Reel shared to feed: the cover is cropped to the middle square

When you share a Reel to the feed, Instagram crops the cover to the middle-most 1:1 square for the feed post. On a 9:16 cover that keeps about the middle 56 percent of the height and throws away the top and bottom. Keep the title, face and product inside that centre square, and check it with a crop preview before you publish.

The rule is stated in Meta's IG User Media reference, read 2026-10-02, in the Reels cover photo specifications. The preview uses Sume's video filter crop operation.

What exactly does Meta say about the crop?

For the Reels cover, 9:16 is recommended. If the aspect ratio is not 9:16, Meta crops the image and uses the middle-most 9:16 rectangle for the Reel. If you share the Reel to your feed, it crops the image and uses the middle-most 1:1 square as the cover for the feed post.

So there are two crops: one for the Reels tab and one for the feed. The first is a no-op when your cover is already 9:16. The second always applies when share_to_feed is true.

How much of a 9:16 frame survives?

A 1080 by 1920 frame has a centre square of 1080 by 1080. That is 1080 divided by 1920, or 0.5625 of the height. The square starts at (1 - 0.5625) / 2 = 0.21875 from the top, and ends at 0.78125. Anything above 21.9 percent of the height or below 78.1 percent is cut from the feed version.

Captions are the usual victim. A line anchored at 0.85 of the frame height, common for lower thirds, falls outside the square and vanishes from the feed cover.

How do I preview the square with Sume?

Video filter's crop op takes fractions of the source frame: x, y in 0 to 1, width and height from 0.05 to 1, with x + width and y + height at most 1. The free check endpoint validates the program without encoding or billing; the encode itself is $0.02 per job.

The result is a new MP4 of the centre square. Then use video frames at the second you plan to use as the cover to look at one still, at source size. The preview is a clip, not a still, so the two-step is: crop, then extract.

curl -X POST https://api.sume.com/v1/video-filter/check \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SUME_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/reel.mp4",
    "ops": [{"op": "crop", "x": 0, "y": 0.21875, "width": 1, "height": 0.5625}]
  }'

What should I do with the result?

If a headline or face is clipped, move it toward the centre in the source, or send a separate designed cover_url instead of a video frame. A separate cover image lets you design for both crops at once; the file rules (JPEG, up to 8 MB, sRGB) are in the cover photo size post.

Sume does not control how Instagram crops: the crop is Meta's. The preview just shows you the same geometry so there are no surprises.

Which text positions are safe for both crops?

For a cover that has to work in the Reels tab and the feed, keep headline text between 0.25 and 0.75 of the frame height, which sits inside the square from 0.21875 to 0.78125 with a small margin. Faces and products should be centred horizontally and vertically in the same band.

If your design needs the top or bottom, split the work: use the full 9:16 frame as cover_url for the Reels tab and accept that the feed version will be the middle square, or set share_to_feed to false. Meta says that value only means the Reel is limited to the Reels tab; it does not guarantee placement there.