1080 × 1350 for the most feed space, 1080 × 1440 to match the 3:4 grid. Check your image and crop it to either. Free, no login.
1080 × 1350 pixels (4:5 portrait) takes up the most space in the feed. If you want posts to look the same in the feed and on your profile grid, use 1080 × 1440 (3:4).
The profile grid shows posts as 3:4 rectangles, so square, 4:5 and landscape posts are trimmed to a 3:4 centre there. The checker draws that crop over your image.
Feed photos from 1.91:1 landscape to 4:5 portrait, plus 3:4, uploaded at 1080 pixels wide. Instagram resizes anything else and crops images outside that range.
No. The photo is checked, cropped and exported in your browser. Nothing is sent to Hookova.
Either works. JPG keeps photos small; PNG suits graphics with text and flat colour. Instagram recompresses everything, so starting at exactly 1080 pixels wide gives it the least to change.