Instagram Highlight Covers: How to Make and Add Them
Instagram highlight covers are chosen on the last screen of creating a highlight. On a phone, tap Edit cover, choose a cover photo, enter a name and tap Add (iPhone) or Done (Android); on the web, choose a cover photo and click Done. Instagram publishes no cover size, and no separate steps for changing a cover later.
This page sticks to what Instagram documents, and every design tip below is labelled as ours. For creating, filling and deleting the highlights themselves, see our guide to Instagram highlights, part of our guide to using Instagram.
Table of Contents
- How to add a cover to an Instagram highlight
- Can you change a highlight cover later?
- What size should a highlight cover be?
- How to design Instagram highlight covers that look clean
- FAQ
How to add a cover to an Instagram highlight
Pick the cover while you create the highlight, right after you select its stories. Instagram’s Add a story to your Story Highlights article describes the cover as part of that flow: Edit cover on a phone, “Choose a cover photo” on the web. Here’s that step on each surface:
On iPhone:
- While creating a highlight, after selecting stories and tapping Next, tap Edit cover to choose a cover photo and enter a name for your highlight.
- Tap Add (iPhone) or Done (Android) in the top right.
On Android:
- While creating a highlight, after selecting stories and tapping Next, tap Edit cover to choose a cover photo and enter a name for your highlight.
- Tap Add (iPhone) or Done (Android) in the top right.
On the web:
- While creating a highlight, after selecting stories and clicking Next, choose a cover photo and click Done.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: Add a story to your Story Highlights.
These steps start partway through creating a highlight; the full sequence, from tapping New onward, is in our highlights guide linked above.
Can the cover come from your camera roll?
Instagram doesn’t say. Its instruction is to “tap Edit cover to choose a cover photo”, without saying whether that photo has to come from the highlight’s stories or can come from your phone’s gallery. If your app offers your camera roll on the cover screen, you can use it there; Instagram just hasn’t documented it.
Checked against Instagram Help Center: Add a story to your Story Highlights (cover source not specified).Not verified
Can you change a highlight cover later?
Instagram doesn’t publish steps for changing the cover of an existing highlight. One documented way back into a highlight is to tap and hold it on your profile and choose Edit Highlight, which its edit article describes for adding more photos or videos. Checked against Instagram Help Center: Edit or delete a highlight on Instagram On the web, its edit steps cover the name and the stories.
If your app shows a cover option on the edit screen, that’s where to change it. Because Instagram hasn’t documented that screen, it’s worth getting the cover right when you create the highlight. Checked against Instagram Help Center: Add a story to your Story Highlights
What size should a highlight cover be?
Instagram doesn’t publish one. Its help covers choosing a cover photo, not its dimensions. On shape, Instagram’s 2017 launch post describes each highlight as “a circle on your profile”. Checked against About Instagram: Introducing Stories Highlights & Stories Archive (5 December 2017) Treat any exact cover size you see quoted as a convention, not a spec.
Our recommendation is to design on the story canvas, the shape of the stories a highlight holds. The story ratio is 9:16, and 1080 x 1920 pixels is the widely reported upload size for it. Our Instagram post size guide has the details, including Meta’s guidance on which edges of a story to keep clear.
Then keep the artwork in the middle. A circle can’t show all of a tall image, and Instagram doesn’t say which part of your cover photo it shows, so a centred icon with plenty of empty space around it is the safe choice.
How to design Instagram highlight covers that look clean
Design for a thumbnail, not a poster: one simple symbol, strong contrast and the same style on every cover. Instagram’s help gives no design guidance for covers, so this checklist is ours:
- One idea per cover. A single icon or one or two letters. Each highlight also has a name, so the cover doesn’t need to spell anything out.
- Centred, with room to spare. Put the symbol in the middle of the canvas and keep it well inside the edges.
- Strong contrast. A dark symbol on a light background, or the reverse. Pale-on-pale pairs, like light grey on white, are hard to read at small sizes, especially for people with low vision.
- One style for the whole set. The same background colour or small palette, the same line weight and the same icon family make a row of covers look deliberate.
- Art you’re allowed to use. Draw your own icons or use ones whose licence covers this use, and don’t copy another brand’s logo.
- A real-size check. Look at the image shrunk down on your phone before you set it. If you have to squint, simplify it.
Make covers for free
You don’t need paid design software. Draw the symbol in any editor, then:
- Fit it to the story shape with the free Instagram image resizer, which crops or pads an image to 9:16 in your browser.
- Work out matching dimensions with the aspect ratio calculator if you design at a different size.
Then set each one with Edit cover as you create the highlight.
Plan the feed posts that sit below your highlights in Outfeed AI
FAQ
What size should Instagram highlight covers be?
Instagram doesn’t publish a size for highlight covers, and it shows each highlight as a circle on your profile. Our advice, not an Instagram rule: design on the 9:16 story canvas, for which 1080 x 1920 pixels is the widely reported size, and keep the icon centred with space around it so it still reads inside the circle.
Can a highlight cover be an image that isn’t in your stories?
Instagram doesn’t document a way. Its steps say to tap Edit cover and choose a cover photo while you create a highlight, and they don’t say whether that photo can come from your camera roll. If your app offers your camera roll on the cover screen, you can pick an image there.
How do I change my Instagram highlight cover?
Instagram doesn’t publish separate steps for it. One documented way back into a highlight is to tap and hold it on your profile and choose Edit Highlight, which its help describes for adding more photos or videos. If your app shows a cover option on that screen, change the cover there.
Why is my highlight cover blurry?
Instagram doesn’t document how it resizes or crops covers, so there’s no official fix. Our design advice: start from a sharp, full-size image on the 9:16 story canvas, use one simple icon with strong contrast, and leave out fine detail and small text, which are hard to read when the image is shown that small.
How do I make Instagram highlight covers for free?
Draw one simple icon on a plain background in any editor, then fit it to the 9:16 story shape with Outfeed’s free Instagram image resizer, which works in your browser. Keep the same colours and line weight across the set, and choose each image with Edit cover when you create the highlight.