Updated June, 2018
Every so often, popular social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram change the format, layout, and style of their networks.
Just when you feel comfortable with the most recent image size guidelines, along comes a whole new round.
It can feel like a never-ending battle to keep up with the latest social media image sizes. From cover photos to the exact right dimensions for posts, managing it all can feel impossible.
To help you make the most of your online presence, I’ve put together an essential list of social media image sizes for the top eight social networks.
You’ll also find best practices and examples that show you how to leverage graphics to build awareness, interest and engagement.
To make it easy, click on each link to skip to your favorite social network, then save or pin the Infographic via Set Up a Blog Today.
Essential Social Media Image Size Guide
Skip to a Social Network
- Header Cover Photo: 1500 x 500
- Profile Photo: 200 x 200
- Shared Image: 1024 x 512
- In-Stream Photo Preview: 520 x 254
Your Twitter profile offers several ways to use images to stand out. First, you have your header photo. Just like your cover photo on Facebook and Google Plus, Twitter’s header image is your branding opportunity.
Use your header image to align your look and feel, marketing message and company tagline. And before you throw away a chance to brand your business, know the answers to a few questions.
- Who is your target market?
- How do you help solve their problems?
- What is your call to action and what next step do you want them to take?
Additionally, the Twitter in-stream photo is a great way to brand your tweets and grab the attention of your followers. Are you using images within your tweets? If not, now is the time to get started.
While the Twitter preview size is 520 x 254 (a 2:1 ratio), I’ve found that an image size of 1024 x 512 pixels works perfectly within the feed.
To determine what text will show up within your image, you could use this formula from Laura Rhoeder:
“Divide the width of your image in half to find the 2:1 ratio and the number of vertical pixels you have to work with. Now divide the in-stream preview height in half. Using the same example as above, you would divide 1024 in half to get 512.
From the horizontal line in the center of your image (the Y axis), move up that number of pixels (e.g., 512) on the Y-axis and draw another horizontal line. Do the same thing again, but moving down the Y-axis from the center of the image.
Everything inside that blue box is the in-stream preview. The blue box aligns with Twitter’s 2:1 template and is centered vertically to keep the best part of your picture visible.”
Or, you can make it easy on yourself and create your images in a tool like Canva or QuotesCover that will help you determine where to place your text.
- Page Cover Photo Dimensions: 820 x 312
- Group Cover Photo: 820 x 428
- Profile Cover Photo: 851 x 310
- Event Cover Photo: 500 x 262
- Shared Images: 1200 x 630
If you’re ready to turn up the volume on your business and gain the edge over your competition, it’s time to get visual on Facebook.
Meaningful Facebook conversations begin with great content, this includes the images you share.
Use your Facebook cover photo and newsfeed images to connect fans to your brand. Whether it’s a picture of your latest business offering or one that promotes your recent blog post, make sure the look and feel best represent who you are offline and online.
Google Plus
- Profile Image: 250 x 250
- Cover Image: 968 x 545
- Shared Image: 502 x 282
- Highlighted Image: 502 x 892
When was the last time you updated your Google+ profile or page? If your answer is, “I don’t know,” then now is the time.
Did you know that posts including an image are 87% more likely to get shared than posts without?
Peg Fitzpatrick, author of “The Art of Social Media” and social media power user seconds that,
“You can’t be guaranteed a share if an image doesn’t pull through on the Pin it button or onto Facebook or Google+. Help people help you by providing an image that they can share. If people can look like a rockstar sharing your content, it’s a win!”
Just take one look at her beautiful images and it’s easy to see why her content gets the shares it does.
- Profile Image: 150 x 150
- Photo Thumbnails: 161 x 161
- Shared Square Photo Size: 1080 x 1080
- Shared Vertical Photo Size: 1080 x 1350
- Shared Horizontal Photo: 1080 x 566
With more than 800 million monthly active users, Instagram has become a visual marketing social leader.
Whether you’re sharing your latest blog post, business quote or helpful tip, Instagram has marketing super powers, no matter the industry or niche.
While completing your profile is incredibly important with any social network, this is especially true with Instagram since you’re limited in the amount of information you can share.
That’s where the right visuals come in very handy. Use your graphics to better connect with your audience, tell your story and brand your business.
But keep in mind; you will need to crop your photos to fit within the social apps square dimensions. If you’re adamant about keeping the original dimensions of your photo, there are apps that can help.
Ann Tran has great success with images that aren’t the traditional Instagram square. As you can see, her engagement on this post proves that mixing it up just makes sense.
- Profile Image: 165 x 165
- Board Display: 222 x 150
- Pin Sizes: 236 / X (no height limit)
Are you interested in marketing your business with Pinterest?
Not only can a persuasive Pinterest image attract attention, but also inspire action and drive traffic to your website or blog.
Don’t miss the opportunity to optimize your images for maximum engagement!
What you need to know:
Pins in the feed will have a width of 236 pixels and expanded pins have a minimum width of 600 with the length adjusted to scale.
As Sprout Social says,
When adding a pin to your board it’s important to remember that Pinterest puts a limit on the width of the image but not the length. This gives you the opportunity to add a photo that’s square or one that will scale to be even taller. Just remember to make sure you’re creating large images because they add more value, not just because you can.
I have had great success with larger images over the last several years, finding that larger images receive more repins, likes and clicks.
My perfect size is 735 x1200. However, don’t be afraid to mix it up and see what works best for you.
This image, created over one year ago for the article, “10 Steps to Creating a Winning Social Media Strategy,” is 600 x 900 and still sits at the top of Pinterest search for the keyword “social media.”
Tumblr
- Profile Image: 128 x 128
- Image Posts: 540 x 810
With over 738 million unique visitors worldwide and over 113 million posts per day, Tumblr is no lightweight when it comes to visual marketing.
So, what do you need to know?
Aside from the profile photo, which should be square, your second biggest concern should be the images you share.
Disney is a great example of a brand that understands the importance of creating network specific content. Rather than sharing the same piece of content across multiple platforms, Disney tailors their content for this specific audience.
Learn from their example. Whether sharing a photo, video or GIF, think engagement and awareness when sharing your business content on Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter.
YouTube
- Channel Cover Photo: 2560 x 1440
- Channel Icon: 800 x 800
- Video Thumbnail: 1280 x 720
Since YouTube is a video-sharing site and not a photo-sharing site, your graphic focus will be your channel’s profile image, cover photo, and channel art.
What do you need to know about YouTube videos?
- In order to qualify as HD quality, they must be a minimum of 1280 x 760.
- Videos must maintain a 16:9 aspect ratio.
- Make it a point to choose the most catchy video thumbnail.
- Your videos tell a story. What are yours telling about you? Keep the most relevant videos at the forefront of your YouTube channel like my interview with Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick.
- Profile Image: 400 x 400
- Cover Image: 1584 x 396
- Update / Blog Post: 1200 x 628
- Company Cover Image: 1536 x 768
- Company Logo: 300 x 300
LinkedIn’s continued growth and move towards visual marketing make this an important place for your business to be.
With over 500 million members, LinkedIn is growing at a speed of more then 2 new members per second. Does that sound like a place you can afford to forget about?
Spruce up your LinkedIn profile by adding a new cover photo (did you even know they allowed cover photos now?) and add consistent status updates.
As Constant Contact points out,
While some may consider LinkedIn one of the least visual social networks, reports have shown that you can increase your LinkedIn views by 11 times when you include a photo. We have found that including a photo with the content we’re sharing on LinkedIn from the Constant Contact page typically doubles the engagement rate.
Mike Allton with The Social Media Hat makes this suggestion for a perfect LinkedIn cover photo,
“Don’t just upload an image you like — make sure that image communicates something about you and your business to prospects, and add text to help contextualize the image, or at least add additional information.”
And his cover photo is an excellent example of making the most of this branding space:
Final Thoughts
I use images to brand my business in a consistent way. From my cover photos to my social media graphics, it’s easy to recognize my signature orange.
How are you using images to brand your business? Think about what purpose they’re currently serving.
Now decide how you can update your social media image sizes to create a memorable experience, no matter where anyone chooses to connect with you.
Pin the Infographic
via Postcron
This is the best thing I need, thanks!
Nice cheat sheet! Optimizing images for specific platforms can be a pain, but having a guide to reference back to is super helpful!
Thank Rebekah for this infographic 😀
I often use this image size to post all my ads on social media.
I never make it too small or too large 🙂
Previously, I thought nice photos could make more facebook interaction. Through this article I found myself too poor, thank you
the power of social media for internet marketer is awesome, sometimes if we do a great promotion, we can go popular in day or week. nice share
Mm! Perfect. Thanks for putting this together, Rebeka.
You’re the best! 🙂
Cheers,
Julian
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I’ve come back to this post dozens of time over the past year becasue it has accurate information. Many similar posts on other sites just don’t have correct information. Because you’re always accurate, could you tell us what the banner (cover photo) size is for a Facebook Event? I can’t find this anywhere. Thanks.
Terrific information for someone like me who is just beginning. I have been wrestling with what size to use to post pictures and this is such a great help.
I realize that I had already signed up for your site so when I tried to get the article it just read that I already signed up. Is there some way for me to get a download of the above article. I cannot find it in my records. Thanks again for all the valuable information.
As far as my website, I am in the process of redoing the content.
Awesome and very thorough post, but it would be sweet to see advice on open graph images as well. Open graph is a practical solution for businesses concerned about how their image and links are seen on social media when they are shared.
There is a blog I like that. Perfect for pinning.
Here is the size summary of all social platforms:
– Twitter – 1500 x 500
– Facebook – 851 x 315
– Google Plus – 2120 x 1192
– Tumblr – 3000×1055
– Linkedin cover – 1400 x 425
– Youtube channel cover – 2560 x 1440
– Pinterest Board – 222 x 150
– Instagram post – 640 x 640
Sorry, one more question. Can you tell me where to view the 735 x 1200 size you spoke of in the Pinterest section?
There is a blog I like that obviously has a template for her image size. Perfect for pinning. I’d like to be able to duplicate that size. Question, how do I find the measurements she uses? I’m sure there is a way to view that information. Thanks and I do appreciate your info. chart. Is there a printable version? It’s hard to read the small print.
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Great article, but isn’t the minimum HD resolution YouTube 1280 x 720 and not 1280 x 760?
—
Tried posting the above comment but I got this:
“You have used too many words in your name. Please go back and remove some”
No umlaut support or only one name allowed? Let’s try again.
Wow, Rebekah! This is the most through article that I have seen about social media image sizes. I agree with Mike Allton. You have gone above and beyond the presentation of facts, and provided a true wealth of knowledge. I will definitely be referring back to this. Thank you for all you do!
Something that I have been doing lately is making my Twitter image size 393 x 220 so that it fits perfectly on Mobile.
thanks for the great post
Hey Rebekah,
This must have required a lot of research. Thanks for saving us all a lot time and research! I’ve bookmarked this page so I can go ahead and make sure all my social network accounts are optimized for 2015. (Well.. until they change it all again..)
Thanks! 😀
Hey Rebekah,
This was a great heads up post about how we can customize the size of the images we use on social media. I do have to admit that I usually don’t pay attention to this unless I have to, but this is good to know !
Thanks for the share and I hope you have a great week ahead!
Thanks Rebekah for the updated recap of the image sizes!
I do have a question for you about YouTube — when I was creating a cover image for my YouTube page I noticed that there’s a huge area of that total 2560×1440 that gets cut off. I messed with that thing for over an hour and just barely got my message to fit in that space.
Do you have the sizes of that area where your text and image won’t get cut off when you upload your image?
thanks so much for your help!
-penney
Hi Penney! That’s a great question. What you see are different versions depending on whether you’re accessing from mobile or desktop. Here’s a link to the tutorial on it. This should help! https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2972003?hl=en
Wow! this is such great stuff I feel I just entered the best “Eye Candy” store for content. I will have to take some more time to read up on all your tips but this is just the beginning for us. Thanks for all you do and by the way LOVE your BRANDING!
“Best eye candy” – I love it Anastacia and thank you for your wonderful feedback on my branding. I really appreciate that!
Thank you for pulling all of this information together in one place. I can’t tell you how much time I have spent looking for information on image size requirements for specific social media sites.
It can be time consuming David. Especially when there are frequent changes!
Thanks so much Rebekah, I\\\’ll make sure to share this with everyone who likes to pimp their visuals! 🙂
Ha – get those visuals pimped Nathalie!
nicely done . thank you very much .
Thanks Cebe!
That’s superb!
Absolutely!
Thank you for a great and useful stuff, Rebekah!
Your Guide will have a great help in SMM-work to me and other people.
Thank you very much!
Rebekah,
What an awesome resource. I’ll be linking to this from a few of my other posts regarding social media sites and images. It is a bit frustrating when a social platform changes things up now and then…but hey…it’s a free platform! So we can’t complain to much huh?!
Ken Pickard
The Network Dad
OMG!, as a novice I have so so much to learn but im up to the task and will be reading and learning from the pros who use this stuff on a daily basis.
Thanks Rebekah
Fabulous info, Rebekah. And I love the clean, easy to follow infographic.
But, be careful quoting Laura’s (who’s also wonderful, btw) maths as “divide 1024 in half to get 612” doesn’t quite work out the same for me, lol.
This is amazing! I am so tired of feeling like I’m just guessing on all of this. Thanks for putting it together.
HOLY wealth of information! This is far more than a social media sizing guide. You knocked it out of the park again on this one, Rebekah! {<—– I spelled it right this time :P}
Thank you for including Facebook’s link preview image! Many professionals leave this size dimension out of their blog posts/infographics for social media image sizing and I don’t understand why – it’s the MOST important because it’s the most popular type of link sharing. if this isn’t done correctly, you risk losing ALL Facebook shares of your blog post.
I think it was you who echoed the phrase “Visuals are the new CTA” and you referenced Peg as the source on this emerging trend. I think I agree and hence this cheat sheet is even more important that it was just a few months ago. Very handy, thx Rebekah!
As usual, Rebekah, you’ve gone above and beyond the presentation of facts, and provided a true wealth of knowledge.
Hi Rebekah,
This is such a needed post 🙂
So glad you wrote all about how we can make the right social media images and size them up the right way! It’s a good reminder for me to do the needful too. I’m bookmarking this one to come back to over the weekend for sure!
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂