Open Graph Image Size: Dimensions, Aspect Ratio and File Checks

A social share image should communicate the page at a glance. A very small image can look soft, a square image may be cropped in a wide card and a huge file can take too long for a crawler to retrieve. The right choice balances aspect ratio, visual composition, accessibility and delivery performance.

A practical starting point: 1200 × 630 pixels

1200 × 630 has an aspect ratio of approximately 1.91:1. It is a widely used baseline for Open Graph images and works well as a source canvas for many large link-card layouts. It is not a guarantee that every app will show the entire image or use identical dimensions.

Design for cropping

• Keep the headline and logo near the visual centre.
• Leave breathing room around text and important faces or objects.
• Do not place critical details at the extreme edges.
• Check the card at desktop and narrow mobile widths.
• Use a high-contrast title and avoid tiny text that becomes unreadable in a thumbnail.

Choose a sensible format and file weight

JPEG and PNG are broadly understood formats for social images. WebP and other formats may work in some environments, but support and transformation behaviour vary. When compatibility is critical, use a well-compressed JPEG or PNG and verify the exact response returned by your server.

Metadata that describes the image

The Open Graph protocol supports og:image:width, og:image:height, og:image:type and og:image:alt as structured image properties. Set width and height to the real pixel dimensions. Write alt text that describes the image rather than repeating the page title.

<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/share.jpg" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />
<meta property="og:image:type" content="image/jpeg" />
<meta property="og:image:alt" content="Product dashboard showing campaign analytics" />

Checklist before publishing

1. The image URL is absolute and uses HTTPS.
2. The image is publicly accessible without cookies.
3. The response is an actual image, not an HTML error page.
4. The aspect ratio is appropriate for a landscape card.
5. The image is compressed without visible quality loss.
6. The metadata reports the actual width, height and alt description.