Facebook link preview image size

A Facebook link preview is built from the Open Graph tags on the page you share, and the image comes from og:image. Meta’s developer page on images in link shares gives three numbers. The smallest image it accepts is 200 × 200 pixels. For the best display on high-resolution devices it asks for at least 1200 × 630. If you can’t manage that, 600 × 315 is the minimum for a link post with a large image.

The file must not be bigger than 8 MB. Meta also says the shape is now the same across desktop and mobile Feed, and that you should stay as close to 1.91:1 as you can if you want the whole image to show without cropping. 1200 × 630 is almost exactly that shape.

You will find other figures. One part of Meta’s own sharing documentation says to use images at least 1080 pixels wide and, for link ads, at least 600 pixels wide, with 1:1 images recommended in ad creative. That advice is about ads. For an ordinary link share, Meta’s page on images in link shares is the more specific source, and it asks for 1200 × 630.

Third-party size guides vary as well. Sprout Social’s guide agrees on the 200 × 200 minimum and the 8 MB limit but, at the time of writing, lists a different recommended size from Meta’s. Where they disagree, build for Meta’s 1.91:1 shape, because it is the one the Feed displays whole.

Most link preview problems come from the crawler, not the file. Facebook’s crawler fetches the image once and caches it by its URL, so changing the file without changing the address does nothing. Meta’s Link Sharing FAQ covers the common cases:

• The image does not appear the first time someone shares the link. Images are cached asynchronously, so run the page through the Sharing Debugger first, or add og:image:width and og:image:height so the crawler knows the size at once.
• The image is a white box. Meta says the original is gone, too big, or could not be fetched. Check that the URL works for the crawler, the file is under 8 MB and your server answers within a few seconds.
• The image is a small square. It is smaller than 600 × 315 pixels, so Facebook has dropped to the small layout.
• The image is cropped oddly. Move the important part of the picture toward the middle, and bring the shape closer to 1.91:1.
• The page uses a relative og:image address. Meta says all URLs must be absolute.

Meta also notes that its crawler accepts only gzip and deflate encodings, so a server that sends anything else can cause a missing preview.

Meta’s advice for replacing a preview image is specific: use a new URL for the new file, and do not delete the old one, because existing posts still point to it and would show a white box. Then run the page through the Sharing Debugger, or force a scrape with the Graph API, so the crawler downloads the new image before anyone shares.

A new image only applies to future shares. A post that already carries the link keeps the old one until you refresh it: open the post, choose the three dots in the top right corner, and select Refresh share attachment. Meta also says a link’s title is frozen once a post has more than 50 interactions, so get the title right before sharing widely.

1. Start with a 1200 × 630 canvas and keep the key subject in the centre, away from the left and right edges.
2. Use big, simple words if there is text on it, because the preview shrinks a lot on a phone.
3. Export a JPEG or PNG under 8 MB. For a photo, a JPEG at reasonable quality is usually well below that.
4. Host it at its own permanent URL, and write the og:image, og:image:width and og:image:height tags on the page.
5. Test the page in the Sharing Debugger, then post it to a private audience to see it on both a phone and a computer.

Tip: Before you publish, view the page in the Sharing Debugger. It shows the image Facebook has scraped, and any warning about it, so you can fix the tag instead of guessing.