply beauty filters or swap in new faces. Enhance does add natural fine texture where compression wiped it out; that texture is plausible, not a record of the exact original, so check the result before you post. Our guide on why phone photos look bad up close explains where the damage comes from.

If a photo is blurred by camera shake or movement, or a face is tiny and heavily compressed, the result will be cleaner but not sharp. Text in the photo stays as readable as it was, no more. Free results carry a watermark, so for the version you post you need Pro ($9.99 a month, 200 credits) or Pro+ ($19.99 a month, 500 credits).