Social media image sizes: The cheat sheet

Now that social media presence has become a “must have” for businesses large and small, you may be ready to ramp up your existing social media efforts. One of the best ways to improve your positioning across all social networks is through consistency of voice and branding.

A top priority should be making sure your voice matches the audience for each social channel; however, providing a consistent appearance for your brand is vital. One of the best ways to accomplish both of these branding goals is through visual design.

As you visit the major social networks, you might see little consistency at first glance. However, as these websites evolve and update their offerings, it becomes easier and easier to use your design skills to create a recognizable brand across the spectrum of sites.

This “cheat sheet” offers you a brief guide to image size recommendations for many of the top social media sites (including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+ and Medium). With this information at your fingertips, you can develop that consistent branding presence while meeting the required dimensions of the website. The sizing requirements for these sites change regularly. Our cheat sheet assures that you are prepared to stay ahead of the learning curve.

Please note: We created this cheat sheet assuming that you regularly create images and work on web design projects. You’ll find that we provide the dimensions for each type of image across all networks. For instance, when creating a profile photo, you can create all needed profile photos for your clients at once—meeting the requirements of the site and achieving that branding consistency. This list provides dimensions for the primary design assets of each network.

Profile picture size

In many cases if you develop a single square “profile picture” that scales appropriately for the sizes below, you’ll be able to streamline the process for making updates across all the networks. One big change in 2016 is that LinkedIn has updated their profile picture size since last year. (Previously, the size of the LinkedIn standard logo was 100px x 60px and the size of the square logo was 50px x 50px. LinkedIn has moved to a larger, square aspect ratio in 2016 as you'll see below.)

** YouTube calls these "channel icons."

Profile picture sizes

• Twitter profile picture size: 400px x 400px
• Facebook profile picture size: 180px X 180px
• Instagram profile picture size: 110px x 110px
• Pinterest profile picture size: 165px X 165px
• LinkedIn profile picture size: 400px x 400px
• YouTube profile picture size: 800px x 800px
• Google+ profile picture size: 250px x 250px
• Medium profile picture size: 400px x 400px
• Tumblr profile picture size: 128px x 128px

Cover photo/header image

The cover photo or header image is the big hitter on most of these networks. In contrast to the profile images, which are typically square, the various social sites have widely varying sizes for their cover images. Here are a few tips to remember:

1. You'll probably want to go with a .png file, instead of a .jpg.
2. Since these images are often cropped or covered with other interface elements, put the important components of your design in the center of the image, and double-check that key parts of the image aren't covered up when used in production.

Cover photo sizes

• Twitter header: 1500px x 500px
• Facebook cover photo size: 851px x 315px
• Pinterest cover photo: 217px x 147px (Board cover image)
• LinkedIn cover photo: 974px x 300px
• LinkedIn story photo: 698px x 400px
• YouTube cover photo: Display varies by device; 1546px x 423px on desktop
• Google+ cover photo: 2120px x 1192px
• Tumblr header: 3000px x1055px
• Medium profile picture size: 1400px x 1120px

Content images sizes in the posts themselves

Rich content sharing, including image sharing, is increasingly important across social networks. Creating imagery that is the right size for the network minimizes distortion and unexpected cropping.

Shared image sizes

Shared images sizes

• Twitter: 1024px x 512px
• Facebook: 1200px x 630px
• Instagram: 1080px x 1080px
• Pinterest: 735px x unlimited (Expanded Pin)
• LinkedIn: 350px x 250px
• YouTube: 16:9 aspect ratio (Video)
• Google+: 497px x 373px, but can be as large as 2048px x 2048px
• Medium: 900px wide by any height
• Tumblr: 500px x 750px

Shared link graphic sizes

One of the common questions that we hear is "why is Facebook choosing that image on this link?" or "why don't my share images look the way they are supposed to?" There are typically two reasons for this. First, you need to make sure the social network knows which image you want it to highlight when you share a link. This is typically done with Open Graph tags or other metadata.

Secondly, you need to make sure the images included in a page or post are the size that the social network expects. If the shape of image isn't right for the social network, it will often distort or ignore that image.

Shared link graphic sizes

• Twitter: 1024px x 512px
• Facebook: 1200px x 628px
• Instagram: 238px x 238px (Photo Thumbnails)
• Pinterest: 235px x 800px (Pin Preview); 68px x 68px (Board Thumbnail)
• LinkedIn: 180px x 110px (thumbnail)
• YouTube: 1280px x 720px (Custom Video Thumbnail)
• Google+: 497px x 373px
• Medium: Will pull story header image or profile image

But wait — there's more to image sizes!

The visual side of social is always evolving. Here are some additional resources that dig deeper into all of these areas:

Facebook help center
Instagram images
LinkedIn image dimensions
Pinterest boards about social media image sizes
Medium image sizes
Medium help center
Twitter sizing