TikTok Carousel Size and Dimensions

Build a 1080 × 1920 canvas for each slide. That is a 9:16 portrait ratio and a useful working standard for a full-screen mobile composition. Use the same canvas, color mode, and export method throughout the sequence so type, spacing, and image sharpness do not jump between swipes.

The number is production guidance, not a claim that TikTok formally requires this exact resolution for every photo post. TikTok can update its composer, overlays, and crops, and behavior can vary by device or app version. Leave generous visual breathing room, test the first and last slide especially, and move anything important if the preview places interface elements over it.

A 1080 × 1920 canvas gives you enough detail for readable type and clean illustrations while matching the familiar portrait shape of a phone screen. It is also easy to reproduce across design tools and to inspect at 50% or smaller when checking how a slide feels on a real device. Starting from a smaller image and enlarging it later cannot recreate missing detail, so create at the intended export size from the beginning.

Do not interpret “recommended” as “guaranteed uncropped.” The feed view, composer preview, cover selector, profile grid, sharing surfaces, and different displays can frame the same asset differently. Keep one editable master, rather than repeatedly resizing a compressed export. If source photography is larger, crop it deliberately into the master canvas and preserve the original file separately.

Aspect ratio describes shape, while pixel dimensions describe resolution. Both 1080 × 1920 and 720 × 1280 are 9:16, but the first provides more pixels for text edges and detailed graphics. A square image may still be selectable in TikTok, yet it can introduce unused space, a different crop, or an inconsistent swipe experience. This guide therefore centers a uniform 9:16 sequence.

Lock the ratio before placing content. If you crop photographs, choose the focal point per slide rather than applying an automatic center crop to every image. Faces, products, diagrams, and before-and-after comparisons may need different positioning. Review adjacent slides together so the horizon, subject scale, and text blocks do not lurch when someone swipes.

Begin with the cleanest source available. Repeatedly saving a JPEG, sending it through a messaging app, taking a screenshot, and exporting again can soften text and introduce blocks around gradients. Keep text and vector elements editable until the final export. Use PNG when crisp type, icons, flat color, or transparency in your working process matters; use a high-quality JPEG when photography and a smaller file are more practical. Confirm what your chosen uploader accepts at posting time.

Use the standard sRGB color space unless your workflow has a tested reason to do otherwise. Extremely subtle shadows and near-black gradients may change after compression or between displays. Inspect the output rather than assuming the design-tool canvas is identical to the exported file. Open each final image, zoom into text and edges, then view it again at normal phone size.

A headline that looks restrained on a laptop can become tiny on a phone. Judge type at the physical size viewers will see, with the slide shown full-screen and with the device held at a normal distance. Give the cover one clear headline, use short line lengths, and create a visible hierarchy between headline, supporting copy, labels, and source notes. Avoid solving an overcrowded slide by shrinking every word.

Use strong contrast and a typeface with clear letterforms. Keep line spacing comfortable, prevent single words from dangling on a final line, and avoid placing text over a visually busy photograph without a solid or softened backing. Test accents, punctuation, currency symbols, and longer translated words in the actual font. The same nominal font size can feel very different across typefaces and weights.

TikTok's feed interface can place account information and captions near the lower area, action controls along a side, and navigation or status elements around the frame. Their exact footprint is not fixed across every device, locale, accessibility setting, account, or app release. No single pixel diagram can promise protection for every organic Photo Mode post.

Instead, build a flexible inner composition area. Keep the headline, numbers, faces, product details, logos, and calls to action comfortably away from all outer edges, with extra caution at the bottom and control side. Background color, texture, and nonessential decoration may extend to the edge. Use consistent guides in your design file, but treat them as your team’s conservative template and revise them whenever the current TikTok preview disagrees.

Export a draft sequence and upload it without publishing. Swipe through every image in TikTok's composer. Check whether the app offers crop or edit controls, whether any image arrives with unexpected framing, and whether interface elements compete with the copy. Then inspect the cover selection because the profile presentation may use a different frame from the main feed view.

Test on the devices available to your team and update the app before a final high-stakes review. You do not need to chase identical rendering on every screen; you need to make the core message resilient. If a headline only works when every edge remains visible, move or shorten it. If a face or product touches the frame, recrop the source. Save the draft, return to it once, and confirm that ordering and edits persisted.

Export all artboards in one batch at 1080 × 1920, preserving the 9:16 ratio. Use a consistent format and quality level. Do not add print bleed, crop marks, or a PDF wrapper. Flatten effects correctly, but keep an editable source project for corrections. Number filenames with leading zeros, such as 01-cover, 02-problem, and 03-step: so file pickers sort the sequence predictably.

After export, confirm the pixel dimensions in the file inspector. Open the files outside the design app and compare them side by side. Look for a missing font, changed line break, low-resolution image, unwanted transparency, color shift, or accidental duplicate. Transfer files using a method that preserves originals; some chat and email paths may compress images.

In TikTok, start a new post, choose the photo upload flow, select the numbered files in order, and continue to the editing view. TikTok's Help Center currently describes selecting multiple photos, swiping between them, and applying edits such as crop, text, stickers, filters, and sound. Available controls and limits can change, so follow the interface shown on your account rather than an old screenshot.

Preview the complete sequence before publishing. Confirm the cover, order, caption, hashtags, mentions, link options, privacy, audience controls, accessibility options, commercial-content settings, and any required disclosure. Read the carousel once without sound. If its meaning depends on music or narration, the slides are not yet self-contained. Save a draft when you need a second review rather than rushing from upload to post.

Use this export checklist before every carousel. First, confirm that all slides share a 1080 × 1920 canvas and 9:16 ratio. Check spelling, facts, permissions, contrast, hierarchy, and phone-scale readability. Make sure important content stays well inside your interface-aware margins. Export once from the editable master, number the files, inspect the actual outputs, and transfer them without avoidable compression.

Then use the posting checklist. Select the images in order, inspect crops and overlays in TikTok, choose the cover, and read the sequence from start to finish. Add the caption and focused hashtags, complete accessibility and disclosure controls that apply, confirm privacy and audience settings, and verify that you have rights to images, fonts, music, quotations, and brand assets. Publish only after the preview, not the design canvas: passes.

This guide uses first-party documentation for TikTok's photo-post and editing flow, Apple documentation for general image export behavior, and Swypr's product page for its own workflow. Recommendations about canvas size, typography, margins, and testing are clearly presented as practical editorial guidance.