LinkedIn carousel posts and how to publish one.
A LinkedIn carousel post is a document post: a multi-page PDF that readers swipe through inside the feed, rather than a set of separate images. You build it by designing slides at one size, exporting them as a single PDF, then starting a post, choosing Add a document, uploading the file, and giving it a title. LinkedIn accepts up to 300 pages and 100 MB, though five to fifteen slides is the working range.
The name is the confusing part. LinkedIn calls the feature a document post, everyone else calls it a carousel, and the old dedicated carousel-ad format was retired years ago. They are the same thing in the feed.
By PurpeuPublished Updated
The short version
- It is one PDF uploaded through Add a document, not several images.
- Uploading separate images makes an image post, which behaves differently.
- Give the document a real title. It shows under the file as people swipe.
- The first slide decides whether anyone sees the second one.
What does a carousel post look like on LinkedIn?
It appears in the feed as a single card showing the first page, with the document title underneath and an indicator of how many pages there are. Readers swipe or click through the rest without leaving the feed, and on desktop they can open it full screen.
That contained behaviour is most of the appeal. Every swipe is a small commitment the reader already made, so a carousel tends to hold attention longer than a paragraph of text does. It is a reason to use the format, not a guarantee: a carousel with nothing to say performs like anything else with nothing to say.
How do I create a carousel post on LinkedIn?
The work splits cleanly in two: making the PDF, then posting it. Only the second half happens on LinkedIn.
- Design your slides at one size, portrait 1080x1350 or square 1080x1080.
- Export the whole set as a single PDF, in the order you want them read.
- On LinkedIn, click Start a post and write the text that introduces it.
- Click the + or more icon in the post window, then choose Add a document.
- Upload the PDF, type a descriptive title, click Done, then Post.
Why does it have to be a PDF?
Because that is what makes the pages swipeable. Uploading the slides as separate PNG or JPG files produces an image post, which looks similar in a thumbnail and behaves nothing like a carousel.
LinkedIn also accepts PPT, PPTX, DOC and DOCX, but it converts those on upload, and conversion is where text moves and fonts get substituted. A PDF is already fixed. Embed or outline the fonts and what you exported is exactly what posts.
What makes a good LinkedIn carousel?
One idea, carried across slides that each do a single job. The failure mode is a slide crowded with three paragraphs, because it is read on a phone at roughly the size of a playing card.
The first slide is doing almost all of the work. It is the only one shown in the feed, so it has to state a specific claim rather than a topic. A slide reading "Lessons from Q3" earns nothing; "We cut onboarding from 14 days to 3, here is what broke" earns the swipe.
- One point per slide, in a sentence someone can read at a glance.
- Number the slides so people know how much is left.
- Keep type large. If you are shrinking it to fit, the slide has too much on it.
- End on a specific ask, not "thoughts?".
How many slides should a carousel have?
Five to fifteen. LinkedIn allows up to 300 pages, but that limit describes the file format rather than anyone's attention. Long documents lose readers well before the end, and the drop-off is steep after the first few slides.
If the idea genuinely needs twenty slides, it is usually two carousels.
What are some LinkedIn carousel examples that work?
The formats that survive contact with the feed are the ones built from something you already know rather than something you invented for the post.
- A teardown: one thing you got wrong, what it cost, and what you changed.
- A before and after with real numbers on the slides.
- A checklist someone can act on without reading anything else.
- A myth and the correction, one pair per slide.
- The steps of a process you run internally, written down for the first time.