Social Media Cheat Sheet 2017: Must-Have Image Sizes!

Searching for the ultimate social media cheat sheet?

I’ve been looking forever, and can’t find one that’s completely correct. So I made my own!

Simple – but accurate! Outdated infographics  are still widely posted and shared, despite their misinformation. Here are the updated social media sizes, as of September 26, 2017.

2017 Updates

Profile pictures are virtually all circular now! Even on a Facebook Page, the square photo you see next to your cover photo gets cropped to a circle elsewhere.
Plan your avatar or logo accordingly! Make sure there’s nothing critical in the corners of the square. Facebook: NEW June, Use a video for your cover photo. Otherwise, slight size changes, but proportions remain the same. No more tab/app images. Nothing needs to be redone. Jump to Facebook section below. Twitter: NEW September, with readers’ help I finally figured out the best size and shape for both tweeted images and Twitter cards. Read all the details here, or jump to Twitter section below. Pinterest: NEW August, max pin height is once again 3.5 times width, on desktop only. Pinterest board covers are square. Jump to Pinterest section below. LinkedIn: NEW August, LinkedIn personal profile “backgrounds” redesigned. Jump to LinkedIn section below. Tumblr: A reader has provided an updated size list. Jump to Tumblr section below.

I’ve included ALL essential sizes for Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, AND YouTube on the chart. I also added some notes about aspect ratio where there isn’t a specified maximum size (Sept. 2017).

Please leave a comment if any need to be corrected. I’ll update as quickly as possible!

How Do I Get Images to These Sizes?

Q: Do you have recommendation for how to get photos these desired image sizes? I am using iPhoto and I am not getting exact dimensions you describe.

A: You could use an online photo editor like PicMonkey or pixlr.com. Alternatively, you can use an online image creator that has lots of sizes already set up for you!

The two easiest ones I’ve found are Stencil and Snappa (shown below). Choose a size template, pick or upload a photo, and it’s automatically sized to fit. Adjust cropping as desired.

These all have a free option. If you upgrade for additional features, I may get a small commission. I only recommend what I’ve tried, and think you’ll love!

Social Media Photo Sizes Quick Reference & Links

Here’s a brief rundown of some critical social media photo sizes.

My TOP recommended size for image posts: 1200 pixels square is ideal for Facebook and Instagram posts. It also works well for  Google+ and LinkedIn posts – and for Twitter, if you keep any type or other critical elements away from the top and bottom of the image.

For link posts: Facebook, Twitter and Linked in are all recommending 1200 x 628 pixels, which is 1.91:1 aspect ratio. You need to be including this shape image on every blog post and page! Multiply the width of your content area by .524 to get the image height. Since my content area is 736px wide, this comes out to 736 x 386 pixels for me.

But WHAT should you post on social media? Get ideas here!

• • • CLICK to Get your FREE Social Media Content Guide! • • •

Facebook Photo Sizes

Facebook changes 2017: Slight reduction of profile picture size from 180 pixels square to 170 square. I suggest uploading at least double that size for better quality.

Facebook Page cover photo is displayed slightly smaller on desktop: 820 x 312px, down from 828×315. This is the exact same proportion, so you don’t have to change anything. However, I recommend even larger, and using a size and shape that works for both desktop and mobile. Recommended: 1200 x 675. Get details and the mobile/desktop template here.

NEW June 2017: You can use a video as your cover photo.

Tell More of Your Story

Instead of a cover photo, now you can use a video. It can be 20-90 seconds and should be at least 820 x 312 pixels.

I updated the minimum wall post size. Hopefully you are going with larger photos than minimum already! Displays have such great resolution, and low quality images don’t cut it any more. Go BIG! Up to 2048 x 2048 works for Facebook photo posts.

Twitter Photo Sizes

Twitter card image and tweeted image sizes have finally been verified. Tweeted images will still be shown in full when clicked, so you can use square for portability across social media networks – but they’ll be cropped in the feed on mobile.

Google+ Photo Sizes

Google+ Cover photo size: 1080 by 608 Google+ Profile photo size: 250 x 250

How about a side of FREE social media post ideas?

• • • CLICK to Get your FREE Social Media Content Guide! • • •

LinkedIn Photo Sizes

Update August 2017: Those maddening responsive background images (banner / cover photo) on personal profiles have been dumped. The new recommended size is 1584 wide by 396 high. This is exactly 4:1 proportion.

You can also crop, filter, and adjust your photo after you upload it to LinkedIn.

Tips from LinkedIn:

If your background image appears blurry or pixelated, please choose an image with a file size as close to the maximum (8 MB) as possible, as images with larger file sizes typically look better. Photos will also look better than images with logos.

April 2017: Here’s a LinkedIn company cover photo template from Breanna Tillman that a reader shared: Download the LI company cover.

The proportions don’t seem correct, but I’ll let you mess with that if you want. Personally, with these responsive headers, I recommend uploading an appropriate photo background and letting the cropping fall where it may. With different crops on different devices, LinkedIn headers (both company and personal) have become too difficult to place text on.

Link share size has remained the same, matching Facebook link shares at 1200 x 628.

LinkedIn photo post size seems difficult to determine. It appears to be a slightly taller shape than previously, but no one seems to agree on the size (see this discussion). If you find someone who makes picture quotes specifically to a LinkedIn size, won’t you let us know?

One woman suggested 792 x 528px. I checked and it did look the same on desktop and mobile. However, when you click on desktop, it gets so much bigger. I’d double those dimensions for best clarity.

Update December 2016: LinkedIn has totally redesigned your personal profile!

Max file size 8MB and file type must be PNG, JPEG, or GIF.

LinkedIn profile “background”: Per LI, size is between 1000 x 425 pixels and 4,000 x 4,000 pixels. I updated the recommended optimal size to 4,000 x 1,700 per quality concerns brought up by LinkedIn. Linked in profile picture: Per LI, size is between 400 x 400 pixels and 20,000 x 20,000 px. LinkedIn blog post link proportions now perfectly match Facebook link shares! So I plugged in FB recommended sizes. LinkedIn photo share: 1200 x 1200 square looks best on desktop, but gets cropped to horizontal in the mobile feed. The link share size works best there. LinkedIn Company cover photo size: 1536 x 768*. LinkedIn logo size: 300 x 300 square. No more horizontal.

Read more on the September 2016 LinkedIn company page redesign here.

*NOTE: There’s some question as to how that company cover photo works. The height is greatly cropped. I suspect that the cover image proportions work for mobile. Just as with Facebook and Twitter, the height gets cropped on desktop – although much more severely. Unfortunately, you’ll have to create something and test it on different devices if it has critical elements that need to show. Or else think of it as more of a “background” image that doesn’t have faces, type, or other elements that would look bad when cropped on different devices.

Pinterest Photo Sizes

Update August 2017: On desktop, tall pins are back to being shown at 3.5 times the width, after being cropped at 2.5 for a while. Still 2.8 times width on mobile. Optimal pin size would be 1.5 to 2.8 times high as wide. This measures out at 736 pixels wide by 1104 to 2,060 pixels tall.

Taller images will be seen in full when clicked – tall infographics are still good.

December 2016: Pinterest board covers are now SQUARE. I recommend 736 x 736. If you use the Showcase feature, you’ll want to make sure you make them at least 340 x 340. If you don’t, you can get away with 180.

As of Summer 2016, the Pinterest profile picture appears larger, at 180 x 180. Upload even bigger for best results.

The ideal pin height is 1.5 to 2.8 times (reduced from 3.5 times) the width. Taller pins will be cropped in the stream on mobile.

Some sources say 735 is one pixel less than the true pin width, so I updated the chart to 736.

Pinterest Profile Photo size: 180 x 180 or larger Maximum pin width when clicked: 736 Board cover: suggested minimum 340 x 340 Minimum image size that can be pinned: 100 x 200 source

Instagram Photo Sizes

Instagram posts are no longer limited to square! For details, read: Instagram Photo Format Breaks Out of the Box!

Now that you’ve got the sizes – what images should you post?

• • • CLICK to Get your FREE Social Media Content Guide! • • •

YouTube Photo Sizes

YouTube Channel Art size: 2560 x 1440 | Right click to download template Be sure to check the template as cropping varies widely from TV to mobile to desktop Video thumbnail: 1280 x 720 Channel icon: 800 x 800

Tumblr Photo Sizes

It’s hard to find image sizes for this platform, and one reason may be that it’s pretty freeform. Different themes can vary greatly.

I don’t use Tumblr and decided not to add it to the cheat sheet, since I won’t know if things change.

Update April 2017: Here’s an excellent Tumblr sizes overview offered by reader Morgana Johnson:

Although all themes are different, the most common sizes still display 500 and 400 width posts (and most “photography” themes either display everything with a width of 1280, or even the highest resolution available).

However, anything on the dashboard feed is shown at and resized to 540. Size limitations have also risen to 10MB for pictures, and supposedly 3MB for animated .gif images (However animated gifs are just buggy on tumblr, it’s best to “aim” between 1-3MB.)

Anyone using tumblr as a portfolio would have the best experience, and largest variety of themes to choose from, if they create images with a width of 500 or 400. However, those who plan to market themselves and gain a following on tumblr should create images meant to be displayed at 540. Those particular users should also pay close attention to the following new feature:

Tumblr has implemented a “dashboard pop-over” with a header, which works both as a mobile theme and allows desktop users to have a quick glance at a blog without leaving the dashboard. The header displays at “various sizes” with an aspect ratio of 16:9. Generally, it displays at 1240 x 700 for desktop browsers, but is optimized at 640 × 360 for mobile.

(It can also display animated gif images with the same size restrictions as posts. From my personal experience, however, I can’t get any header to animate if it’s larger than 1.5MB.)

It’s also worth noting that users whom choose to keep the default theme show the same header at 3000 x 1055 on their blog, and displays posts with a width of 540. ~MJ

Social Media Cheat Sheet 2017: Must-Have Image Sizes

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