2019 Social Media Cheat Sheet for Image Sizes (Infographic)

Visual contents are very powerful, eye-catching, and are the easiest to remember. This social media cheat sheet will be very useful for checking if your images are in its right sizes. Check out these requirements for the image size on each major platform:

Social Media Cheat Sheet – Table of Contents

Cheat Sheet for Facebook

Cheat Sheet for Instagram

Cheat Sheet for Twitter

Cheat Sheet for LinkedIn

Cheat Sheet for YouTube

Cheat Sheet for Pinterest

Cheat Sheet for Tumblr

There are so many potentials for businesses when penetrating Facebook, given that the platform itself has so many features in it. As a business, you might want to consider having a Facebook page to be able to meet a wider audience.

Facebook Profile Photo

Facebook is more flexible than other sites in terms of uploading profile photos. You can upload a square, landscape, or portrait photo as a Facebook profile photo. If you’re aiming for a more personal approach on Facebook, it would be best to upload a photo with your face. If you’re a business or a brand, it would be best to upload a brand logo. However, there are so many other approaches nowadays. You may add frames for events or causes and promote something like a product, person, or campaign through your profile photo.

Guidelines:

• The recommended aspect ratio of the Facebook profile photo is 1:1.
• The optimal size for either width, height, or both should have a minimum of 615 pixels or px.
• Both Facebook’s personal and business profile photo have the same size requirements. The minimum width should be 180 px, while the height can go below 180 px. However, the image will not be clear.
• The photo will display 168 x 168 px circle thumbnail on personal profile and 172 x 172 px circle thumbnail on business page, while both will show only 40 x 40 px circle thumbnail on the newsfeed.

Facebook Cover Photo

A cover photo is a very important aspect for both personal and business page. It is one of the first things that catches the viewer’s attention. Make sure what you put on your cover photo is relevant to your page. Sometimes, Facebook cover photos are also changed based on an event or holiday coming up.

Guidelines:

• The optimal size is 851 x 315 px. Anything less than that will be stretched and risk its quality.
• On mobile, you shouldn’t worry about the optimal size but the focal point of your cover photo content as Facebook crops the size 851 x 315 showing only 560 pixels wide.
• The best thing to do is make your cover photo optimized for all devices, by making sure the important details are within the 560 pixels wide.
• To get a better quality, use a file size of less than 100 KB.

Facebook Link Preview

Most businesses post links to promote their website, articles, blogs, products, or other contents in it. Getting clicks from users isn’t an easy task. An interesting preview image plus the title and the short description will surely help you get those clicks increasing. Use trending and clear images in terms of what you’re trying to offer to customers. Avoid click bait gimmicks as you will get higher bounce rates.

Guidelines:

• The optimal size for link preview is 1200 x 620 px.
• Rectangular link photo display 500 x 261 px on both newsfeed and own profile or page.
• If your link photo is smaller than 474 x 249 px, it will appear as a thumbnail or square link photo.
• The minimum size for square link photo is 139 x 139 px.

Facebook Photo Post

Just like the profile photo, you can also upload a square, landscape, or portrait photo post or shared image. Facebook is widely used for both personal and business purposes, so you may post a photo of anything that expresses or represents your style or concept.

Guidelines:

• The optimal size is 1200 x 620 also, 620 pixels being the maximum height when you click to enlarge a photo.
• A singular photo will display 500 pixels wide on the newsfeed, while 2 or more photos shared at the same time will display a mix of 166, 249, and 500 pixels wide thumbnails (5 max).

Facebook Ads Photo

You may boost your photo post with the same image size requirements mentioned above but without page ads objectives, such as increasing your website conversions. This would translate to “Learn More”, or getting customers to buy your products which is a “Shop Now” button.

Guidelines:

• With page ads objective, your photo can have aspect ratio between 9:16 to 16:9.
• Carousel images will be displayed 1:1 aspect ratio, 300 pixels.

Facebook Group Cover Photo

Some organizations or brands make use of groups in order to nurture the community they have and are continuing to build. Some groups are a closed group, meaning to say, they don’t share their contents to the public but only to the members of the group. Make sure that your group cover photo or thumbnail is in its right size to help keep attracting people to become part of your group.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of a group cover photo is 1.91:1.
• The recommended size is 1640 x 859 px. This is also the mobile display size.
• The desktop shows only 1640 x 662 px.
• To keep a good thumbnail, keep valuable details or contents on the center inside 859 x 859 px or 1:1 aspect ratio because the photo displays as a circle thumbnail.

Facebook Event Cover Photo

Facebook events are also used for business purposes. Say that your brand will throw a seminar or workshop, then Facebook events are one way to consider where to market your event. A good event cover photo must show the audience what they will expect in the said event.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of an event cover photo is 1.91:1, with a recommended size of 1200 x 628 px.
• If you want to go larger with your photo for a higher quality purpose, you may resize to 1920 x 1005 px.

Best Image File Type for Facebook

PNG, GIF, and JPG image file types can be used on the Facebook platform. PNG is highly recommended especially for businesses on Facebook as it gives images a strong quality and texture. GIF is the best format for animated images as well as graphics. JPG is mostly used for photographs and simple images.

If you’re looking for a social media platform which is solely dedicated to sharing visual content such as images and videos, that’s what Instagram (IG) is for. Not to mention, users tend to highly engage or interact with contents or posts on Instagram compared to other platforms:

Instagram community, which is the newest among the three, has also impressively grown into 1 billion monthly active users (MAU), beating Twitter’s flat user growth. What Instagram can boast more than Facebook is the fact supported by Locowise, Forrester, and News Whip studies, that Instagram is still the king when it comes to engagement or user interaction. Instagram Ads may also be slightly more expensive than Facebook’s, but according to WordStream, its click-through rates (CTRs) were “through the roof”.

Instagram Profile Photo

Instagram profile photo requirements are simple. It is only displayed on your profile and on the newsfeed for a smaller size. You cannot click to enlarge it. Just like on Facebook, if it’s a personal account, it would be best to upload a photo of your face. If a business or brand, go for the logo! However, Instagram is known for aesthetic and that’s what makes it different from other social media. If you want to go crazy and creative with your photo, go for it, as long as the photo is still in touch with your concept or branding.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of the Instagram profile photo is 1:1.
• The photo will display 150 x 150 circle thumbnail. Note: The edges of your original photo will be cropped, so make sure that any important details on your photo fit within the circle.

Instagram Square Photo

Instagram started off with square photos ever since the platform launched. Up to this day, square posts are still widely used and appreciated when using Instagram. Square posts can be used flexibly for personal or marketing posts as it’s the optimal size for Instagram. Over time, Instagram also upgraded and allowed up to 10 contents per post whether in a square, landscape or portrait layout. You may also mix photos and videos when you use up to 10 contents.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of the Instagram square photo is 1:1.
• The photo will be scaled down to 614 x 614 on the newsfeed and will appear 600 x 600 on your profile.
• All photos (square, landscape, and portrait) on the profile will uniformly display 293 x 293 thumbnail.

Instagram Landscape

Since 2017, Instagram has let users post landscape and portrait photos. This is such a huge relief and convenience for Instagram users, knowing before, we needed to make an extra effort for creating white or black borders just to maintain the aspect ratio 1:1. Sometimes, we use apps which help us do that such as Whitagram. Although putting white borders on IG photos are still being practiced by some, mostly for aesthetic purpose. Landscape photo is most useful for photography accounts and when you don’t want to crop your photos for whatever reason you have.

Guidelines:

• If you upload a wide photo, the aspect ratio you may use is up to 1.91:1.
• The photo will be scaled down to 614 x 321 on the newsfeed and will appear 600 x 314 on your profile.
• When you use 1.91:1, expect black borders or margins appearing when you click to enlarge your post on your profile page.

Instagram Portrait

The only difference of a portrait photo from a landscape one, ever since Instagram allowed both, is that portraits appear larger on the newsfeed and on your profile. This means choosing a portrait layout isn’t just for when you don’t want to crop your photos. It is now best used for when you want to maximize the spaces such as creating posters for announcements, events, and content with heavy text. You and your followers are guaranteed to see clearly all the details you will put on the portrait photo unlike on landscape one which looks smaller.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio you may use for the Instagram portrait photo is 4:5 or 8:10.
• Instagram’s maximum size for a portrait is 1080 x 1350 px. Even if you upload larger than that, it’s okay because Instagram will reduce it to its right size.

Instagram Stories Photo

Using Stories now is widely practiced. It’s actually a trend! People or brands use it to create interesting or fun updates just about everything happening on their side, including official and backstage scenes.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of Instagram Stories is 9:16.
• Image and video on Instagram Stories should be 1080 x 1920 px if you want to maximize the whole space and not get your contents cropped.
• However, good thing, Instagram now allows users to zoom out or resize your Stories smaller before uploading it. This is useful if you’re worried about not having the right size for Stories.
• Maximum file size is 30 MB.

Instagram Highlight Stories Cover Photo

Thanks to a new feature, we can now highlight specific Stories on our profiles. In fact, we can also give our highlight Stories cover photos a branding so that they are uniform. Most profiles today use icons to describe or categorize what kind of Stories are inside each highlighted Stories.

Guidelines:

• Given that the Instagram Stories size should be 1080 x 1920 px, you may also use that size for your Highlight Stories cover photo.
• However, you need to consider that the thumbnail on your profile only shows an aspect ratio of 1:1 and is a circle, so make sure your contents fit inside that dimension.

Instagram IGTV Cover Photo

Another feature from Instagram is IGTV, which is very useful for videos contents, especially vlog style videos. This is like giving your audience the chance to wait and tune in for your videos contents in the past, present, and future. Just like any preview image, you also need to make sure your IGTV cover photo looks interesting to attract more views.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of IGTV cover photo is 1:1.55, which should be 420 x 654 px.
• For IGTV, videos should be vertical with an aspect ratio of 9:16.
• Videos should have a minimum resolution of 720 pixels.
• The maximum file size for videos that are 10 minutes or less is 650MB. The maximum file size for videos up to 60 minutes is 3.6GB.

Twitter’s strength lies in expressing a thought or idea in a 280-character limit. You may also include a link or photo, but the character limit cannot be adjusted. However, despite the limit, still, “it can be easily seen that Twitter is one of the most popular social media platforms used by marketers.” Twitter is where trending hashtags are born and continue to be popular.

Twitter Profile Photo

A Twitter profile photo is displayed as a thumbnail on your profile and can be clicked to enlarge. Just like any other platform, uploading the right kind of profile photo for your brand or personality is a must.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of the Twitter profile photo is 1:1 with a circle thumbnail.
• The photo size should be 400 x 400 px, while it is displayed 200 x 200 px on your profile.
• The photo is also displayed 48 x 48 beside your own Tweets and on “Who to follow”, while displayed 24 x 24 on notifications.
• Maximum file size is 2 MB.

Twitter Header

The Twitter header is another way of expressing what your profile or brand is about, so do use it the best way you can! Given that it’s one of the first things that our eyes land on while viewing a Twitter profile, use it flexibly such as a reminder, or direct marketing and promotion for your product or service.

Guidelines:

• The recommended size is 1349 x 380 px, while only 1349 x 360 will be displayed on your profile on the desktop.
• Maximum file size is 5 MB.

Twitter Photo

Sure, you can tweet without attaching photos in it, but if you think using images can help you share more of your contents then do it. In addition to that, there is only 280-character limit when you Tweet, so do consider using photos!

Guidelines:

• The maximum size for the preview photo display is 506 x 506 px, so a tall photo won’t be seen fully unless clicked to enlarge.
• You can attach up to 4 images in one Tweet.
• Maximum file size is 5 MB for each photo, while 5 MB for animated GIFs on mobile and 15 MB on web.

Twitter Card or Link Photo

On Twitter, you can also share links of your blogs, articles, products, and services. Make sure your link photo is the photo that will get users clicking.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of the Twitter image card is 1.91:1
• The recommended size is 1200 x 628 px, though the photo will be displayed 506 x 254 px.
• If the size is much lower than 1200 x 628, it will automatically be a square image card that is 125 x 125 px.

LinkedIn is the platform for a more serious approach for your business. Say, you need to show that your brand can provide good insights about business tips and ethics through blogs or articles. Moreover, you may want to recruit professionals and create business connections, well then LinkedIn is an option for such intents!

LinkedIn Profile Photo

If representing a brand, a logo would be fine. If you’re an individual, a semi-formal to formal-looking kind of photo would be nice.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of the LinkedIn profile photo is 1:1.
• The recommended size is 400 x 400, while the minimum is 200 x 200.
• The photo should not be more than 10 MB file size.

LinkedIn Profile Banner

Of course, like any other platform, LinkedIn allows you to upload your profile banner or header to express more about what you’re offering.

Guidelines:

• The recommended size for a personal profile is 1584 x 396 px.
• The recommended size for a company profile is 1536 x 768 px.

LinkedIn Link Photo

Sharing a link without a photo, in almost any platform, would just be less interesting. Use photos that are relevant to either your blogs or articles.

Guidelines:

• Image link size should be 1200 x 628 px for both personal and company profile.

If your way of conveying a message to your users is through videos, you might want to consider using YouTube. People often search for videos on YouTube, as this platform is one of the most-used video-sharing platforms. I mean, two popular accounts on YouTube have 92 million subscribers! If that isn’t huge, then what is?

YouTube Channel Icon

YouTube’s strong focus is on uploading quality and good content videos. However, like any platform we know, still needs a profile picture for an account.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of the YouTube channel icon is 1:1.
• The photo will be cropped into 80 x 80 circle thumbnail on your page. It will be displayed only 48 x 48 below your video when it is being viewed by others.
• The ideal size is 800 x 800, uploading smaller than that may risk the quality.

YouTube Channel Art

This is also known as a header or banner. You should use it for the benefit of your YouTube channel, any way you think is possible, such as explaining in bullet points or a slogan what kind of contents or videos you will be uploading.

Guidelines:

• The ideal size is 2560 x 1440, 2560 pixels being the maximum width.
• The maximum file size is up to 6 MB.

YouTube Video Thumbnail

One way to help you get views for your videos is making video thumbnails the best way. What will users be expecting from your video? Some just pick a frame out of their videos, while some users upload customized video preview thumbnails with text or label on it.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of the YouTube video preview is 16:9 and keep it under a file size of 2 MB.
• The ideal size is 1280 x 720, 640 pixels being the minimum width.
• The photo will display 246 x 138 thumbnail on search, 210 x 117 on your profile, while 168 x 94 beside another video as “up next”, related or recommended video.

Brands or individuals use Pinterest for another unique purpose. If a person wants to look for and share inspiration for either fashion, recipes, design, DIY projects and such, this is your go-to platform.

Pinterest Profile Photo

Like any other website, you need to put a face for your profile for your audience to identify you.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio is 1:1, while the recommended size is 280 x 280 px.
• The photo will be cropped into a circle thumbnail.

Pinterest Square Pin

Pinterest is known for 2:3 sized photos or taller! Square image sizes are all over the internet and Pinterest now also recommends square pins. Since it’s totally new, not everyone considers the size for their pins yet, but if the shoe fits, go for it!

Guidelines:

• Since the aspect ratio is 1:1, the recommended size is 600 x 600.

Pinterest Optimal Pin

If you’re using Pinterest, you can make use of this platform for sharing tall pictures because you need to share lots of contents. Optimal pin (or taller) is Pinterest’s best interest!

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio for an optimal pin is 2:3.
• The recommended size is nothing smaller than 600 x 900 px.

Pinterest Tall Pin

Do you need to create tall infographics? Creating such tall pins, but not too tall (please refer below), would be your best option. If your contents need space, give the spaces they need to avoid crowdedness!

Guidelines:

• You may create tall pins using sizes such as 600 x 1260 px to 600 x 1560 px.
• In terms of too tall pins, Pinterest algorithm favors pins that have approximately 2:3 aspect ratio.
• Any image longer than 2:3 proportion, will cause a pin to truncate or get cropped, but it will still be seen full when clicked to view.

Pinterest Board Cover

When your audience visits your page, they’ll definitely see your collections of boards. Since you want them to keep clicking, viewing, and sharing your pins, you need an interesting board cover photos.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of board cover is 1:1, with a recommended size of 600 x 600 px.

If you’re looking for a part blogging/ micro-blogging and part social networking site to go to, use Tumblr as it’s easy and free. Tumblr has a large community and is perfect for those who don’t need to post a full blog or lengthy content. It’s also not too limited as Twitter or Instagram in terms of what a blogging site should have.

Tumblr Profile Photo

Whether it’s a personal or business blog, choose any profile photo that visually represents what you’re offering.

Guidelines:

• The aspect ratio of the Tumblr profile photo or avatar is 1:1 which should be 128 x 128, displayed on your Tumblr page.
• The photo will display 64 x 64 thumbnail on the dashboard beside your posts.

Tumblr Banner

A Tumblr banner is also one way of attracting or selling what you’re blogging about. Use a banner that is also heavily tied with your concept or brand.

Guidelines:

• The Tumblr banner is displayed as a 3000 x 1055 on the desktop, while 640 x 360 on mobile.

Tumblr Image Post

What is Tumblr blogging without sharing images? Along with your thoughts, quotes, and text contents, attaching images is not a requirement but a very important aspect. Sometimes, an image alone is already reblog-worthy.

Guidelines:

• The recommended size is 540 x 750.
• Since we’re talking about blogging, you can also upload really high-quality images for your posts.
• Display maximum size for image posts is 1280 x 1920.
• You can post images with up to 10 MB file sizes, while not more than 3 MB for animated GIFs.

Best Image File Type for Tumblr

For both profile photo and image posts, image file types JPG, GIF, BMP, and PNG are allowed.

Aim for providing the best quality of your visual contents by following this social media cheat sheet for image sizes. You may convey your messages through text or audio but always consider how powerful visuals are, especially on social media.

A good social media visual content can also be passed around online and be viral even without an explanation. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Virality is one of the good measurements of success in social media marketing. Whether through your profile photo, header, posts, link images and more, always put your best foot forward for every visual content as well as the text you share.

Let’s avoid wasting your efforts on creating good visual contents in the wrong sizes. It’s no easy task. We hear you! Here’s an infographic summary of the social media cheat sheet for image sizes of all platforms mentioned:

If you need help in managing your contents, here in adish, we also provide content planning, curation, and creation under our social media management service. Interested? Let’s start planning contents for your business here now!