How to Post a Collage on Instagram

Posting a single photo on Instagram is simple, but a well-crafted collage can stop the scroll, tell a richer story, and significantly boost engagement. This guide will walk you through three different methods for creating and posting stunning photo collages, from using Instagram’s own surprising features to a few best-in-class third-party apps that give you total creative control.

Why Photo Collages are Still a Game-Changer on Instagram

Before jumping into the "how," it’s worth understanding "why" collages are such a powerful tool. In a feed dominated by single images and short videos, a collage offers a unique format to share more with your audience in a single post.

• Better Storytelling: They are perfect for showcasing a process, a before-and-after transformation, a recipe, or different angles of a product. A fashion blogger can display an entire outfit - top, pants, shoes, and accessories - in one cohesive image. An artist can show close-up details of their work alongside the full piece.
• Maximize Feed Real Estate: Why choose one photo from an amazing event or vacation when you can share the top four? Collages let you pack more value and visuals into a single post without spamming your followers' feeds with multiple individual pictures.
• Increased Engagement: With more to look at, viewers are likely to spend more time on your post. This increased "dwell time" is a positive signal to the Instagram algorithm, which can help increase your post's reach. They also invite more comments as followers may react to different photos within the grid.
• Create a Unique Aesthetic: Collages break up the monotony of standard feed posts. With custom layouts, branded colors, and consistent templates, you can develop a signature look that makes your content instantly recognizable and strengthens your brand identity.

Method 1: Using Instagram’s Built-In Story Layout Feature

If you need to create a simple, clean grid collage quickly, you don’t even have to leave the Instagram app. The Story Layout feature is the fastest way to get the job done, and it includes a great hack for getting that collage onto your main feed.

This method is ideal for quick recaps, comparing products, or bundling a few related photos without any fuss.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Open the Instagram Story Camera: Launch the Instagram app and tap the plus icon (+) at the top of the screen and select "Story," or simply swipe right from your feed.
2. Select "Layout": On the vertical toolbar on the left side of the screen, look for the icon that looks like a grid. This is the Layout icon. Tap it.
3. Choose Your Grid: Once in Layout mode, another small menu will appear allowing you to select different grid configurations. Instagram offers options ranging from two to six photos. Tap on the one that best suits your vision.
4. Add Your Photos: The screen will now be divided into your chosen grid. The active segment will be highlighted. You can either take a new photo right there or tap the picture icon in the bottom-left corner to open your camera roll and select an image. Repeat this process, populating each segment of the grid.
5. Arrange and Rearrange: Don't like where a photo landed? Just tap and hold on a photo within the grid, and you can drag it to a different segment to swap places. To remove a photo, tap it once and then tap the little trash can icon that appears in its place.
6. The Feed Post Hack: Once your collage is complete, you have two choices. You can add stickers, text, or music and post it directly to your Story. Or, if you want this collage on your permanent feed, tap the three dots in the top-right corner and select "Save." This will download the collage to your phone’s photo library as a single image. You can now close the Story editor and create a new feed post using the image you just saved.

Method 2: The Creative ‘Sticker’ Hack for Freeform Collages

For something with a bit more personality - more like a digital scrapbook than a perfect grid - you can use another hidden-in-plain-sight feature within Instagram Stories: the photo sticker.

This technique is perfect for creating a more organic, layered look. It’s a favorite among creators for mood boards, "photo dump" summaries, and showcasing products in a more dynamic way.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Set Your Background: Open the Story camera. First, establish a backdrop for your collage. You can either take a new photo to use as a full-screen background or swipe up to select an existing one from your camera roll. For a cleaner look, tap "Create" (the "Aa" icon) and choose a solid or gradient color background by tapping the circle at the bottom right.
2. Open the Sticker Tray: Once your background is set, tap the sticker icon at the top of the screen (the square smiley face).
3. Find the Photo Sticker: In the sticker menu, look for an icon showing a small preview of your most recent picture inside a circle - it often has a small mountain-and-sun logo. Tap it to open your camera roll.
4. Add and Style Your First Photo: Select the image you want to add. It will appear on your screen as a movable "sticker." You can use two fingers to pinch and zoom to resize it, and drag it to position it anywhere. Here’s a cool trick: tap the photo sticker once, and it will cycle through different shapes like circles, stars, hearts, and rectangles with rounded corners.
5. Repeat and Layer: Repeat steps 3 and 4 for every photo you want to add to your collage. You can add several photos, resizing and rotating them to create depth and interesting compositions. Overlap them to build a layered, scrapbook-style effect.
6. Finalize and Post: When you're happy with your design, you can add text or GIFs just like any other Story. And just like the Layout method, you can either share it directly to your Stories or save the final creation to your phone and upload it as a standard feed post.

Method 3: Level Up with Third-Party Collage Apps

When Instagram’s built-in tools aren’t enough and you need more control, polish, and variety, it's time to turn to a dedicated collage app. These apps unlock far more creative possibilities and are the go-to for marketers, brands, and creators looking for a signature style.

When to Use a Third-Party App:

• You want access to hundreds of unique and artistic templates.
• You need advanced editing controls, such as customizing border thickness, adding drop shadows, or using branded fonts.
• You want to create video collages or mix photos and videos.
• Maintaining the highest possible image resolution is a priority.

Our Favorite Collage Apps:

Canva: More than just a collage maker, Canva is a complete graphic design tool perfect for creating on-brand content. It offers thousands of templates, a massive library of fonts and graphics, and allows you to easily incorporate your brand’s colors and logo directly into your collage designs.

Unfold: If your brand has a clean, minimalist, or modern aesthetic, Unfold is for you. It's known for its beautiful, professional-looking templates inspired by classic film and print design. It’s a fantastic tool for elevating your Stories and feed posts with a cohesive, editorial feel.

Picsart: For those who want endless creative freedom, Picsart is a powerhouse. It combines a huge library of collage grids with a robust photo editor, offering everything from freestyle collages and drawing tools to mind-bending filters and effects. If you can imagine it, you can probably create it in Picsart.

General Steps for Using a Collage App:

While each app has a slightly different interface, the core workflow is generally the same:

1. Download your chosen app and open it.
2. Browse the collage library and select a template or grid layout.
3. Tap on the placeholders in the template to add your photos from your camera roll.
4. Fine-tune your design. Adjust the border size, change the background color, add text overlays, or apply filters.
5. When your masterpiece is ready, find the export or save option. Most apps will let you save the final image in high resolution directly to your phone.
6. Open Instagram, start a new post, and select your saved collage from your gallery. Write your caption, add hashtags, and post it to your feed.

4 Tips for Making Your Instagram Collages Stand Out

Knowing how to make a collage is one thing, making one that people love is another. Here are a few quick tips to elevate your designs.

1. Tell a Cohesive Story: A great collage has a clear theme or narrative. Instead of just picking random photos, group images with a similar color palette, subject, or purpose. Think in terms of a collection: "Behind the Scenes," "Five Ways to Style this Scarf," or "A Weekend Getaway."

2. Consider Balance and Flow: Arrange your photos with intention. Try to balance busy, detailed photos with simpler ones that provide visual breathing room. Your layout should guide the viewer's eye smoothly through the entire image rather than creating a visual mess.

3. Stay On-Brand: Use your collages as another opportunity to reinforce your brand identity. Incorporate your brand fonts and colors in the text and borders. A consistent look across all your content makes your feed more professional and instantly recognizable.

4. Less is Often More: It can be tempting to cram as many photos as possible into one grid, but this often leads to a cluttered result where no single image gets the attention it deserves. A clean two, three, or four-photo layout is often far more impactful than a chaotic one with ten.

Final Thoughts

Creating a beautiful photo collage for Instagram can take seconds with the platform's handy built-in tools or be perfected with powerful third-party apps. Whichever method you choose, a well-executed collage gives you an incredible way to share more, tell better stories, and stop your followers mid-scroll.

Once you’ve designed the perfect collage, the next step is getting it in front of your audience at the right time. At Postbase, we built our visual calendar to make planning and scheduling your content - including those beautiful new collages - totally straightforward. You can see your entire content strategy at a glance, drag and drop posts to reschedule, and trust that your content will go live exactly when you planned it - without the frustrating glitches or connection issues common in older tools.