Profile Picture Sizes 2026: LinkedIn, X, YouTube, Instagram

Upload a square image of at least 400 × 400 pixels, as JPG or PNG, with your face centered: that meets the published requirements of LinkedIn and X and stays sharp on YouTube and Facebook. For banners the shapes differ a lot: LinkedIn wants 1584 × 396, X 1500 × 500, YouTube at least 2048 × 1152. Instagram and WhatsApp don't publish a profile photo size at all.

Official sizes, platform by platform

Every number below comes from the platform's own help pages, checked in October 2026. Where a platform doesn't publish a figure, the table says so rather than repeating numbers from third-party lists.

A few notes on reading this table:

• "Recommended" isn't "required." X and LinkedIn accept other sizes and resize them; the recommendation is what avoids blur or odd cropping.
• Display size isn't upload size. YouTube shows your picture at 98 × 98, but it appears in many places at different sizes, and phones with high-density screens use more pixels than the nominal size. Upload larger than the display size.
• Banners are cropped differently on each device. X warns that part of the header can be cut at the top and bottom depending on the screen; YouTube's safe area is the only part shown everywhere, including phones. LinkedIn also crops the background differently on mobile and desktop.

How to make one image work everywhere

1. Start from a sharp original, not a screenshot or a photo already sent through a messaging app.
2. Crop to a square with your face in the middle, eyes about a third from the top. Leave some space around the head: almost every platform shows the picture as a circle, which cuts the corners.
3. Resize to 800 × 800 or 1000 × 1000 pixels. That clears every published minimum with margin, and stays well under the smallest file limit (X's 2 MB) when saved as JPEG.
4. Save as JPG for photos, PNG for logos or graphics with sharp edges. Avoid WebP and HEIC here: not every upload form accepts them. If a file arrives as WebP, our guide on what a WebP file is explains how to convert it.
5. Check the file size. If it's over 2 MB, lower the JPEG quality a little; how to compress an image without losing quality covers the settings.
6. Remove metadata before uploading. A profile photo is public, and the original file may hold the GPS location where it was taken. Our EXIF remover cleans a copy in your browser without uploading it.
7. Preview on a phone and a computer after uploading, since crops differ.

Our free image cropper and image resizer handle steps 2 and 3 in the browser.

Banners: design for the crop

Banners are wide and get cropped differently on phones, tablets, desktops and TVs. A few rules that hold across platforms:

• Keep text and logos in the center. On YouTube, inside the 1235 × 338 safe area. On X, away from the top and bottom edges.
• Leave space where the profile photo overlaps. On LinkedIn and Facebook the round profile picture sits over the lower-left part of the banner on many layouts.
• Use exact pixel sizes. Uploading 1584 × 396 to LinkedIn or 1500 × 500 to X avoids the platform resizing and re-compressing more than necessary.
• Prefer simple images. Fine text in a banner turns to mush after the platform compresses it. Big shapes and short words survive.

Formal photos: when a profile picture isn't enough

Job portals, company directories and some ID-related services ask for a "passport-style" photo: plain background, neutral expression, specific proportions. Those rules are different from social media. Our passport photo tool crops to official ID photo formats in the browser, and the guide to passport photo size requirements lists the measurements by country.

Privacy before you upload

A profile picture is the most public image you have: anyone can usually see it without following you, and it gets copied, cached and indexed.

• Look at the background. House numbers, a car plate, a school logo or a recognizable window view say more than the face.
• Check the file, not just the image. Platforms generally strip metadata on upload, but don't rely on it, and the same file may also go to places that don't. See how to check photo metadata.
• Use a different photo for different contexts if you prefer that a work profile and a personal one aren't trivially linked by a reverse image search.

The originals you don't publish, such as the ID photo you used for a document or scans of the document itself, are worth keeping somewhere private. sigil. stores them in an encrypted vault on your phone with 256-bit encryption, opened only by a sign you draw on a 5×5 grid, and strips EXIF and location on import and export. No account, no server.

Bottom line

A square JPG of 800 to 1000 pixels, face centered, under 2 MB, works as a profile picture on every platform here. For banners, use each platform's exact size and keep anything important in the center. When a platform doesn't publish a size, as with Instagram and WhatsApp, a sharp square photo is the best you can do, and lists claiming "the official size" are guessing.

Sources

• LinkedIn Help: Photo won't upload to your profile
• LinkedIn Help: Add or change the background photo on your profile
• X Help Center: Help with uploading a profile photo
• X Help Center: How to customize your profile
• YouTube Help: Manage your channel branding
• Facebook Help Center: Page profile picture and cover photo dimensions
• Facebook Help Center: Add or change your cover photo
• Instagram Help Center: Edit profile
• WhatsApp Help Center: How to edit photos and videos