How to make a carousel on Instagram

A carousel is a single post with several photos or videos. In the feed, people see the first one with a row of dots below it, and swipe for the rest ^[2]. Likes and comments count for the whole post, not each slide ^[2].

Videos inside a carousel aren't reels: they won't show in the Reels tab or get reels features ^[2]. Post a video you want treated as a reel on its own.

Write the carousel before you design it. Most of the work is deciding what goes on each slide.

1. Slide one is the hook: the problem or promise in a few big words. It's the only slide most people see before they decide to swipe.
2. One point per slide after that: a short headline and a line or two under it.
3. Last slide: the one thing you want them to do. Save it, comment, or message you.

The shape you choose for a carousel applies to every photo and video in it, and you can't set a different shape per slide ^[2]. So design them all at one size.

Use 1080 x 1350 (4:5) if a scheduling tool will post it, since Meta's rules for apps stop at 4:5 ^[3]. Posting from the app, you can go to 1080 x 1440 (3:4) ^[4]. The Instagram post size guide has every size.

The Postmosis carousel maker turns a post into 2 to 10 slides in your brand colours and downloads them as 1080 x 1350 PNGs, ready to post in order. See the carousel maker

These are Instagram's steps for the app ^[1]:

1. Tap Create at the top, or swipe right anywhere in your feed.
2. Tap Post, then tap Select multiple.
3. Pick up to 20 photos and videos, in the order you want them seen ^[1].
4. To change the order, tap and hold a slide, then drag it.
5. Tap Next, add a filter if you want one, then write the caption and share.

You get one caption and one location for the whole post, and you can tag someone on each photo ^[2]. Use the caption to say why the slides are worth the swipe. Keep it to five hashtags at most, Instagram's current limit ^[5].

You can reorder the slides, remove one, and edit the caption, location and tags after posting ^[2]. You can't add a new photo or video once it's shared; to do that, delete the post and post it again ^[2].

Before you post, drop the first slide into the free Instagram grid planner to see how it sits on your profile.