Story photo collage templates
A story is 1080 by 1920 and about a third of it is covered by buttons. These layouts keep the photos in the part nobody taps on.
Story 1080x1920
A story is not a tall post. It is a frame that is held for a few seconds, seen at arm's length, with controls drawn over the top and bottom of it. Every one of those changes what a collage should look like: fewer cells, bigger cells, and nothing important within a couple of hundred pixels of an edge.
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Every collage below was made in the editor itself, at full resolution. Open one to start from it.
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1. Where the interface sits
Nothing is cropped in a story. Things are covered, which is worse, because you cannot see it happening while you make it.
| Band | Height | What is drawn there |
|---|---|---|
| Top | 250 px | Progress bars, profile, time, the close button |
| Bottom | 320 px | Reply box, share, like |
| Right | 100 px | The action column, on reels only |
That leaves roughly 1080 by 1350 in the middle, which is the same shape as a feed post. A useful way to think about it: design the collage as a 4:5 post and place it in the centre of the story frame. The bands above and below become deliberate space rather than lost photos.
2. How many photos fit a story
Fewer than you think, and for a reason that has nothing to do with taste.
A story is seen at arm's length for two or three seconds, often while walking. A nine cell grid asks someone to examine nine small pictures in that time, and nobody does: they tap through. Three or four large cells are read in one glance, which is the only kind of reading a story gets.
- One photo with a coloured border and space to breathe. Underrated, and the most likely to be watched to the end.
- Two or three stacked is the sweet spot. Each is still a photograph rather than a thumbnail.
- Four in a 2x2 works if the photos are simple, one clear subject each.
- Six or more only when the grid itself is the message: a week, a set, a countdown.
3. Leaving room for what you add afterwards
Most stories get a caption, a sticker, a poll or a location tag added in the app after the image is uploaded. If the collage fills the frame edge to edge, all of that lands on top of a photo.
So leave a band. A collage that occupies the middle 1350 px with plain colour above and below gives you somewhere to put text that reads cleanly, and it makes the whole thing look designed rather than dropped in. The background colour matters here: take it from the photos rather than from a palette, and the two halves belong together.
4. Stories that are not Instagram
The frame is the same 1080 by 1920 across all of them, and the interface is not.
WhatsApp status covers less at the bottom and shows the image longer, so it tolerates more cells than an Instagram story. It also compresses harder, so avoid fine detail.
Facebook stories match Instagram closely enough that one export serves both.
TikTok and reels put a caption and a button stack over the lower right, so keep that corner quiet. This is the one place where the right hand column genuinely matters.
A safe compromise for all four: photos inside the middle 1080 by 1350, nothing important in the lower right, plain colour elsewhere. There is more on this in the WhatsApp status guide.
5. Make one
Pick a template above and it opens at 1080 by 1920 with the safe area already respected. Drop your photos in, adjust the background so it takes a colour from the photos, and export.
Related sizes: feed posts at 4:5, and Facebook covers, which have their own crop problem. All of them are in the sizes guide.
Questions about Story collages
What size is a story collage?
1080 x 1920, which is 9:16, and the same across Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and TikTok. Export at exactly 1080 wide rather than larger: anything bigger gets downscaled by the platform, and their encoders are worse at it than yours.
What part of a story is covered by the interface?
Roughly the top 250 px and the bottom 320 px, plus about 100 px down the right hand side on reels. Nothing is cropped, it is covered, which is harder to spot while you are making it. The usable middle is about 1080 x 1350, the same shape as a feed post.
How many photos should a story collage have?
Three or four. A story is seen at arm's length for two or three seconds, so nine small cells simply do not get read, and people tap through. One large photo with room around it is often the version that gets watched to the end.
How do I leave room for text and stickers?
Keep the photos inside the middle 1350 px and let the bands above and below be plain colour taken from the photos. Anything you add in the app afterwards then lands on colour instead of on a face, and the result looks designed rather than covered up.
Is a WhatsApp status the same size as an Instagram story?
Same frame, 1080 x 1920. WhatsApp covers less at the bottom and holds the image longer, so it tolerates a couple more cells, but it compresses harder, so avoid fine detail and small text.
