What is an Instagram highlight cover?
An Instagram highlight cover is the image shown inside the circle of a Story Highlight on your profile, between your bio and your posts. By default Instagram uses a frame from one of the stories in the highlight, which usually looks random. A set of designed covers, with the same background and a simple icon each, turns that row into a tidy menu: About, Shop, Reviews, Menu, FAQ.
Highlights are one of the first things a profile visitor sees after your bio, so clear covers help people find your prices, results or booking info without scrolling.
A highlight is a saved group of stories that stays on your profile after the usual 24 hours. The cover is separate from the stories inside it: you can change the cover at any time without touching the content, and the cover image never appears as a story to your followers. That makes covers a low-effort way to make an existing profile look organised, especially for businesses that already post menus, price lists or customer reviews to stories.
How to make Instagram highlight covers, step by step
- Start from the default set. The tool opens with five covers: About, Shop, Travel, Daily and Reviews. Tap a cover in the Covers row or in the profile preview to edit it.
- Add or remove covers. Use Add cover (up to 8) and Remove this cover (at least 1 stays).
- Name the highlight. The Highlight name field (15 characters) sets the label under the circle in the preview and the file name.
- Choose Icon or Letters or emoji. Icons: pick from 47 line icons, including heart, shop, sale, travel, coffee, food, music, podcast, videos, reviews, contact, about me, team, fitness, fashion, art, tips, events, links and FAQ. Letters or emoji: type up to 3 characters, such as an initial, a number or one emoji.
- Style the whole set. Pick a preset: Beige, Blush, Sage, Sky, Lilac, Cream, Black, White, or the gradients Sunset, Peach, Ocean, Mint, Latte and Night. Fine-tune with the Background, Gradient end and Icon colour pickers and the "Use a gradient background" switch.
- Adjust the icon. Stroke width (0.75 to 3), Icon size (20% to 60%), and an optional thin ring around the icon.
- Pick the export size: Story (1080 x 1920) or Square (1080 x 1080).
- Download. This cover saves the selected one; Download all saves every cover as a PNG named like
highlight-01-about.png.
Instagram highlight cover size and safe area
| What | Size | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Recommended upload | 1080 x 1920 px (9:16) | Same as a story; works whether you add it from the gallery or post it as a story first |
| Square option | 1080 x 1080 px | Handy if you prefer a square image in your camera roll |
| Visible area | A centred circle | Everything outside the middle circle is cropped away |
| On-screen size | Roughly 110 px circle | Small, so thin details and long words disappear |
| Highlight name | About 15 characters shown | Longer names are cut on the profile |
Sizes at the time of writing. The tool always centres the icon in the circle, so you do not need to work out the safe area yourself.
How to change a highlight cover on Instagram
- Save the PNG files to your phone's photo gallery.
- Open your profile and press and hold the highlight you want to change.
- Tap Edit highlight, then Edit cover.
- Tap the gallery icon, pick the cover, adjust if needed, and tap Done.
No need to post the cover as a story. If you have no highlights yet, post a story, tap Highlight on it, name it, then change its cover as above.
Highlight cover ideas by account type
| Account | Suggested highlights and icons | Style |
|---|---|---|
| Salon or beauty studio | Prices (sale tag), Results (sparkle), Reviews (quote), Book (calendar), Find us (pin) | Blush or Beige |
| Café or restaurant | Menu (food), Coffee, Events (calendar), Reviews, Visit (pin) | Latte or Cream |
| Coach | About me, Results (star), Tips (bulb), FAQ, Work with me (briefcase) | Sage or Black |
| Small online shop | New (sparkle), Shop (bag), Sale (tag), Reviews, Shipping (letters "FAQ") | Peach or Sunset |
| Travel creator | Countries as emoji flags or letters (01, 02), Tips, Gear (camera) | Ocean or Sky |
See how these fit into a full profile in link in bio for salons and cafés and restaurants.
Tips for aesthetic highlight covers, and mistakes to avoid
- One background for the whole set. Matching covers look intentional; a different colour per cover looks busy.
- Keep icons simple. At about 110 px on screen, a clean line icon reads better than a detailed illustration.
- For the beige look, use Beige, Cream or Latte, a stroke of 1.5 or less, and an icon colour from the same warm family.
- Contrast matters. Pale icon on pale background disappears on small screens and in bright light. If you can barely see it in the preview, darken the icon colour.
- Order by importance. The first three or four highlights are visible without swiping, so put the ones that answer buying questions there.
- Avoid long names and text in the circle. Use one word as the label and an icon or 1 to 3 characters in the circle.
- Emoji look different on every phone, because each system draws its own. Icons look the same everywhere.
Highlight cover maker vs Canva templates and icon packs
Design tools such as Canva have many highlight templates with illustrations and textures, which suit you if you want a very decorative look and are happy to edit each cover. Paid icon packs offer hand-drawn styles. This maker is built for speed and consistency: one style applied to every cover at once, a live preview on a profile, and every cover exported at the right size in one click. It has no photo backgrounds or uploaded icons; for those, a full design tool is the better choice.
Are my covers made on your server?
No. Covers are drawn in your browser on a canvas and saved straight to your device as PNG files. Nothing you type or design is uploaded, and there is no sign-up.
Highlights answer questions; your link closes the loop
Highlights show prices, results and reviews. The next step, booking or buying, needs a link. A Biolinko page at biolinko.me/yourname can mirror your highlight categories as buttons, so the profile and the page feel like one place. Match the look with the color palette generator, then create your page free.
Updated October 8, 2026