What matters
Instagram Reel Cover dimensions at a glance
Reel cover images serve double duty — they display full-height in the Reels tab but get center-cropped into a square for the profile grid. This means the key visual must work in both crops.
A cover that looks great vertically but has the subject at the top or bottom will lose it entirely in the grid square crop. Planning for both views keeps your profile looking intentional.
Text or faces placed outside the center square zone disappear on the profile grid, making the reel look like a random frame grab rather than a designed cover.