Cut one wide picture into carousel slides

An Instagram carousel maker builds the slides of a carousel post, and this free one starts from a single wide picture. It cuts the picture into 2 to 20 equal slides, at 4:5 or 1:1, and saves each one as a PNG at full resolution. It adds no text or designs, and nothing is uploaded.

How do I create a carousel for Instagram from one picture?

Choose a picture, pick the number of slides and their shape, download the slides, then add them to a new post in the order they are numbered. The preview shows the cut lines before anything is saved, and the file names carry the order, such as slide 01 of 05.

On a computer, Instagram's Help Center gives the route as Create, then Post, then Select from computer. Before you share, you can drag a slide to a new spot to change the order (read 30 October 2026).

How do I split an image into a carousel on Instagram?

Cut the picture into equal slides of one shape, then post them together as one carousel. The cut is exact: the slides come edge to edge from one strip of your picture, so no pixel is lost or repeated at a seam.

The strip's shape follows from the slide count. A 4:5 slide is 0.8 times as wide as it is tall, so every slide adds 0.8 to the strip's width against its height, and a square slide adds 1. These figures are our arithmetic.

A picture with another shape is trimmed by Fill, or shown whole with bars by the two Fit options. With 3 slides at 4:5, a picture 3600 pixels wide and 1500 high is cut into three slides of 1200 x 1500, and the page says how much any other picture loses.

What is an Instagram panorama carousel?

A panorama carousel is one wide picture cut into slides, so the scene carries on from one slide to the next as people swipe. Instagram's Help Center has no article about it: we searched for panorama and carousel panorama on 30 October 2026 and found none. Treat it as a technique, not a feature.

Two Help Center points shape it (read 30 October 2026). Your feed and your profile show the first slide, so slide 1 has to make sense alone. And the shape you choose applies to every slide in the post, which is why this tool cuts every slide alike. Keep a face, a product or a line of words off the cut lines, because the slides are separate pictures.

What size are the slides, and what does Instagram do to them?

At 1080 pixels wide, a 4:5 slide is 1080 x 1350 and a 1:1 slide is 1080 x 1080. Instagram names neither size, so both are our arithmetic, and both sit inside the 1.91:1 to 3:4 shape that Instagram's Help Center lists for photos.

The same article says Instagram shares a photo at up to 1,080 pixels wide (read 30 October 2026). It keeps a photo between 320 and 1,080 pixels wide at its own resolution while its shape stays in range, sizes a wider one down to 1,080 and enlarges a narrower one to 320. Full resolution saves each slide with your picture's own pixels, and the 1080 setting saves the width Instagram works at. For other formats, see social media image sizes and Instagram post size.

How many slides can I make?

Up to 20. Instagram's Help Center says you can share a post with up to 20 photos and videos (read 30 October 2026), and this tool offers 2 to 20 slides, so count any extra photo or video first. The post on Instagram carousels covers the rest of the format. The same picture can also feed a grid splitter, which cuts pieces to post one at a time.

Where this stops working

• It cuts a picture. It does not design one. There is no text, template, font, sticker or video. Put any words on the picture in your own editor first.
• You cannot add a slide after you post. The Help Center says you can reorder and remove photos and videos in a shared carousel, but not add new ones. Cut the whole set first.
• One shape covers the whole post. Every slide shares the orientation you pick.
• We could not check the seam in the app. The cuts are exact in the files, but no Instagram page we read describes how the app shows the join during a swipe, so check your first post on your own phone.
• Fill trims, Fit adds bars. The page tells you how much Fill cuts away.
• Huge pictures are saved smaller. A slide above about 16.7 million pixels is saved smaller so that browsers can draw it, and the page says so.
• Some files will not open. HEIC does not open in every browser. Export a JPG or PNG and try again.

A carousel that ends on a clear ask can start conversations. When someone comments your keyword, a comment-to-DM automation from inDM sends them your link, and the setup guide shows how in a few minutes.

Sources

Read on 30 October 2026: Instagram's Help Center on sharing multiple photos or videos and on photo resolution.