Facebook cover photo size
Mobile shows a narrower slice than desktop, keep content centred.
Cropped in your browser · your image is never uploaded
Facebook’s published upload spec is 851 × 315 as an sRGB JPEG under 100 KB. A Page then renders it at 820 × 312 on a computer and 640 × 360 on a phone — 2.63:1 against 1.78:1 — so one file is cropped twice, to two different shapes.
How to use the facebook cover photo size
The two renders are the whole problem, and the point people miss is that they are not the same aspect ratio. 820 × 312 is 2.63:1; 640 × 360 is 1.78:1. Facebook takes one upload and cuts it twice, and what survives both is a centred region roughly 640 wide inside the 851. Anything near the left or right edge is on a laptop and gone on a phone. The profile picture then removes a corner on top of that: on a personal profile it overlaps the lower left of the cover, and a Page positions it differently again, so it is worth designing against the one you actually have.
Facebook’s file guidance here is unusually specific and worth following: an sRGB JPEG at 851 × 315, under 100 KB. That is a speed instruction rather than a quality one — the cover is the largest image on the page and Facebook would rather it were small. The exception Facebook names itself is a cover carrying a logo or flat type, which does better as a PNG, because JPEG artefacts gather around hard edges. Uploading at 1702 × 630 trades the 100 KB against sharpness on a high-density screen, and the reason is arithmetic rather than compression: a cover shown at 820 CSS pixels needs 1640 real ones on a 2× display.
The hard floor is 400 × 150. Anything smaller is refused, and a file at exactly that size is stretched to more than double its width to fill the desktop render, which shows.
What people use it for
- Keeping a strapline inside the region both crops share
- Designing around the profile picture that sits over the lower left
- Getting a cover down to the 100 KB Facebook asks for
- Deciding between JPEG and PNG for a cover with type on it
- Fixing a cover whose left and right edges disappear on a phone
Questions
Upload 851 × 315. A Page renders it at 820 × 312 on a computer and 640 × 360 on a phone.
Facebook asks for an sRGB JPEG under 100 KB. Use PNG instead when the cover carries a logo or flat type, since JPEG artefacts gather around hard edges.
The two renders are different aspect ratios, 2.63:1 on a computer and 1.78:1 on a phone. Only a centred region about 640 wide survives both.
400 × 150. Below that it is refused, and at exactly that size it is stretched to more than double for the desktop render.
On a personal profile, yes, over the lower left. A Page positions it differently, so design against the one you have.
For a high-density screen, yes: 1702 × 630. A cover shown at 820 CSS pixels needs 1640 real ones on a 2× display.