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Recommended Image Sizes for Social Media in 2024

Recommended Image Sizes for Social Media

Regardless of your age, chances are that social media is a big part of your everyday life. Even more so if you have a business of your own. The marketing industry relies heavily on the power of social media as the most cost-effective way of increasing brand visibility.

By having a strong social media presence, you also get to easily engage with your audience. That alone can significantly increase your chances of conversion, which is every entrepreneur’s ultimate goal.

The key to making your social media pages stand out are effective images. It’s in your best interest to always post striking visuals that best represent your brand. These need to be high-res images, of course, and if you’re dealing with sub-par image quality you can always increase the resolution of your images using some widely available tools. As for the size, which, bear in mind, is not the same as resolution, social platforms are regularly changing their guidelines when it comes to the display sizes and formats.

In preparation for 2024, we’ve made an extensive list of the recommended image sizes for social media.

We’ll cover the following platforms:

Buckle up, it’s show time.

Recommended Image Sizes for Facebook

Facebook is still the world’s most popular social platform. In fact, as of October 2019, it has over 2.4 billion active users. This social media champion is a great place to increase the recognition of your business, and you should definitely use it to your advantage. What’s tricky about this platform is that you have to make sure to abide by the Facebook’s guidelines for every image you upload, whether it’s your profile pic or an event image.

Adding highly engaging visual content to your page is a must, and these are the recommended Facebook image sizes you should stick to.

Recommended Sizes for Facebook Profile Images

This is probably one of the most important and the most viewed pictures on your profile. It’s the one that represents your brand and that can largely influence other people’s perception of your business.

Regardless of what you do on Facebook, your profile picture is always visible. It’s everywhere. It acts as an avatar in your posts on your timeline, in the news feed of your followers, in comments, etc. This is why it’s important to opt for a profile pic that best supports your business ideas.

You could even combine it with your cover photo. Aesthetically speaking, this could look great. However, don’t forget that your profile picture should make perfect sense when viewed on its own.

Size-wise, the Facebook profile image should be 180 x 180px (the same goes for both the regular profile pic and the one on business profile pages). The minimum width is 180px. As for the height, don’t go below 180px, or the pic will be blurry. Since Facebook scales down images, your 180x180px pic will scale to 170 x 170px on desktop, 128 x 128px on smartphones, and to 32 x 32px as a photo thumbnail.

Recommended Sizes for Facebook Cover Images

A Facebook cover photo is visible on your profile only. However, since it takes up a large portion of the screen, you can use it to tell your audience a bit more about yourself, and to introduce them to the personality of your brand.

Your cover photo will be displayed at 820 x 312px on desktop, and at 640 x 360px on mobile phones, hence the ideal dimensions of the cover photo being 820 x 462px. Avoid using images that are smaller than this, or else they’ll look blurry, because Facebook will have to stretch them.

Make sure to upload files smaller than 100kb, to avoid Facebook reducing the size of the image. Use sRGB JPG files, unless your cover image is a logo or contains text. In that case upload a PNG file.

Recommended Sizes for Facebook Timeline Images

This is an image that you upload to your timeline in order to share it with your followers. To ensure your shared image always looks sharp, go for the 1200 x 630px dimensions. Images will be displayed in your feed at a maximum width of 470px, and on your page at a max width of 504px (with the possibility of scaling up to 1:1).

Recommended Sizes for Facebook Shared Link Images

Besides sharing images, Facebook also enables you to post links on your profile. Links are usually accompanied by a thumbnail image preview, along with the title and the description of the content you shared. Facebook lets you choose if you wish to share your link with a smaller preview image on the left and the textual content on the right, or you’d rather place the text below a larger, rectangular image.

The recommended image size for shared links is 1200 x 630px. Square photos should have a minimum of 154 x 154px in feed and a minimum of 116 x 116px on the page. The minimum dimensions for a rectangular photo are 470 x 246px in feed, and 484 x 252px on the page.

Make sure the image you choose fits the content of the link, as well as the accompanying text. If you don’t set a pic and a description on your own, Facebook will set up both using data from the page you’ve shared.

Recommended Sizes for Facebook Highlighted Images

A highlighted image is a great way to promote an important business milestone or some big achievements. It’s larger than your ordinary image, so you can make something you care about truly prominent.

The size you should go with is 1200 x 717px, but the image will appear at 843 x 504px on a page.

Recommended Sizes for Facebook Event Images

Event images are great for creating buzz around an event you’d like to promote. If someone clicks on Interested or Attending, they’ll get reminders about your event, so make sure to use an eye-catching event photo.

The recommended size you should stick to is 1920 x 1080px which equates to a 16:9 aspect ratio. Facebook will scale your image to 470 x 174px in feed.

Recommended Image Sizes for Facebook Stories

Even though Facebook stories may not be as popular as Instagram stories, more and more brands are starting to use them for promotional purposes. And since Facebook owns Instagram as well, you can actually share your Insta stories on Facebook.

If you decide to upload an image to your Facebook stories, the dimensions you should go for are 1080 x 1920px in a 9:16 aspect ratio.

Recommended Image Sizes for Facebook Ads

Images play a huge part in every marketing campaign, as they help enhance your message, and also make your ads more eye-catching.

Facebook ads usually consist of an image, a headline, a copy, and a click-through link. There are, in fact, several types of Facebook ads:

  • Single image ads
  • Single video ads
  • Slideshow ads
  • Facebook instant experiences
  • Carousel ads
  • Collections
  • Instant articles
  • Marketplace
  • Messenger ads

For single image ads, the recommended photo size is 1200 x 628px, with minimal or no text at all on the image. Even Facebook advises its users against using too much image text, saying that images that have less than 20% text actually perform better. NB: On Promote Your Page, the image size should be of 1200 x 444px. The headline should be 25 characters long, the text 90, and the link description should contain 30 characters.

Single video ads have a video in place of an image. The resolution should be 720p minimum, preferably in a MOV or MP4 format. The size of the file should not exceed 4GB. As for the copy, again, the text of the ad shouldn’t be longer than 90 characters, the headline should have 25 characters max, and the link description 30 characters in total.

With slideshow ads, you get the chance to create a slideshow of up to 10 images. The recommended image size for this type of ad is 1280 x 720px. Regarding the copy, the text should be 90 characters long, the headline 45 characters, and the description needs to have 30 characters.

Facebook instant experiences (formerly known as canvas ads) are a type of ads that are displayed across the entire screen. You can use them to upload captivating images as well as videos. You can upload up to 20 images, and the photo size you should stick to is 1080 x 1920px. As for the videos, again, the resolution should be at least 720p in an MP4 or MOV format.

Carousel ads enable you to make a combo of other ad types. You can put together up to 10 images, slideshows, or videos in your ad campaign. The recommended image size for carousel ads is 1080 x 1080px and the video resolution at least 720p. Your text should be 90 characters long, the headline 40 characters, and the description 20 characters long.

Collection ads are used on mobile phones only and you can also find them on Instagram. They consist of an image or a video, which are then accompanied by four smaller images. Upon clicking on a collection, users get to see all the products in full-screen, where they can learn more about your offer. This type of ad is powered by Facebook instant experiences, which we discussed earlier. The recommended image size is 1200 x 628px. As for the ad copy, the headline should have 25 characters, and the text 90 characters.

Another type of Facebook ads are instant articles. These are used only in the mobile app and on Messenger. The best thing about these interactive ads is the speed load, as they can load up to 10 times faster than regular articles on mobile. Once a user clicks on the ad, the content then opens in full-screen. The image you decide to use should be 1200 x 628px. As for the copy, a headline will ideally be 25 characters long, the link 30 characters, and the description 125 characters.

Facebook marketplace is great and incredibly useful if you wish to buy or sell something. You can include an image or a video to your ad, to make it more appealing. The recommended image size is 1200 x 628px (the minimum is of 600 x 600px).The video size should not exceed 4GB.

Facebook messenger ads appear in every user’s messenger app. The recommended image dimensions are 1200 x 628px. The headline should count 25 characters, the link 30 characters, and the description 125 characters in total.

Recommended Image Sizes for Instagram

As of October 2019, Instagram has around 1 billion active users, which makes this social platform an excellent place to get your business done. Instagram is where visuals and aesthetics matter the most, which is why you should post only the content that represents you and your brand in the finest light.

You probably remember that there was a time when you could post only square images and videos on Instagram. Luckily, they’ve changed that rule, so now we can also happily share portrait and landscape orientations. However, to ensure your Insta profile is totally snazzy-looking, it’s not only the content of your images that matters, but also their size.

Recommended Sizes for Instagram Profile Images

Instagram doesn’t include a cover image, so try to make your profile picture recognizable and easy to relate to your brand. The profile picture displays at 110 x 110px on the app, however, it’ll be larger on desktop. With that in mind, it’s for the best to upload a 180 x 180px image in a 1:1 ratio, because it’ll look sharp on all devices.

Recommended Image Sizes for Instagram Posts

If you decide to post a square Instagram image, the recommended size for you is 1080 x 1080px. If you go above these dimensions, Instagram will crop your post.

For vertical images, the dimensions you should stick to are 1080 x 1350px.

Lastly, the recommended size for horizontal images is 1080 x 566px.

Recommended Image Sizes for Instagram Stories

Instagram stories have gained a lot in popularity over the last few years. They are incredibly fun to make and can help you get discovered more easily. All you have to do is add some hashtags to your IG stories, so when someone is searching through that specific hashtag, your stories will appear. Furthermore, you have the option to include outbound links in your stories, by encouraging the audience to Swipe Up. This feature is available for accounts with 10k followers or for those who are verified. You can use this to redirect people to your shop, blog, etc.

When you decide to post something to your stories, the recommended image size is 1080 x 1920px in a 9:16 aspect ratio.

IG stories definitely raise brand awareness and can help you convert visitors into paying customers, so don’t hesitate to make them a part of your business strategy.

If you’d like to upload a video, it’s for the best to shoot it by holding your phone vertically. All videos in IG stories last 15sec max, but if you’d like to upload a longer one, that’s where IGTV comes into play.

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What is IGTV?

Instagram launched IGTV in 2018 with the purpose of enabling its users to upload full-screen, vertical videos that can last from 15 sec to 10 minutes. If you have a larger or a verified account than you can upload videos that last up to 60 min. In that case, you must upload videos from a computer. The resolution of all videos should be at least 720p, with an aspect ratio of 9:16, in an MP4 format.

IGTV is a great way to engage more with your target market, to better promote your services, and to showcase your creativity to the fullest. It comes as a standalone app, but you can watch all the videos in the Instagram app as well.

Recommended Image Sizes for Instagram Ads

Instagram is an excellent platform that can help you grow your customer base. It’s worth noting that around 75% users actually take action on Insta ads, such as visit a website or purchase an item. So if you decide to invest your time and money into setting up an ad on Instagram, it will almost certainly help you boost sales.

Instagram offers 5 types of ads:

  • Photo ads
  • Stories ads
  • Video ads
  • Carousel ads
  • Collection ads

Photo ads allow you to showcase your skillset and your offer by uploading compelling images. The recommended size for a landscape (horizontal) image ad is 1220 x 628px (600 x 315px minimum). The maximum size of image files is 30MB in a JPG or PNG format. The square image should be 1080 x 1080px (600 x 600px minimum), and the portrait (vertical) 1080 x 1350px (600 x 750px minimum). As for the caption length, the maximum is 2,200 characters, however it’s for the best to stick to 125 characters.

Stories ads appear among the users’ stories. You can upload both images and videos. The recommended image size is 1080 x 1920px (600 x 1067px minimum), in a 9:16 ratio. All files should be in a JPG or PNG format, and not larger than 30MB. As for videos in stories, the recommended resolution is 720p, with 1080 x 1920px dimensions, in a .MP4 or MOV format. The maximum video size is 4GB.

As for video ads, the recommended size depends on the format you decide to go with. Landscape videos require the minimum resolution of 600 x 315px in a 1:91:1 ratio. For square videos, the minimum resolution is 600 x 600px in a 1:1 ratio, and for vertical videos it’s 600 x 750px in a 4:5 ratio. Make sure that all videos are in an MP4 or a MOV format, and that they don’t last longer than 120 seconds.

Carousel ads are similar to the carousel ads on Facebook. Basically, you get to combine up to 10 photos and videos, and post them in a single Insta ad. You can edit them all at once, or apply filters separately, to each image or a video. The recommended photo size is 1080 x 1080px in a 1:1 ratio, and for videos it’s 1080 x 1080px (maximum) or 600 x 600px (minimum). The maximum video length in a carousel is 60 seconds.

As we already mentioned when we tackled the recommended image sizes for Facebook, Instagram features collection ads as well. You can use them to showcase your entire collection, and your followers can view each product in full-screen mode. The hero image or video should be at least 500 x 500px in a 1:1 ratio. As for the copy content, the text should be 90 characters long. No headline appears on Instagram, only on Facebook.

Recommended Image Sizes for Twitter

Twitter is another social media giant, with around 126 million daily active users. With so many people using it, this is an amazing platform for reaching new audiences and for spreading the word about your business. Twitter is primarily known for sharing text-based posts, however, it also gives you the option to spice your tweets up by adding images, videos, or gifs. As for the recommended image sizes, you can check them out below.

Recommended Sizes for Twitter Profile Images

Your profile photo appears within a circle. It’s visible not only on your profile and on your timeline, but also each time you tweet. The profile picture also shows up in the Twitter feed of your followers each time you tweet or retweet something, and it’s visible in the Who to follow box. Your Twitter profile picture should be 400 x 400px, either in JPG, GIF or PNG format. The maximum file size is 2MB.

Recommended Sizes for Twitter Header Images

A header photo on Twitter is what a cover photo is on Facebook. Since it’s probably the first thing your visitors will see, it’s in your best interest to upload an attention-grabbing image. The recommended image size is 1500 x 500px, in a JPG, GIF or PNG format. The files shouldn’t be larger than 5MB.

Recommended Sizes for Twitter Feed Images

Twitter enables you to preview your images in the feed, so your users don’t have to click elsewhere to view them. The dimensions of an image in the Twitter feed should be 1024 x 512px (440 x 220px minimum). The maximum file size is 5MB for static images and 3MB for GIF files.

Recommended Image Sizes for Twitter Cards

Twitter cards come into play when you can’t say all you want in 280 characters or when you’d like to lead followers to your website. The optimal image size for Twitter cards is 800 x 320px, and the maximum file size is of 3MB. As for Summary cards, the recommended image size is 280 x 150 px. The formats files you can upload are JPG, PNG, or GIF. Files shouldn’t exceed 1MB.

Besides displaying the right twitter image sizes on your twitter feed, it’s also important to make sure that feed is available to the largest possible number of people. With that in mind, it might be a good idea to add your Twitter feed to your website. If you’d like to learn how to do that, make sure to check out our article on how to display tweets on your WordPress website.

Recommended Image Sizes for LinkedIn

With over 575+ million registered users, LinkedIn is the largest professional network in the world. This platform is a great place where you can connect with professionals and industry leaders from around the world. To stand out in a sea of profiles, why not make the most of the images you can add not only to your profile, but to your posts as well?

Recommended Sizes for Linkedin Personal Profile Images

The picture that people first lay their eyes on is probably your profile picture. It’s visible not only on your profile, but also in your posts, and it appears in search results as well. You should always go for a professional-looking LinkedIn image that best represents you.

The recommended profile image dimensions are between 400 x 400px and 20,000 x 20,000px (200 x 200px is a minimum). The supported image file formats are JPG, GIF, and PNG. The maximum file size is 10MB.

Recommended Sizes for Background Images on Linkedin Personal Profiles

This image is placed at the very top of your profile and it can make your presentation look more appealing. The important thing is to get the image size right. The recommended image size is 1584 x 396px, and the supported image types include JPG, PNG, and GIF. The file size you shouldn’t go over is 4MB.

Recommended Sizes for Company Logo Images on Linkedin

There are two logos that you can upload to your LinkedIn profile. One is the standard company logo, and the other one is the square logo, which appears in search results. The standard logo is bigger and should be at least 300 x 300px in a PNG, JPG, or GIF format. The maximum file size is 4MB. The recommended size of the square logo is 60 x 60px, again in PNG, JPG, or GIF formats, and the file is not to be bigger than 2MB.

Recommended Sizes for Company Cover Images on Linkedin

The company cover image spans across the entire top of the profile page. The recommended image size is 1536 x 768px, and the image will show up as 1400 x 425px. The minimum size for the company cover image is 1192 x 220px. The maximum file size is 4MB, and the accepted file formats are JPG, PNG, and GIF.

Recommended Sizes for Banner Images on Linkedin Company Pages

The banner image is visible on your LinkedIn homepage and you should use it to tell other members more about your brand. The minimum dimensions of the banner image are 646 x 220px, in a landscape layout. The file shouldn’t be bigger than 2MB, and the supported file types are PNG, JPR, or GIF.

Recommended Sizes for Hero Images on Linkedin Company Pages

The hero image is bigger than any other image on Linkedin. If you wish to create a Careers tab for your company, the hero image will be placed at the top of the page. The recommended image size of your hero image is 1128 x 376px (minimum 1128 x 376px), again in either GIF, JPG, or PNG formats. The maximum file size is 2MB in a landscape layout.

Recommended Sizes for Shared Images on Linkedin

If you wish to add an image to your post, the recommended size you should stick to is 1104 x 736px (it will appear as 55 x 289px online). The file types you can attach are JPG, JPNG, and GIF.

Recommended Image Sizes for Linkedin Dynamic Ads

Dynamic ads are personalized ads that are crafted specifically for each user. Each dynamic ad includes the member’s LinkedIn profile details, such as their profile photo, first name, job title, and the company they work for. According to LinkedIn, the click-through rate is 2x bigger as opposed to the rate of regular ads.

There are three types of dynamic ads:

  • Job ads
  • Follower ads
  • Spotlight ads

Follower ads enable LinkedIn members to promote their LinkedIn Page or the Showcase Page. The minimum recommended image size for follower ads is 100 x 100px in either a JPG or PNG format. The ad description shouldn’t be longer than 70 characters, and the headline should have 50 characters maximum (including spaces). The company name is not to be longer than 25 characters, including spaces.

Spotlight ads let you advertise a product, a service, an event, etc. Aside from setting the main image, you can also upload a background image for your ad. The size of the company image is 100 x 100px minimum, and the custom background image must be precisely 300 x 250px, and no more than 2MB in size. As for the copy content of your ad, the same applies as for follower ads.

Job ads are a great way to personalize your ad in such a way that it resonates with the right crowd. You want to attract the optimal candidates for the job, therefore you should make the most of the dynamic job ads. The minimum image size to go with is 100 x 100px. Regarding the copy, the company name should be max 25 characters long, including spaces.

Recommended Image Sizes for Pinterest

Images are the lifeblood of Pinterest. Everything revolves around images or so-called ‘pins’. To display your images in their full glory, pay attention to the recommended Pinterest image sizes.

Recommended Sizes for Pinterest Profile Images

When you decide to start using Pinterest, you can choose how you wish to sign up. One way is to sign up with your Facebook or Twitter profile. In that case, the profile image you’re using on those platforms will be set as your default Pinterest profile picture. If you choose to sign up with an email, or you’d like to change your profile picture, make sure the image is 165 x 165px. NB: these are the dimensions of the image on your homepage. On the rest of the website it’ll appear as 32 x 32px. The maximum file size is 10MB, and the supported image file types are JPG and PNG.

Recommended Sizes for Pinterest Cover Image

To make your brand look fully professional and to present your board to visitors, make the most of this relatively new feature.

Regular users can set only images as their board cover, whereas business accounts also have the option to use videos as their board cover (NB: at the moment of writing this article, this feature is still not available to all business users).

As a regular user, you can only pick images from your collection of the Latest Pins or some other board of yours. On the other hand, business accounts can upload any image or video. Once uploaded, they just have to crop or pan them to fit the required 16:9 ratio.

Recommended Image Sizes for Pinterest Pins

Pinterest pins are actual photos that you can save to your boards. Pin sizes can be a bit tricky to nail, as there are three different pin sizes: standard, tall, and square pins.

The recommended image size for standard pins is 600 x 900px (1:1.5 aspect ratio), for tall pins it’s 600 x 1260px (1:2.1 aspect ratio), and lastly, for square pins the dimensions are 600 x 600px (1:1 aspect ratio).

Recommended Image Sizes for Pinterest Boards

Pinterest enables you to organize your pins based on different criteria. To keep things in the perfect order, you have the possibility to create multiple boards and set thumbnails for each of those boards. The recommended image size for large thumbnails is 222 x 150 px, and 55 x 55px for small thumbnails.

Recommended Image Sizes for YouTube

YouTube is the world’s most popular video hosting platform with over one billion users. If you decide to set up an account either for yourself or for your company, don’t forget to keep it well optimized. Do your best to make it look great and professional, but, aside from uploading brilliant videos, it’s important to use proper image sizes as well.

Recommended Sizes for YouTube Channel Profile Images

While you can set up different profile image borders, the YouTube image dimensions are always the same. The size you should stick to is 800 x 800px (it’ll be displayed as 98 x 98px). The supported image types are JPG, GIF (not animated GIFs), PNG, and BMP.

Recommended Sizes for YouTube Channel Cover Photos

The cover photo can be seen at the top of your profile. It’s the largest image you can add, so try to upload an exciting one that will prompt people to look further into your channel. Stick to the 2560 x 1440px, but don’t upload files that are larger than 6MB. Again, the file types you can add are JPG, GIF, PNG, and BMP.

Recommended Sizes for YouTube Video Preview Thumbnails

Whenever you upload a video to YouTube, you have the option to choose a frame that’s going to be used as the preview image for the video, or you can upload a completely different photo and set it as a thumbnail. The image size should be 1280 x 720px in a 16:9 ratio.

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Recommended Image Sizes for Tumblr

Tumblr, with around 463.5 million accounts, is another widely used social platform where the significance of the visual content you upload goes beyond words.

Recommended Sizes for Tumblr Profile Images

The profile picture appears on your profile page and next to your posts. To ensure it looks picture-perfect, we recommend you stick to 128 x 128px image dimensions. The featured file formats include JPG, GIF, PNG, and BMP.

Recommended Sizes for Tumblr Image Posts

These are the images that appear on your page and are visible to everyone who follows your profile. The maximum image size is 1280 x 1920px, although it’ll display in feed at 500 x 750px. Should you wish to add photosets, the width of an image in a row is 500px, for two-image rows it should be 245px, and for three images in a row stick to 160px. As regards link posts, the recommended thumbnail size is 130 x 130px. Animated GIFs should be maximum 540px in width, although, depending on the GIF size, sometimes even more width can be tolerated.

Recommended Image Sizes for Snapchat

There are around 190 million daily active users that use Snapchat. This is a messaging app that you can use to send images and other media content that will self-destruct after a certain period of time. The recommended image size for Snapchat is 1080 x 1920px, but you don’t have to worry too much about it as the app itself automatically formats images.

If you decide to run your marketing campaign on Snapchat, it’s good to know that the recommended ad image size is the same and the maximum file size is 32MB.

Recommended Image Sizes for Google Ads

The last on our list are Google ads, which support an incredibly long list of image formats that you can use for your advertising purposes. The most common ones are:

  • Square images – the recommended image size is 250 x 250px
  • Small square images – 200 x 200px
  • Leaderboard images – 728 x 90px
  • Banner images – 468 x 60px
  • Inline rectangle images – 300 x 250px
  • Large rectangle images – 336 x 280px
  • Skyscraper images – 120 x 600px
  • Wide skyscraper – 160 x 600px
  • Half-page ad images – 300 x 600px
  • Large leaderboard – 970 x 90px
  • Mobile leaderboard images (for mobile devices only) – 320 x 50px

Let’s Wrap This Up

Social networks are an incredibly powerful tool that can be greatly beneficial to both you and your brand, so why not make the most of it? Our all-encompassing guide to the recommended image sizes for social media will have you ready to confront 2024 head on and it’ll be of tremendous help on your quest of achieving the pixel-perfect look for your brand’s social media profiles. Stick to our guidelines, and go upload some gripping images that will set you apart from the competition.

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