Profile picture size by platform: official specs

Profile picture size depends on the platform, and each platform words its figure in its own way. Facebook and LinkedIn state pixel figures in their help centers, and so does YouTube, while the numbers printed for Instagram and TikTok come from third-party guides. The cover or banner that sits above the picture has a size of its own on every one of them.

Profile picture size at a glance

The three platforms state three different kinds of number, so one well-prepared square covers all of them. A pixel (px) is one dot in the image grid, so a 320 × 320 px picture is a square 320 dots wide and 320 dots tall. Aspect ratio compares width with height: 16:9 is a wide rectangle and 1:1 is a square.

Profile picture and cover sizes by platform (pixels)

Facebook's row follows the figures that Hootsuite's guide lists as recommended. LinkedIn's profile figure is the smallest photo it accepts, and YouTube's is only the size the picture is drawn at on screen, with no upload size given. A square of 400 × 400 px or larger works for all three, which is our guidance rather than a rule any platform states.

Facebook profile picture size and cover photo dimensions

The two sizes most guides print for Facebook are a 320 × 320 px square and an 851 × 315 px strip, and Hootsuite's guide lists both as recommended. The square is the profile picture, and the strip is the cover photo across the top of the page. The figures come from the Facebook Help Center article on Page profile picture and cover photo dimensions, so read that page before relying on a figure to the pixel.

The cover is a much longer shape than a typical photo. Dividing 851 by 315 gives about 2.70, while a 16:9 image comes to about 1.78, so a widescreen photo has to be cropped before it fits. Crop it yourself and keep faces and text near the middle, so the part you drop is the part you chose.

For one file that also works on LinkedIn and YouTube, use the 400 × 400 px square from the table. It is 1.25 times Facebook's 320 px, 25% larger, so Facebook only ever has to scale it down.

LinkedIn profile photo size and banner size

LinkedIn gives a wide range for the profile photo but one exact target for the background photo, so the two photos need two separate files. The background photo is LinkedIn's name for the banner across the top of a profile. Both come from the same help article on photos that won't upload.

LinkedIn photo limits (pixels)

The 400 px figure is a floor, not a target, so a somewhat larger square leaves room to adjust the photo after upload. The upper limit is 16:9 and far beyond what a profile photo needs, which makes the 8 MB file limit the one to check. GIFs are not supported.

The background photo is exactly 4:1, since 1584 divided by 396 is 4. LinkedIn recommends a photo that won't need much cropping, so crop a wide picture to a 4:1 strip before uploading. If an upload still fails, LinkedIn suggests trying a different browser and then compressing the photo.

YouTube profile picture size, banner and watermark limits

YouTube states how large the picture is drawn but not how large to upload, so a bigger square is the safe choice. The channel branding help page covers three images, each with its own limits.

YouTube channel image limits (pixels)

The profile picture can be a JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG file, and a new one may take a few minutes to update across YouTube. Hootsuite's guide lists 800 × 800 px as a recommended YouTube size, but YouTube's own page gives only the 98 × 98 px render size. Upload a larger square and let YouTube scale it down.

The banner is 16:9 at the minimum, and 2560 × 1440 px is also 16:9. YouTube recommends that larger size especially for TV. At the minimum size, text and logos stay safe inside the central 1235 × 338 px, so keep them there.

The watermark is a square image shown on your videos, and the square you prepared for the profile picture can serve if the file stays small. Watermarks are not available on videos set as made for kids.

Instagram and TikTok profile picture size: what to upload

The only figures in circulation for these two platforms are third-party recommendations, so a 400 × 400 px square is the practical upload. Hootsuite's guide lists 320 × 320 px for Instagram and 200 × 200 px for TikTok as recommended. Those are guide authors' figures and not numbers from the platforms' own help pages, which is why the table above leaves both platforms out.

A square of 400 × 400 px is larger than either figure, so each app scales the picture down and never has to stretch it up. It is also the same file you prepared for LinkedIn, so one square covers all five platforms. Treat it as guidance, and follow the app's own crop screen if it shows one.

Keep your profile picture sharp and circle-safe everywhere

A picture survives every crop and every shrink when the subject sits in the middle of a large square. A circle drawn inside a square touches only the middle of each edge, so a circular crop removes the corners. A picture that survives a circle therefore survives a square too, while the reverse is not true.

Blur comes from the opposite direction. Enlarging a small image adds pixels without adding detail, so start from the largest original you have and only ever scale down.

• Center the subject: keep the face or logo in the middle and leave clear space toward the corners
• Don't upscale: if the only copy you have is small, find a larger original instead of enlarging it
• Export once: save from the original rather than re-saving a JPG that has already been compressed
• Test it small: shrink a copy to 98 × 98 px, the size YouTube renders, and check that the subject still reads

For photos and logos alike, LinkedIn accepts PNG or JPG. To choose between the two, Image file formats: 9 types and when to use each compares them side by side. If a file is over a limit, Reduce image file size without losing quality shows how to shrink it.

Resize your profile picture online with the image resizer

Resizing takes three actions: choose the largest original, enter the pixel size, and download the result. The steps are the same for every platform in the table.

1. Choose the original photo. Use the largest version you have, not a copy saved from a chat app, which may already be smaller.
2. Enter the pixel size, such as 400 × 400 px for a LinkedIn profile photo or 1584 × 396 px for its background photo.
3. Start the resize, then download the file once the result looks right.

Upload the file to the platform afterwards, and adjust the crop there if the platform asks for it. Crop the photo to a square first, so the resize does not have to squeeze a wide photo into a square. Then resize it to the size the platform needs with Sokufu's Image Resizer.