The Ultimate Facebook Photos Size Guide

With 1.18 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the world’s largest social network. In the beginning, Facebook was all about text and links. But as it has grown up, images have become more and more important on Facebook. They’re now more important for design and identity on the user interface, like your profile picture or cover photo. 

Truly, a picture is worth more than a thousand words. Facebook has ensured that you can effectively communicate your thoughts and experiences with the use of high-quality images. it’s a great way to share photos in galleries and on the timeline. Facebook photos are now a big part of the site’s appeal even as dedicated image apps like Instagram have become hugely popular as well.

One thing to remember when choosing your photos is that there is a difference between how things will display on your personal timeline and how things will display in a user’s newsfeed.

  Width Height Notes
Cover Photo / Cover Slideshow 820px 360px  
Profile Picture in Header 172px 172px Must be at least 180px by 180px
Profile Picture on Timeline 40px 40px Same image as main Profile Picture, automatically downscaled
Shared Link Thumbnail 500px 261px Only for single thumbnails. Multiple thumbnails are cropped.
Uploaded Timeline Photo Thumbnail 500px max 750px max See exceptions above for multiple images.
Event Header Image 500px 262px 16:9 aspect ratio only. For best results, upload 1920 x 1080 px image.


In this post, I’m gonna give you the most accurate and up-to-date references to the ideal Facebook image sizes and dimensions.

1. Facebook Profile Photo Size

Your profile picture is the single most important personal marketing tool you have on social media or any digital channel for that matter! It is always the first thing people see when they browse your profile and quickly differentiates serious professionals from amateurs.

Profile Photo

A profile picture is a square image that measures 168px by 168px on desktop. However, be aware that even though you’ll be uploading a square photo, it will be cropped into a circle.

Size: 180 x 180 (Displays 170 x 170 on Desktop) pixels

Image Guidelines

  • Must be at least 180 x 180 pixels.
  • Facebook Profile Picture : Is displays at 170px by 170px on computers and 128px by 128px on smartphones.
  • Profile pictures are located 16 pixels from the left and 176 pixels from the top of your cover photo on desktop.
  • Profile Picture on the Timeline: The profile image that appears next to your name on comments and posts is the same image but is automatically scaled down to 40px by 40px.
  • Photo thumbnails will appear throughout Facebook at 32 x 32 pixels.
  • You can also change your settings so that your photos are uploaded in HD by default.

2. Facebook Cover Photo Size

The most important thing you can start with is optimizing your Facebook cover photo. Your Facebook cover photo is an important part of your Facebook page.

When someone searches for your Facebook page, the first thing anyone notices is the big, bold Facebook cover photo that takes up almost a quarter of your desktop screen. It is located at the top of your personal timeline and the cover photo is the perfect place to showcase your personality.

The cover photo of your profile needs to fit the dimensions specified by Facebook, which is why it is being cropped. Currently, those dimensions (for a business page) are 820 pixels wide by 462 pixels tall. But the photo will be cropped differently depending on the screen size it is viewed on. If it contains text or a logo, test it on a mobile and computer.

Image Guidelines

  • A cover photo measures 851×315px. This is the minimum size that Facebook will display the photo.
  • The minimum size of 400 x 150 pixels.
  • For a computer or laptop screen it should be 820 pixels wide and 312 pixels tall. The higher the resolution the better. If you want the upload to be fast, use pics in JPG format.
  • For smartphone screens use pictures 640 pixels wide and 360 pixels tall.
  • It doesn’t display on feature phones.
  • For best results, upload an sRGB JPG file less than 100 KB.
  • Images with a logo or text may be best as a PNG file.
  • Business Page dimensions are exactly the same as personal accounts.

Tips For Your Cover Photo: Make your profile cover something special that makes you look like a real human being. Also, be aware that because of certain user interface elements, parts of your profile cover will be covered up.

3. Facebook Shared Image Size (Post)

A shared image is one of the most common features of sharing your activity on Facebook. These images will always appear on your timeline, and Your friends’ and followers’ timeline. Though with the decrease in organic reach, it’s unlikely that everyone will see your post.

These get pretty complicated once you start mixing square images with landscape and portrait images, and also publishing multi-photo posts. To keep things simple, just try to publish your images in as high resolution as possible. Try to make sure the height or width of the image reaches 2048 pixels.

Image Guidelines

  • All aspects: 2048 pixels (width)
  • Square: 2048 x 2048 pixels 
  • Portrait: 2048 x 3072 pixels 
  • Landscape: 2048 x 1149 pixels

4. Facebook Group Cover Photo Size

Facebook Groups are an important part of social media marketing for an increasing number of businesses.  These groups are incredibly useful in terms of establishing an online community. 

Having the perfect Facebook group cover photo is pretty important. It’s the first thing a visitor will see when they land on your group page. It should be eye-catching, explanatory of your group’s purpose, but most of all, it should be a perfect size.

According to Hootsuite, more than 200 million people are members of meaningful groups on Facebook and communities that become a key part of a user’s experience. 

The perfect Facebook group cover photo size is 1640 x 856 pixels. These banner dimensions give a 1.91:1 aspect ratio.

Image Guidelines

  • Although it’s actually 1,640px by 859px! Not sure why they state 856, which isn’t exactly 1.91:1, nor what displays. But close.
  • After changing on November 27, Facebook changed cropping on mobile again in early December. I updated the post and template.
  • You can simply use 1,640px by 859px, or 1.91:1 ratio, which will work fine on both phones and tablets. Facebook no longer places text overlay across the bottom on mobile.
  • Allow cropping top and bottom on desktop. Facebook isn’t allowing full control over the cropping on desktop. A portion of the top and bottom will be cropped.

The cover photos you choose for your Facebook group will be one of the first things that members of your group notice. It can set the tone for the entire group especially when it’s first getting started. It’s important, and you should look at it as a key part of your group’s branding. If the group is tied to your business, it directly reflects on your business’s branding, too.

5. Facebook Event Photo Size

Facebook events are one of the social media giant’s older products. Launched in 2005, events are the perfect addition to Facebook.  Facebook has a website feature that allows users to organize social gatherings called Facebook events. This feature comes with a separate page dedicated to the details and a guest list for the event.

It is the simple way to connect your friends, family or fans is through an event. And on Facebook, it’s simple to create an event, send invites and keep the conversation going. With all the noise on social media, you need to make sure your Facebook event photo stands out and is memorable to invitees.

Image Guidelines

The recommended Facebook event cover photo size is 1200 x 628, the same as a link share. This is a 1.91:1 ratio.

  • Current size: 1200 x 628 (2:1 ratio)
  • Recommended size: 1920 x 1080 (16:9 ratio)
  • Minimum dimensions: 470 × 174

If your Facebook event photo size is incorrect, missing or just plain boring, you limit how many attendees and how much interest you can draw.

6. Facebook Ad Size

Facebook Ads have enormous potential for businesses of all sizes. Not to only drive sales, but to also introduce customers to your brand and create actual demand. Even if you have a restricted budget, there’s a possibility to get great results at a relatively low cost for whatever ad spend you have available. 

When it comes to strong campaigns, there are a few elements you need to consider. You’ll want to ensure that the targeting is on point for the goal you want to accomplish and that the copywriting takes both factors into consideration. But that’s not all that matters: the visual component of the ad carries a lot of weight, too.

Most of the ads available to advertisers on Facebook share universal image dimensions, as explained above. However, there are specifics related to file type, character count, and image-to-text ratio that differ depending on where you place your ad.

Facebook ad image size matters for a few reasons:

  • Understanding Facebook ad image size means you avoid images that appear distorted because they’re stretched, pixelated or blurry.
  • Depending on the marketing objective for your ad, the image size and placement you use will either help your ad stand out or blend in with everything else your audience sees.
  • The right size and placement help your ad target the right audience — across multiple platforms.
News Feed, Right Column, Instant Articles, Marketplace Ads
  • Image-to-text: 5:1 — If your image design includes text, keep it under 20% of the image to optimize the ad’s audience potential.
  • Maximum headline: 25 characters
  • Maximum text: 125 characters
  • Recommended image resolution: 1,080 x 1,080 px (476 x 249 px minimum)
  • Maximum link description: 30 characters
  • Maximum video length: 240 minutes
  • Maximum video file size: 4GB

Facebook in-stream video ads

In-stream video ad specs

  • Recommended uploading the highest resolution video possible.
  • The recommended aspect ratio is 16:9 (ratios fall between 9:16 to 16:9).
  • Recommended video formats are .MP4 and .MOV.
  • Max’s video file size is 4GB.
  • Video length is 5 to 15 seconds.
  • Highly recommended to include video sound.
  • Captions are likewise optional but recommended
  • Video thumbnails with 20% text or more could increase chances of failed delivery

7. Facebook’s Privacy Policy Explained

Facebook can record and access all the information you share on Facebook — all of it. It can also access information other Facebook users share about you on Facebook. Lastly, it can access a variety of information from the websites you visit through its “Like” button — even if you’re not logged into Facebook at the time. In fact, you don’t even have to have a Facebook account at all for the social network to scoop up certain bits of data.

Part 1. Your privacy, information

Assuming you do have a Facebook account, here is a quick-as-possible list of the information Facebook is probably collecting on you:

  • Name
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Email address
  • Networks
  • Photos and videos
  • Which profiles you look at
  • Who you chat with through Facebook Messenger
  • Relationship status
  • “Likes” (anytime you click the “Like” button on Facebook or a third-party website)
  • Lists of favorite things (movies, music, books, etc)
  • Political affiliation
  • Which websites you visit and when
  • Anything you purchase with Facebook Credits
  • Browser type
  • Operating system type
  • IP address
  • GPS location
  • User ID number
  • Username

Part 2. Sharing

This is one area where things get tricky. As mentioned above, you have the ability to choose how (most of) your information is shared. Problem is, your friends also have that ability — and some of the information they share includes data about you.

Contact infoFacebook lets you find people by searching for an email address or phone number that has been associated with that user’s Facebook account.

Mobile accessNot surprisingly, the information you reveal to Facebook may be accessible through your friends’ mobile devices (either in an app or through Facebook’s mobile website).

Groups: You have the choice of whether or not to join a Facebook Group. Once you have, however, anyone in that group can invite you to subgroups. Your name will appear as “invited” to the subgroup until you opt-in or out.

Pages: Just assume that everything you do that’s associated with a Facebook Page — which is public and is often used by business and publications — is public. 

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