Images on social media are particularly effective in increasing engagement with your audience. But it can be hard to stay active across every social media platform and harder still to stay on top of the platform changes and social media trends.
It is important that your images be seen how you intended, and that it isn’t cropped or stretched out of proportion. With so many different options and platforms, it can be a challenge to remember what sizes are required.
So to save time and energy, we created this updated guide to social media image sizes. Just bookmark the article, so you can come back to check on the sizes you need.
Now let’s get into the image dimensions required for the top social media networks
Facebook
We noticed that the Facebook images don’t look great on retina screens. We will keep an eye on whether Facebook addresses this but in the mean time we got this tip from Chad Barnier from Rialba Photography.
“The best solution to the problem would be to use an image where the focal point (in most cases, the person) isn’t so small as the compression is a lot more obvious.”
Cover photo: 851 px wide by 315 px tall
Cover photos of smaller sizes will be stretched to meet image requirements, though a minimum size of 399 x 150 is required.
For best results, upload an image with larger dimensions (1702 px wide by 631 px tall), as a RGB or JPG file of less than 100kb. If a logo or text is in the image however, upload a PNG file.
Profile image: 180 px wide by 180 px tall
The profile photo is what will be used to represent you or your brand on Facebook. The square photo will appear in your timeline layered over the cover photo. It will also appear when you post on other walls, comment on posts or are searched for via the Facebook Open Graph.
Make sure that the profile image does not cover anything important on your cover photo.
Highlighted image: 1200 px wide by 717 px tall
These images appear on your page at 843 x 504 px, so higher resolutions images will look better at that scale.
Shared image: 1200 px wide by 630 px tall
These images appear in the feed and on the page at scaled down sizes.
Shared link thumbnail image: 1200 px wide by 627 px tall
Facebook will scale images under the minimum dimensions.
Ad Images
To obtain the highest quality ad images, the recommended width for all ads is 1200px.
Depending on the ad objective, the heights vary. They are as follows:
Page likes and event responses – 1200 px wide by 444 px tall
Video views – 1200 px wide by 675 px tall
Page post engagement – 1200 px wide by 900 px
Carousel displays – 600 px wide by 600 px tall
Other – 1200 px wide by 628 px tall
It is also important to remember that you can have a maximum of 20% text in your ad images. You can use Facebook’s Grid Tool to check your image to ensure it doesn’t go over the 20% limit.
Group cover photo: 800 px wide by 300 px tall
For a Facebook group page, the cover image must be at least 400px wide by 150px tall, but an 800 px wide by 300 px tall image would provide a better quality image.
Event pages: 784 px wide by 295 px tall
Instagram
Profile image: 110 px wide by 110 px tall
Instagram doesn’t allow you to create and upload a cover photo. Instead, your cover photo is created by the images you share on your Instagram profile. So choose a profile image that reflects your brand.
Photo size: 1080 px wide by 1080 px tall
Your Instagram photos will appear in the feed of all of your followers. Photos taken from the native Instagram app tend to have the highest resolutions as opposed to those taken from another app or device. Instagram recommends that images have an aspect ratio of between 1.91:1 and 4:5.
Instagram photos are scaled down to 612 px by 612 px but appear in the feed at 510 x 510 pixels.
Small featured header images appear as 204 x 204 pixels.
Large featured header images appear as 409 x 409 pixels.
Instagram no longer places limitations on the photo images being square. The recommended sizes for Instagram photo images are as follows:
Square Image: 1080px wide by 1080px tall
Vertical Image: 1080px wide by 1350px tall
Horizontal Image: 1080px wide by 566px tall
Photo thumbnails: 161 px wide by 161 px tall
When a person visits your Instagram page, they will see your photos arranged in rows of thumbnails. These thumbnail photos will expand when clicked and will include a place for people to comment. These images are presented as square images and need an aspect ratio of 1:1.
Twitter
Header photo: 1500 px wide by 500 px tall
The header photo will be overlapped by your profile image and floating toolbars. How much overlap can also depends on the browser size, etc. The file can be uploaded as a JPG, GIF or PNG file of no more than 10MB.
Profile image: 400 px wide by 400 px tall
The profile image needs to be uploaded at 400px by 400 px but gets displayed at 200px by 200px.
In-stream photo: 1024 px wide by 512 px tall
Attaching a photo to your tweet does reduce the number of characters available to you but makes the tweet 3 times more likely to be retweeted.
Shared video: 1920 px by 1200 px
Shared videos are displayed at 480 px by 360 px and can be uploaded in MOV or MP4 formats.
Watch @ChrisEvans and @RobertDowneyJr ask a totally & completely random stranger to choose #TeamCap or #TeamIronMan!https://t.co/zLmMC5HQ3n
— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) April 29, 2016
Ad Images
Lead generation card: 600 px wide by 150 px tall
Website card: 800 px wide by 320 px tall
Promoted tweets with an image: 1024 px wide by 512 px tall
LinkedIn
Background image: 1500 px wide by 425 px tall
You can customize your personal profile with a background image, however you need to be aware that a significant portion of your image will be covered by the top of your profile section.
Profile image: 400 px wide by 400 px tall
Company page banner image: 646 px wide by 220 px tall (minimum)
Your LinkedIn company page can have a banner image that helps reinforce your branding.
Standard logo: 400 px wide by 400 pixels tall (maximum)
Ideally, your standard logo should be 100px wide by 60px tall while the square logo should be 50px wide by 50px tall.
Showcase Page Hero image: 974 px wide by 330px tall
Under your company page, you can have showcase pages which are pages that focus on specific products or services.
Ad Images
Self serve ads: 50 px wide by 50 px tall
Sponsored ads: 800 px wide by 400 px tall
For link previews, the image thumbnail is resized to fit 180 pixels wide by 110 pixels high.
Google+
Profile image: 250 px wide by 250 px tall
The smallest image you can use is 250px by 250 px, but a larger size is recommended. The image you upload may be a square image, but the one that shows on your page will be rendered as a circle. So be sure to choose a photo that won’t crop out the important bits. The file can be uploaded as a JPG, GIF or PNG.
Cover image: 1080 px wide by 608 px tall
The recommended size for the cover photo is 1080 px by 608 pixels, with a maximum size of 2120 px wide by 1192 px tall. The cover image is the biggest photo on your page, so choose a photo that reinforces your branding. For example, choose a photo that showcases a product or service, or one that reflects the values of your business.
Shared image (on home stream): 497 px wide by 373 px tall
Circles is a feature on Google+ that allows you to group brands or people based on certain criteria that are relevant to you. You can then share different images based on the circle they are in. A minimum width of 497 pixels for the image can be used but Google+ will scale the height for you. The maximum file size dimensions that can be uploaded are 2048px by 2048 px.
Shared image (on feed or your page): 150 px wide by 150 px tall
For such posts, you can enter a description of your choice and link to your post. This will pull a photo from the linked site and add it to the post. Viewers can then click through to the page.
Shared video: 497 px wide by 279px tall
Collection cover photo: 40px wide by 270px tall.
Community Profile Photo: 960px wide by 540px tall
Pinterest
Profile image: 600 px wide by 600 px tall
When first setting up your Pinterest account, you will have the option of doing so with your existing Facebook or Twitter accounts or via an email address. It is important to remember that should you choose the Facebook or Twitter option, Pinterest will pull in the profile image that you have set up on those profiles. The email option allows you to upload a custom photo that should preferably be as large as possible. Pinterest will resize it to fit. Like with other social network sites, you’ll want to choose an image that reflects your brand. Pinterest requires a minimum image size of 165 px by 165px but images that are 600 px by 600 px are optimal.
The maximum file size is 10MB and they can be uploaded as a JPG or PNG file.
Board display: 736 px wide by 498 px tall
Images for your board need to be enticing to your viewers but also relevant to that board.
Pinterest requires your images to be a minimum of 222 px by 150 px tall. However images that are 736 px by 498 px are optimal.
Pin sizes: 736 px wide
A minimum width of 236 px is required. Pinterest places a limit on the width of your pins but not on the length. So images can be square or long images where the height will be scaled. Larger images are advised as they will scale better.
It’s recommended to use an image aspect ratio of 2:3 to 1:2.8.
Taller pins will be cropped in the stream on mobile devices.
Pins on a board or on the main page appear as 238 px wide with their height scaled.
Maximum width of pins is 736 px with the height scaled.
Images on your website needs to be 100px wide by 200px tall, to be able to pin them.
YouTube
Channel cover photo: 2560 px wide by 1440 px tall
Your channel cover art or photo is what visitors will see when they come across your channel. So ensure it is enticing and encourages people to check out your videos.
Your profile photo will be laid over the channel art photo.
The recommended image dimensions for your profile photo are 800 px wide by 800 px tall.
YouTube has a quick spec sheet of image sizes to use on their network.
Image will be resized depending on the screen size available on the device.
Video uploads: 1280 px wide by 720 px tall
Videos of various types can be uploaded to your YouTube channel to establish your presence. To encourage viewing of your videos, verified YouTube users can upload custom video thumbnails.
The recommended size for the thumbnail images is 1280 px by 720 pixels.
Videos must maintain a 16:9 aspect ratio.
For HD videos, the dimensions must be at least 1280px x 720 px.
Get creating
This is a long list of image sizes. To help ensure that you have the right image sizes that reflect your brand and make a great impression, we have done up a downloadable cheat sheet. Download the social media image sizes cheat sheet below.
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