Free Instagram carousel templates

An Instagram carousel template is a layout ready to fill: frames already arranged across every slide of the carousel, waiting for you to drop in your photos. The Instagram carousel templates in SwipeAtelier are free, need no account, and leave no watermark on the exported images.

Calculated templates, not fixed files

A conventional template is designed for one specific format and number of slides: built for five square slides, it is no use if you want seven in portrait.

Here, each template is calculated the moment you choose it, from two settings:

• the format: Portrait 4:5, Tall portrait 3:4, Square 1:1 or Story 9:16;
• the number of slides: from 1 to 20.

So the same layout exists for a 3-slide carousel in 4:5 and for a 10-slide carousel in 3:4. If you can't decide on a format, see the Instagram sizes and formats guide. In 9:16, the Instagram story maker uses the same templates for a series of stories, and the Instagram highlight covers maker gives the highlights under your bio a matching style.

Another practical consequence: switching templates keeps the photos you have already placed. You can try a grid, then a mosaic, then a panorama, without importing anything again.

The six template families

One photo per slide. Full bleed, with margins, or centered square. The simplest layout: each slide shows one photo. The margins let the background show through, and it can be a continuous gradient from one end of the carousel to the other.

Panorama. Edge to edge, with margin, center band, or paired with thumbnails. A single wide photo stretches across every slide. The panorama splitter page explains how to match the number of slides to the photo's aspect ratio.

Seamless. Strips of photos that run across the cuts, staggered rows, bricks, zigzag, diagonal. Photos straddle the boundaries between slides, so there is always something left to discover by swiping. This is the family most characteristic of the seamless panoramic carousel.

Grids. 2 × 2, 3 × 3, columns, one large photo and several small ones. Even and easy to read, they suit series.

Mosaics. Frames of varied sizes that fit together, to create a hierarchy: one dominant image, supporting images around it.

Scattered. Tilted photos, cork-board style. Combined with Polaroid frames and tape, this template gives a journal or scrapbook look.

Which template for which use

Travel. Open with an edge-to-edge panorama if you have a wide view, or choose "panorama + thumbnails" to pair the landscape with details. To tell the story of several days, seamless strips or the scattered template with Polaroid frames call to mind a vacation album.

Product. The "one large + small" grid shows the whole item, then its details: material, finish, variants. The "with margins" template on a solid background showcases each product the way a catalog would.

Before and after. Take two slides in "one photo per slide", full bleed: people swipe from the starting point to the result. To show both at a glance, a column grid on a single slide places them side by side. Frame both photos the same way so the comparison reads clearly.

Portfolio. Full bleed, or centered square with margins, gives the image all the room, with no layout effect. A mosaic on the first slide can serve as a visual table of contents before the photos one by one.

Tips and lists. When the carousel is mostly words, turn text into an Instagram carousel: paste your text and each paragraph becomes a slide, with a ready-made theme and a cover.

Customize a template

A template is a starting point. Once your photos are placed, everything can still be changed:

• move, resize, rotate or duplicate each photo;
• crop it inside its frame, adjust brightness, contrast and saturation, apply a filter;
• add a border, a Polaroid frame or a drop shadow;
• add text, shapes and emoji stickers, change the background.

The preview swipes through the carousel as in Instagram before you export. To try it, open the editor: it runs in the browser, on a phone as well as a computer, and your photos never leave your device. The same layouts also work for building a photo collage on a single image.