In short
A carousel post is a single post made of several slides that people swipe through. Each slide is an image or a page, and the first one acts as the cover.
On Instagram
You upload several images or videos in one post. Vendor guides report a limit of 20 slides, and all slides take the shape of the first.
On LinkedIn
You upload a document, usually a PDF, and LinkedIn shows its pages as slides. LinkedIn's help page lists PDF, PPT, PPTX, DOC and DOCX, up to 100 MB and 300 pages. There is also a separate paid carousel ad format.
Why people use them
- Each swipe is a small commitment, so people stay with the post longer.
- They hold more than one idea without a long caption.
- Readers can save them to come back later.
On LinkedIn, Socialinsider's 2026 benchmarks (company pages) found native documents had the highest engagement rate of any format, 7.00% against 4.50% for text.
Make one
The steps are in how to make a LinkedIn carousel and how to make an Instagram carousel.
Questions
Is a carousel the same as a slideshow?
Close. A carousel is a slideshow made for swiping in a social feed, usually in portrait.
What size is a carousel post?
1080 x 1350 pixels (4:5) works on both Instagram and LinkedIn.
Make this carousel now
Describe it once. The designer lays out every slide, and you fix what you dislike by commenting.
Try for free nowNo sign-up needed to try. The free plan exports with a small carouselgen.com mark.