Social Media Link Preview Image Sizes for 2026

The one number to remember

If you build a single preview image and nothing else, make it 1200 x 630 pixels. That gives you a 1.91:1 ratio, and it renders as a full width card on Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, iMessage, and most other services that read Open Graph tags. The exact numbers differ by a pixel or two between platforms, so LinkedIn asks for 1200 x 627 and X reads 1200 x 628 for its standard card, but no eye can tell those apart from 630.

The image comes from a small piece of markup in the page head. When someone pastes your link, the platform reads the og:image tag and pulls the picture you named. A minimal set looks like this.

<meta property="og:title" content="Your headline"><meta property="og:description" content="One line of context"><meta property="og:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/preview.jpg"><meta property="og:url" content="https://yourdomain.com/page">

Use an absolute URL for the image. A relative path such as /preview.jpg fails on Slack and Facebook because their crawlers cannot resolve it. The full https:// address always works.

Where X is the exception

X reads the same Open Graph tags, but its large card wants a 16:9 ratio, which works out to 1200 x 675. Give it a 1.91:1 image and it trims a thin strip from the top and bottom to reach its own shape. The card still shows, and for most designs the trimmed strip holds nothing important.

To get the large image card on X rather than a small thumbnail, add one extra tag. Without it, X may fall back to a cramped square preview.

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">

Keep your text in the safe zone

Because platforms crop to their own ratios, the outer edge of your image is unreliable. Treat the center 1080 x 600 region as the space you can trust, and keep headlines, logos, and faces inside it. Roughly 60 pixels of clearance on each side is enough to survive every crop described above.

Per-platform reference

These are the sizes and file limits each platform reads today. When you are deciding on a single file, the top row is the one to build.

Which format to save

JPG suits photographs and images with gradients, and compresses to a small file without visible loss. PNG is the better pick when the image carries a logo, flat color, or crisp text, since it keeps edges sharp. Skip GIF, since several platforms will not render it in a preview at all.

File size matters more than people expect. WhatsApp enforces a small cap, and a heavy file can time out before the crawler finishes reading it. Saving a JPG at quality 80 to 85 usually lands under 300 KB while still looking clean.

Check it renders before you post

The markup can be correct and the image can still fail, because a stale cache, a blocked crawler, or a typo in the URL only shows up when a real platform tries to read the page. Seeing the rendered card first saves you from posting a broken preview to an audience.

The Social Preview Generator on View Page Source reads any live URL and shows you the card each platform will build from your tags. You paste the address, and it returns the image, title, and description exactly as they will appear, so you can catch a wrong size or a missing tag before anyone else does.

A short checklist

• Build one 1200 x 630 image and reuse it everywhere.
• Keep text and faces inside the center 1080 x 600 safe zone.
• Add twitter:card set to summary_large_image for the wide card on X.
• Use an absolute https:// URL in the og:image tag.
• Save as JPG or PNG under 300 KB.
• Run the URL through the Social Preview Generator before you post.