The 2026 Social Media Image Size Cheat Sheet

If you only remember one number, remember 1200×630. A single image at that size, exported as a JPEG under ~200 KB, renders correctly almost everywhere a link gets shared. This page is the rest of the detail — the exact specs per platform, the safe zone that survives cropping, and the file-size ceilings — verified against current platform documentation.

What is the universal Open Graph image size?

The Open Graph protocol — the <meta property="og:..."> tags that platforms read to build a link preview — has a de facto standard: 1200×630 pixels, a 1.91:1 aspect ratio. Facebook recommends it, LinkedIn and Discord read the same tags, and X (Twitter) uses the same dimensions for its summary_large_image card.

The exact dimensions, per platform

A few notes the table can't hold:

• X / Twitter has two card types. summary_large_image is the big 1.91:1 banner most people want; summary is a small square thumbnail. You choose with the twitter:card meta tag — see Twitter Card Meta Tags.
• LinkedIn clips a few pixels off the edges, so keep critical content away from the border (see the safe zone below).
• iMessage and WhatsApp are high-trust, person-to-person channels that most blogs ignore. iMessage favors a square image and a short title; WhatsApp wants the file under 300 KB.

What is the safe zone, and why does it matter?

Different apps crop the same image differently — Facebook trims the sides on mobile, LinkedIn shaves the edges. The fix is a safe zone: keep your logo, headline, and any text inside the centre, leaving roughly a 60-pixel margin on all sides (a center region of about 1080×510 for a 1200×630 card). Anything outside that band should be decorative only.

How small should the file be?

Dimensions decide whether the image fits; file size decides whether it loads. A scraper or a phone on a slow connection will sometimes give up on a multi-megabyte image and show nothing.

Practical rules:

• Use JPEG for photographic cards, PNG when the design is text and flat color, and WebP if you control delivery and know the consumer supports it.
• Compress before you publish. Quality 80 JPEG is visually indistinguishable from 100 at a fraction of the bytes.
• Treat 5 MB as a hard ceiling (8 MB on Facebook) — but never get close to it.

The minimum tags to actually get a preview

Dimensions are wasted if the tags are wrong. The four that matter:

<meta property="og:title" content="Your headline (under ~60 characters)" />
<meta property="og:description" content="One-line summary (110–160 characters)" />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/card.jpg" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://yoursite.com/post" />

The og:image value must be an absolute HTTPS URL. A relative path (/card.jpg) is the most common reason a preview comes back blank. For the full breakdown of every tag, see What Is Open Graph?. When a preview still won't render, work through Why Your Link Preview Is Broken.

The one-line takeaway

Export at 1200×630, keep content in the safe zone, ship it as a sub-200 KB JPEG at an absolute HTTPS URL, and you have a card that works on every major platform. Generating that card for every post automatically — sized, branded, and never broken — is exactly what Social Card Studio does.