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The Secret to Getting a Large Facebook Link Thumbnail

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Want a large Facebook Link Thumbnail? You need a BIG blog post image. Learn the minimum and optimal image sizes so you don't get a teensy link thumbnail.

Are you getting LARGE Facebook Link Thumbnail images?

Or are you stuck with tiny postage-stamp sized link previews?

In 2014, Facebook upped the minimum size required to get those lovely large links!

Now you need to change the way you create blog images, AND share links on Facebook.

Why Care About Facebook Link Thumbnails?

Standard link posts (that is, with the link preview generated by Facebook) are getting better click-throughs than other ways to share links recommended in the past.

With the large preview image, that can only get better – IF you take advantage of it!

We will cover:

  • How to share a link on your Facebook Page
  • Facebook link thumbnail size in the news feed
  • Why don’t I get a large Facebook link thumbnail?
  • Blog image size for best Facebook link preview
  • Facebook link ad size
  • How to preview a Facebook post with the Facebook share debugger
  • How to change or remove a Facebook link preview
  • How to restore a missing link image
  • How to get a link to a Facebook post

Lots of good stuff, so let’s get started!

This post was originally published in June 2014 and last updated March 2020.

The Secret to Getting a Large Facebook Link Thumbnail

How to share a link with preview on your Facebook Page

You can share using the web page’s share button, or paste the link into an update on your Page.

Don’t forget to include a question to generate comments, or a curiosity-provoking description to get clicks to the site.

I recommend posting the link on Facebook, because you get more image options!

When you share a link on your Page, you can include a preview in your post. The preview can include up to 10 images with descriptions and unique destination URLs.

To share a link on your Facebook Page:

1 | Click in Write a post… at the top of your Page’s timeline and enter the link you want to share.

2 |Customize the preview. Images from the webpage may automatically be added to your post’s preview. There are several ways to customize the preview:

  • Add or Remove Images: You can remove an image from the preview by clicking the thumbnail below Available images. Click + to add an image from your computer.
  • Edit Descriptions: If you’ve added multiple images, click the description below each image in the preview to edit it.
  • Edit Destination URLs: To edit the destination URL for an image in the preview, hover over the image and click .

4 | Click Publish. source

What’s the Facebook link thumbnail size in the News Feed?

On desktop, a large link preview will appear at 470 x 246 pixels. On mobile, the link preview will appear at 560×292 pixels.

If your blog post image isn’t big enough, then it will render as 154 x 154 or 90 x 90 px (the largest available size). BIG difference!

Facebook says:

Use images that are at least 1200 x 630 pixels for the best display on high resolution devices. At the minimum, you should use images that are 600 x 315 pixels to display link page posts with larger images. If your image is smaller than 600 x 315 px, it will still display in the link page post, but the size will be much smaller.*

And that nice, big image (with its text box) links to the blog post when clicked, making it much easier for viewers to get to your blog posts.

*Note: Sometimes Facebook says 1200 x 628 and 600 x 314 pixels. I have no idea why this 1-pixel discrepancy, but I doubt it matters.

Why didn’t I get a large Facebook link thumbnail?

There must be a large enough image on the web page you wish to share on Facebook.

The Facebook Help Team says:

Images that are at least 470×246 pixels will display as a rectangle with the title and description below. Images that are smaller than 470×246 pixels will display as a square with the title and description to the right.

The only way to adjust your post back to having a rectangle image is to choose an image that fits the size requirements. source

I hear that the minimum size doesn’t always work. This is still what Facebook is recommending! source

If it’s not working for you, the solution is simple: make it bigger! Go with 1200 x 630.

Additionally, sometimes the preview before you publish looks small, but still posts as large. Try the Facebook link debugger further down.

Blog image sizes for maximum impact on Facebook

Facebook recommends 1200 x 628 pixel size for link share images. The minimum size suggested to ensure a large preview image is 600 x 314 pixels.

The common denominator with all these link thumbnail image sizes is an aspect ratio of 1.91 wide to 1 tall. So you could take the height of your image and multiply it by 1.91 to determine the proper width.

I now make all my blog header images to the width of my blog’s content column – which is 720 pixels.

So my Facebook link shares are 720 x 377, which is a 1.91:1 aspect ratio. My pins are 720 x 1080, which is Pinterest’s recommended 2:3 Pin size.

If you don’t want that horizontal image, use any shape image that’s at least 600 pixels wide to generate a large link preview. NOTE:  the top and bottom will be cut off in the link thumbnail. The image in the thumbnail below was a 624 pixel square on the blog post.

The Secret to Getting a Large Facebook Link Thumbnail

I recommend creating an image at least 600 x 314 pixels for each of your new blog posts going forward. Any smaller, and your link posts will be at a big disadvantage in the news feed.

If you have older posts that you (or readers) will be sharing on Facebook, and especially if you plan to run one as a Page Post Link Ad, you’d be smart to create a new, larger image for that blog post. Bigger images on blog posts look more up-to-date, too.

If you don’t want the image to be visible on your blog at all, you can set the link preview image using Open Graph (og:image) tags. A WordPress plugin like Yoast SEO makes this easy to do.

What’s the Facebook link ad size?

You can use the same 1.91:1 aspect ratio image as a normal, organic, non-paid link share.

But you can go larger! Facebook recommends a square for link ads.

NEW: You can go up to 4:5 aspect ratio now, which is a portrait image size on Instagram.

Larger images are always more eye-catching. And if you’re popping for an ad, might as well get your money’s worth, right?

Use images that are at least 1080 pixels in width for best display on high resolution devices. At the minimum, you should use images that are 600 pixels in width to display image link ads. We recommend using 1:1 images in your ad creatives for better performance with image link ads.

1:1 images with image link ads

LEARN MORE: Everything you need to know about Facebook ad sizes

How to preview your post with the Facebook share debugger

When content is shared for the first time, the Facebook crawler will scrape and cache the metadata from the URL shared. The crawler has to see an image at least once before it can be rendered.

This means that the first person who shares a piece of content won’t see a rendered image:

the first person who shares a piece of content won't see a link share image

There are two ways to avoid this and have images render on the first Like or Share action:

1. Pre-cache the image with the Sharing Debugger

Run the URL through the URL debugger to pre-fetch metadata for the page. You should also do this if you update the image for a piece of content.

2. Use og:image:width and og:image:height Open Graph tags

Using these tags will specify the image dimensions to the crawler so that it can render the image immediately without having to asynchronously download and process it.

As mentioned above, you can use a plugin like Yoast SEO if you’re not a techie!

Getting your meta-tags and social plugins correct can take a bit of tweaking, so use the debug tool to test how your pages are viewed by Facebook’s scraper.

Just enter your page URL, and you’ll get a page of useful information, such as the meta-tags that are being picked up from your page and any errors or warnings with your content that might affect social plugins. source

Facebook object debugger

Please consult your website developer or tech-savvy friend with questions about this stuff, as I’m not qualified to troubleshoot!

How can I change or remove my Facebook link preview?

If you’re posting your link right on Facebook – as opposed to sharing from your blog’s social sharing buttons – you can select which image to use as the link preview.

All images picked up by Facebook are pulled in and highlighted as tiny images at the bottom of the Publish box (note blue outline).

Deselect any you don’t want to show in your Facebook post by clicking on it. The blue outline will disappear.

You can delete all but one if you like – up to you.

If you leave several outlined, viewers will be able to scroll through them in a “carousel.”

To remove the preview from your post:

  1. Unselect all images by clicking the thumbnails at the bottom.
  2. Hover over the preview image.
  3. Click x in the top-right corner. source

Deselect any images you don't want to show in your Facebook post. You can delete all but one if you like – up to you.

Facebook announced on June 28 2017, you will no longer be able to customize link metadata (i.e. headline, description, OR thumbnail image) in any link shares on Facebook.

While you can still choose which pulled-in image becomes the preview, you’ll no longer be able to edit the link thumbnail image, title, or description of a link preview.

Facebook explained why you can’t edit link metadata:

By removing the ability to customize link metadata (i.e. headline, description, image) from all link sharing entry points on Facebook, we are eliminating a channel that has been abused to post false news.

We’re working to find other solutions that allow publishers to share customized content on our platform, and we will have more to share in the coming weeks. As we make these changes, content creators maintain the ability to control how their links appear on Facebook using Open Graph meta tags. source

You’ll no longer be able to edit the link thumbnail image, title, or description of a Facebook link preview.

Be sure to set your Open Graph meta tags the way you want your link share to look before you publish your blog post!

To preview how your link will look when posted on Facebook, use the sharing debugger.

Note that you can remove the URL from the text when you’re happy with the link preview. It’s no longer needed.

Facebook Link Thumbnail Missing? Restore it!

If you’ve followed these tips, your thumbnail should show up – particularly if you’ve set og tags manually, or with a plugin like Yoast.

Still having problems?

If you try to post a link on Facebook and see something like this:

Facebook Link Thumbnail Missing

Follow these steps:

  1. Ensure that you have an image on the page that’s at least 200 x 200 pixels.
  2. If so, head over to the Facebook Object Debugger. Enter the page URL.
  3. You may get some techy solutions – but for now, go back to Facebook and try posting your link again.
  4. Success!

Facebook Link Thumbnail Found!

That should do the trick!

How to get a link to a Facebook post on computer or mobile

This is a somewhat different topic, but the wording and search terms are so similar, I wanted to cover it too.

Sometimes you want to point followers or friends to a specific post on Facebook. Each Facebook post does have a unique link that you can share anywhere that accepts hyperlinks!

It’s a great idea to share these to your email list, asking them for comments on your post.

First, be sure that it’s a Public post, or your audience will be limited to the audience specified for the post.

right click on the timestamp and Copy Link address

To copy the URL of a Facebook post while on a computer browser, simply right click on the timestamp below the original poster’s name, and Copy Link Address.

Or, when you get a notification about a post, the URL you’re taken to is the URL of the post. You can copy the link in your browser bar.

Now go paste it wherever you like!

To grab the Facebook post link while on mobile:

This seems to keep changing, but here’s what worked in March 2019:

1 | Find the post and tap the Share icon below.

2 | Choose More Options…

3 | Choose Message.

4 | Copy the link out of the message. You don’t need to send it.

That’s it! Now you’ve got a shareable link to a Facebook post.

how to get Facebook post link on mobile

Facebook link previews: Conclusion

We covered a lot! Scroll back to review as needed:

  • How to share a link on your Facebook Page
  • Facebook link thumbnail size in the news feed
  • How to get a large Facebook link image
  • Blog image size to get the best Facebook link preview
  • Facebook link ad size options
  • Preview your Facebook post with the Facebook share debugger
  • Change or remove your Facebook link preview
  • How to restore a missing link image
  • How to get the link to a Facebook post

For general help with improving your Facebook Page:

READ: How to Promote Your Small Business on Facebook

If this post has helped you with Facebook Link Thumbnail image sizes, please share!

The Secret to Getting a Large Facebook Link Thumbnail

Comments

  1. I always like your information! Not only is the info itself good, but your delivery of “how to” is exceptional! You talk in plain English for the rest of us. Thanks!

  2. I’m glad to know about the Facebook changes – it’s hard to keep on top of them all! Keep up the amazing effort.

  3. Thank you for this information. I use images daily for Facebook to promote my photography blog and was not aware of this info. I will continue to watch for your posts and share!

  4. You are really a genius about new technology as well as tips and tricks. Please post some article about how can I use facebook for business in 2013. I hope it will be very helpful for us.

    • Thanks for stopping by, Tarquil! I hope you find my Facebook graphics tips helpful. My new ebook will be coming out at the beginning of the new year!

  5. While I welcome the opportunity to display larger thumbnails, this change has created huge problems for everyone who wants to share content on Facebook. Anything that doesn’t conform to these strict dimensions gets cropped randomly to fit the dimensions of the thumbnails, instead of being scaled in proportion, like it used to be. The portrait oriented images are the worst. Also, Facebook seem to randomly pick images from a page, and the one you want is not always available to display. Have you tried pasting the URL of this post into Facebook? I often do this when I want to share a webpage that has no share buttons. Try it! See what happens? Your images get chosen and cropped randomly and it looks pretty awful. And there’s nothing you can do to change it! It’s soooo frustrating!

  6. Hey Louise,

    Thanks for reminding. That’s why I noticed! In the past, I usually use a small image and when I start using a bigger one, FB will display a bigger image.

    Great article and thanks for sharing!

  7. Thanks for the Facebook tips; it is getting harder and harder to keep up with all the change.

    • I hear ya, Charlie! It’s exhausting just updating the posts, let alone updating my Facebook page 🙂

  8. Hi Louise,

    Wow nice information, funny enough, i have been using Facebook to promote most of my content but I don’t really have an idea how images appear……

  9. This is a REALLY GREAT tip! Thanks for sharing! Will definitely be putting it to good use.

  10. Hi Louise, I’m having issues with the thumbnails still rendering small when I make a post, even though I’ve followed the image size guidelines of at least 600×315 (mine is actually 750×315) . Any tips??

  11. Awesome! nobody aware of this Facebook thumbnail feature !
    Thanks for sharing with us Louise 🙂

  12. Its so frustrating how they change the facebook rules and algorithms all the time. Cant seem to keep up. Most of my images seem to be big enough to go to the large image thankfully.

    • I know what you mean, Toni! Good work with the large images. They look great on a blog, and social media loves them.

  13. It’s worth mentioning that Facebook gives you the opportunity to upload an image for link posts. This is very handy if Facebook isn’t picking up a good image from a third-party link, or if the image on your own site isn’t optimal in size and/or dimensions.

    This means that you don’t necessarily have to have ginormous images on your blog posts to take advantage of large image previews on Facebook. You can also control which images Facebook picks up through proper use of Facebook’s Open Graph protocol. Those images don’t even have to be visible in the blog post.

  14. Yeah I was searching for a reason from a long time that why my site thumbnails are not opening properly on facebook. Thanks a lot for explaining in details. I am going to take care of it Louise from now.

  15. How would I get a youtube video to show up with a full thumbnail? I’m having trouble figuring it out.

    • Hey Nick,
      I don’t post videos so I don’t know. I’ve heard there’s a difference between “sharing” and “embedding” a video on Facebook though.
      Hope you find your answer – best of luck!

    • We’ve been trying to do this for a while. We have custom code that calls the YouTube (or Vimeo) API to retrieve the largest still image, then insert that as our OG:IMAGE. But for some reason, Facebook still often shrinks it down to a thumbnail.

      • See my other reply: if you’re sharing a post with an embedded video, Facebook will override the og:image. Hope they change that!

  16. Hi Louise,

    Thank you so much for writing this great article. With all the social media image sizes, it is good to have an article, source that gives the right direction when creating images for Facebook posts.

    I’ll recommend or article to my clients.

    Have a great week!
    Kind regards,
    Marcelo

    • Your welcome, Marcelo, and thank YOU for your kind comment, and recommendations!

      Enjoy the rest of your week 🙂

  18. Anyone found that there seems to be no rhyme or reason to when facebook will show a large image or the thumbnail these days? I’ve got images where the OG:IMAGE is set to a 1920×1080 still, and Facebook still shows the tiny thumbnail image. I’ve tried everything, but no luck.

    Any ideas?
    Here’s an example post where this happens if I share it on my Facebook page:
    http://95octane.com/2014/06/19/laferrari-p1-918-spyder-agera-r/

    • I’m not well versed in video sharing, but this is what I read: If you are sharing content that includes a video such as an embedded YouTube video, Facebook will override the image you included and use the video thumbnail instead – giving you the small thumbnail. When clicked, it will play the video and not direct users off to your site.

      I’ll add this to the post too.

  19. I’m uploading a 1200×630 image to my link post and it still gets converted to thumbnail. Any idea why?

  20. Was happy to find your article on posting images to FB! When posting to FB before, I had been just selecting photo/video and uploading the photo, then adding some text and links to it. But the problem with that was that when somebody just clicks on the photo it just goes to the photo viewer and does not go to the link of the post that you want it to go to! If I pasted in a link, it gives you the option to upload a photo (which is great) but I couldn’t figure out why the photo appeared so small! Then I found your post and tried what you said (I did 610×319 photos to be safe) It seemed to work for a while, then I did one the same way and it was small again! Also I found that when viewing FB on an iPad in the iPad app, the photos are all small! So now still searching for how to consistanly have the photos appear large on all devices! Do you have any further suggestions?

    • Steve, I’m so sorry, that’s a mystery to me. Facebook can be so annoying!

      If I learn anything I’ll be sure to alert you here.

  21. Thank you so much Louise!!! I stumbled across your post after asking Mrs Google for an answer. This issue has been driving me nuts all day and as soon as I read your article I was able to resolve the problem. I am now very keen to read some more of your articles.
    Cheers
    Selena

  22. Well, been experimenting the whole day with this thing. And it seems totally random wether I will get the large preview or not. I am changing all of my images to comply with the rules, and using nothing smaller than 1000px width, but still half of my posts show with with no preview image, and some of them have the large image. I thought it was about the image size (kb) but that wasn’t the case… Any insights here, anyone? I’m slowly wanting to (&*&*(&@

      • It’s still getting crazier. We uploaded all of the images manually, so it was not about FB fetching the correct image from the site.

        AND some of the images that showed small, somehow turned big after a couple of days.

        I repeat: We had small image for two days, and then they became big.

        Wow…

        • Oh my, that’s crazy! Is this how you see it on your own wall? Wondering if it appeared large in the newsfeed and/or to others viewing your wall.

          Facebook is full of Facebugs tho…

  23. Louise,

    I post to FB once a week to announce the distribution of our newsletter. The past few times I had trouble with the graphic – I use the banner of the newsletter normally. After I paste the url for the newsletter the link info appears in a box but there is no “”upload photo” button. I no longer have the ability to replace the default image selected by the link loader. Any idea why this would be the case? It used to work but suddenly stopped. I can’t find anyone else posting about this problem.

    • Hi Byron,
      Unfortunately Facebook is infamous for developing “Facebugs.” I’m sorry I don’t know why this would happen. An off-the-wall suggestion would be to try a different browser, or log in as a different Admin, if your page has another Admin.

      Good luck – I hope it resolves on its own!

  26. I want to post videos from my YouTube to my FB and NOT have that little thumbnail. I want a larger frame of the video itself to appear on my page. People overlook the thumbnail of the video.

    PLEASE tell me how to do THAT.

    I see people with BIG videos on their page all the time and they’re not all mobile uploads either. I just don’t know how to get my youtube vids larger on my FB.

    • I don’t share videos, so I’m not positive, but I believe you have to upload the video (see Photo/Video option in Status box) to have it show at a large size. Just linking to a video or page with a video won’t work. Please let me know if this works!

      *Note: There may be copyright issues with uploading a video you don’t own.

  27. Thank you for making it so clear! With Facebook’s new algorithm change (showing less posts with links in the caption) this is a lifesaver!

  28. Hello Louise!!!

    Thank you so much for writing this article! I very much appreciate your explanations… Currently if I post a link to my personal profile from my blog, I get the small thumbnail… but if I post the same link from my blog to my business page, I get the larger thumbnail…. I don’t understand why Facebook would treat the links differently depending on where I post. Is there a reason I am only seeing the larger image thumbnails when I post a blog link from my business page as opposed to my personal fb page?

    http://kirstenashley.com/blog/monday-moment-54-challenges/
    Above is the sample link I’ve used. I’ve tried using others with the same result.

    I’d love to get your thoughts on this issue!

    Thanks again for all you do! Wishing you a beautiful day!!

    • Hi Kirsten,
      I’ve noticed the same thing! I have no idea why, it’s weird. I wondered if it was just because I post links on my personal profile via the “Like” button on my website. I’ll have to try a direct post tomorrow to test.

    • Kirsten, I just posted a link, and while it looked like a small thumbnail on my profile, when I went to the news feed it was large.

      Try finding them in the news feed and see if they’re large there! Mine was right at the top.

  29. Hi, no matter what i do this will not work. I am trying to link to my website, a small picture, and just the name of my website on the left. I can remove the picture, but not the text without removing everything. All i need is a large picture, and nothing else. This happens to every page on my website. all my pictures are way above the pixel margain.

    Hope you can help!!”

    • Hey Scott,
      Pretty sure you won’t be able to do that. Facebook has said they like the link post exactly because it lets people know just where they’re going and what they’ll see when they click. So they don’t want you to take the description out.

      Now if you want to post a photo with a clickable link, see this article: https://louisem.com/2506/how-to-post-link-on-facebook
      But Facebook has said those will get less priority in the news feed.

  31. Trying to share Youtube videos too. I think Vimeo and Facebook video get large thumbnail. I think Youtube video are not getting large thumbnail because it is Facebook’s choice.

    They are coming with new video features. They want people to use their site instead of Youtube.

    I’m sure Facebook will come with ad in video 😉

  32. I had changed the picture to the largest one but still cant get a larger thumbnail…….Can you please help me ???

  33. Hi Louise,

    Amazing Article here, really helped me a lot. But I have a question about sharing youtube videos to a facebook page, and setting up a larger thumbnails … as sometimes ,for some videos, are large but for most are small thumbs with text on the right side. How to fix this?

    Thanks!

    • Hi Filip,
      My understanding is that if you upload a video (either your own or one you have rights to) you get the large preview. Linking to a video gives you a small preview. I don’t believe there’s any way to override the small preview. Facebook seems to not favor videos.

  34. I really like your article.
    Unfortunately, as some other comments have pointed out already, it seems to, at this time, to exist no relation between the image size and the fact that facebook decides to create the thumbnail on wide-top, or, on the side.

    Or is there’s something I’m not getting?
    I have an image that goes like this:
    1906 × 1104

    Debug tools acuses nothing wrong.

    Any clue?

    • Hi Antonio,
      I really don’t know. I haven’t had a single one of my posts get a small thumbnail for months. Occasionally it shows a small preview before I actually post it, but it always posts with the large preview.

      If you’ve confirmed that they’re showing in the news feed with the small preview, a workaround would be to upload your large image when posting your link, as shown in the last image in the article.

  35. Hi Louise. Thanx for sharing all this info for us to be more informed on how to customize our posts.

    Maybe you could help me with something:
    I’m trying to post a VIMEO link of a video on FB, but i don’t want that the post on FB when clicked, redirects to the vimeo Link. I want it to be playable on FB… Seems that possibility isn’t available now.
    How can i do? Because some post allow the play on FB and some others just allow the IMAGE and when clicked it redirects to a new page.

    Thanx for your help.
    Greetings

    Alejo

    • Hi Alejo!
      To play ON Facebook, instead of redirecting, you need to upload the video to Facebook. So it would need to be your own video.

      Nice to meet you!
      Louise

  36. Nice article! It’s a new concept for me. Thanks alot for explaining in brief. I hope that it gonna help me alot in future!
    Thanks again for posting!

  38. Very helpful information you have shared. It will be helpful for better marketing and good exposure to everyone. Thanks.

  39. Hello, I can not load a picture on Facebook bigger than the thumbnail. I made it bigger and saved in my computer, but when I click the camera on Facebook to upload it, it always loads in the small box. The only way I can get large photos is when they load from the Jet pack on our WordPress site. Can you please help me? Thank you!

    • Hi Elleanor,
      I have found that it sometimes loads in the small box, but still posts as a large image. If this isn’t the case for you, and the image is at least 600 x 315 pixels, I don’t know what to tell you, other than stick with Jet Pack or another Open Graph tool.

  40. I followed your suggestions for the larger thumbs in my links and uploaded 1200 wide x 600 tall minimum and the thumbs still are small… you can visit site and see… now when they didn’t get bigger, I took down the test… but they did not increase in viewing size… thanks for any help…

    • Hi Pat,
      When I ran one of your links thru the FB debug tool mentioned in my article, I got a preview with a large image. Not sure why your FB post shows a small one.

      As far as the web pages that have videos, any images will be ignored. You’ll just get a small preview of the video that does NOT link to your site. Can’t do anything about that, it’s just the way Facebook does it.

      Whenever you have a problem on a non-video page, try the debug tool. It really seems to work!

    • You bet, there’s a “Share” link with each Facebook post. I see it on non-public posts even when I can’t Like or Comment.

      • When I share a link from my fan page, Im able to upload a custom thumbnail image, that option is not available when I try to share a link from my personal profile.

        Is there any chance to share a custom thumbnail for a link from a personal profile?

        • Not that I’m aware of. This seems to be a perk for business pages. On a personal profile, you could upload a photo and put a link in the text.

  42. This was a great tip – Thanks! also to provide more color I did this in the WordPress admin panel , navigated to SEO->Social–>Facebook tab. I then ticked the checkbox for open graph protocol. I also connected via the facebook admin button.

    I went back to my website ,Yonderist, refreshed and re-logged into facebook. Then I was able to share larger images.

    • So cool, Glenn! I looked at another site I have on WordPress. That’s the Yoast Plug-in, right?

      Great tip!

  43. Thanks for the info.
    Now you can use on Facebook any image with 1.91:1 aspect ratio.
    [Ex: 1200×630 pixels, 800×420 pixels, 600×315 pixels]

    • Yes you can!

      As far as using your service, it’s easier to just upload the image right in Facebook when posting the link. No need for people to use the sharecron redirect.

  44. 600 x 315 pixels isn’t cropping right. It is in the preview, but when i finaly post it it isn’t anymore. What is the right size?

    • Hey JB,
      That’s the size spec from Facebook. I haven’t had any cropping occur. Can you describe how it’s cropping?

      • Interesting! I’ve never had a problem with it. It’s from Facebook’s own recommendations.

        The image on your FB post must be cropped on the sides, as it doesn’t show at the proportions you specified, but rather at 764 x 400.

  45. Hi Louise, Excellent article! We are linking to this great article on our website.
    Thanks a lot

  46. Slightly different question, but one you might be able to answer. Facebook used to allow you to decide whether to share an image or not when sharing a url. And you could choose the best image. Now you can’t opt out, at least I don’t think so. Is there a way to not include an image when sharing? Thanks. -j

    • Hi John,
      If sharing a link ON your FB page (as opposed to using a sharing button on a web page), you can.

      Just hover the image that’s pulled up and click on the x in the upper right corner to delete the image.

  47. Hi Louise,

    I’m also having the problem where I get full-size images on the web and on iPhone, but small square thumbnails on iPad. Did you ever find out anything more on this?

    Thanks

    • Hi Ben,
      I don’t think there’s anything we can do to resolve this. In the FB app on my iPad, the images are small on my page wall (except for one!) and large on my profile wall. In Safari, they’re all large.

      I do believe they’re large in the news feed, which to me is most important.

      I wish there was an easy fix, but I don’t think there is for this.

  48. It is so frustrating when you post your YouTube video on Facebook and they just don’t appear the way you want. I have done so much of research on this and have wasted days and hours in figuring out the root cause of it.

  52. Hi Louise!
    I discovered your site a week+ago as I’m refreshing my memory on the nuances of FB posting, having taken a (ahem!) 19 month sabbatical on both my personal and FB page!

    I appreciate all of the clear and helpful information you share!

    Thanks and I shall be sure to point more folks here!

    In Delight! In Gratitude!
    Frances

    Moxie Powered Delight Detective

    • I’m so glad to hear you’re finding useful tips here, Frances! Thanks for your kind comment.

  54. Hi!!! i just found your website! and i’m sure i can learn a lot from these tricks!!!

    Although the article is what i came looking for, it did not work for me. The image I used was 1000px wide, and i had even used one the same size that did show horizontal on another post. You think maybe the link title also influences how the image is displayed?

  55. Thanks so much. Fabulous timing. It’s been so troublesome trying to make sense of the FB nuances and your blog made it easy to fix. Good on you. Justine

  56. This didn’t work for me? The image I am using is 1201X936. Let me know if I am doing anything wrong.

  57. Hi, I’ve recently try to create a custom thumbnail on my youtube channel and I wanted to get the big image on facebook. I’ve followed a couple of tutorial like this one :
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFUU2HAPYK0

    Saying I had to make my thumbnail 1200 x 628. It doesn’t seems to work on facebook. I still get a small image with the text to the right in stead of under. Any idea why ?!

    Thanks!

    • I believe he’s talking about sharing a video from your blog post, not directly from YouTube. Rather misleading.

      You need a third-party app for videos. Check this blog post. Readers have left other options in comments.

  58. how to post a link on facebook comment with large image thumbnail
    i ask large image in comments . not on page post

  59. Thanks for the tip! I have a question: my featured images are 656×300 and display in a big format, though they aren’t as sharp and clear as shown on the website (it doesn’t show pixelated or stretch, just not so sharp the letters, for instance) . As FB would take the resolution out of it. Any recommendation?

    • This is a tough one with website links. Your best bet is to upload a high-resolution (1200 pixels wide) PNG image directly to Facebook. That would suffer less compression. But you don’t want images that large on your web page as they would slow it down.

  60. Hi There!

    I found your pages and I’ve bookmarked them all as I find them extremely easy to read and informative!

    I am having issues still getting a large link image.

    I have debugged my link and resized my photo to 484×252 pixels, 600×315 pixels, AND 1200×630 pixels, NONE of which produce a large image link.

    What am I doing wrong? What do you suggest?

  61. Hello!

    Thank you for this post is was very very helpful!

    I have a question for you about photo sizes to use when having MailChimp post to Facebook for you when you send out an email….it always crops my ‘social post’ images funny for Facebook and I’d love to know what the optimal image dimensions are getting them to show best when using this feature in MailChimp.

    Thank you again!!
    Sarah

    • Hi Sarah,

      I don’t know anything bout MailChimp, and I don’t even use that feature in AWeber. Do you get good engagement with those posts?

      For an answer to your question, though, I would try MailChimp support. Best!

  62. It didn’t work for me. I’m not a blogger. I’m trying to post our logo or a graphic with a link to a site that is selling our Trivia Night. Please help, if you can.
    Thanks

    • Type in your text and link. If no image is pulled in, use the + sign below the link box to add your image.

      If it doesn’t fit the proportions of 600×315, it will be cropped. If it doesn’t meet the minimum size, you’ll get a tiny thumbnail.

  63. I think it depends on other factors. I shared a link on my page, and a buddy shared the same link on his. He got the large preview. I got the little one. He has tons of fb friends and a lot of interaction. I have limited. I think that’s also a factor. When I look at facebook debugger, it also shows the small image.

    Large (might not be viewable to all…)
    facebook.com/matt.barnick/posts/10155476458166808

    Small
    facebook.com/stephenegibson/posts/10154854560517048

    Same youtube link.
    youtube.com/watch?v=12sR4uM6w5Q

  64. Hi Louise, thank you for this helpful post!

    I’m trying to post a link to a third-party article and it’s not including our product image within the selectable options (this is a list of “best new products” and we’re number 8. It’s only pulling the first few images). I plugged the URL into the debugger link you shared, and it is showing our product photo as an OG image. However, it’s still not an option when publishing to our brand page. Since we do not manage this website, I cannot make any changes to the URL itself.

    When I try uploading a new image, even at 1200×630 pixels, it makes it a tiny cropped thumbnail on the left-hand side of the publishing link. Any ideas??

    Many thanks!

    • I’ve found that it shows as a small image before publishing, but becomes a full size image on the page.

  65. Hi Louise!
    This blog post was fantastic! I blog on WordPress and was able to create large images and designate them for the FB share. I also had to use the Debugger tool, but now most of my posts show the large preview image on FB. Here’s my problem! Facebook is still showing the small, square, thumbnail on mobile. For example, my most recent post includes a designated FB image that is 1030 x 540. On Desktop, it shows the large preview, but on mobile is shows the ugly square. Any idea on why this would be happening? Thanks in advance for any help!! 🙂

    • Hi Katherine,

      Sorry, I don’t use FB enough any more to have a clue. They don’t make it easy to figure things out, that’s for sure.

  66. Hey Louise,

    I found your post really helpful.I have a motivational blog named “Think Inside-Out”. I was having this problem of not netting proper thumbnail on FB. This post helped me a lot. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge.

    -Aadesh

  67. Hello Louise,

    I’ve tried so many different advises on getting a full sized thumbnail when posting a link on facebook and uploading a custom image that I’m going crazy. It looks like there are no rules at all, sometimes it works, most of the time not. I tried to upload 1200 x 630, and some other sizes, saved in different qualities, but nothing works this time. Any thoughts?

    • Oh no! I’m sorry to hear that, Marko.

      Once in a while I need to pull in an image for a client’s posts, and I just use the ones from their blog, which are 800 x 533. I haven’t had problems, but I can say that Facebook isn’t known for its reliability! Sorry.

  68. 600 x 315 doesn’t work for me. On mobile, it still gets cropped into a little thumbnail. Mind updating your article with the actual minimum dimensions?

    • I just checked, and this is still what Facebook recommends as the minimum image size (source).

      If it doesn’t work for you, go with 1200 x 630.

      Easy peasy.

  69. Thank you so much i really need this information i have been google for find this kind of information but i saw your site on google and solved my problem thank you so much again

  70. Hello Louise,
    thank you very much for your post . Previously I struggling with the matter , how to post in facebook with larger , more appealing pictures . But now with the help of your advice , I can do it very easily . I am very much happy , now . In one word , I can describe your post is GORGEOUS . Just keep it up , so that many people can be benefited from it . My heartily greetings for you and thank you again . Have a nice day .

  71. I’m so glad I found this site! I was able to create a clickable image on Facebook posts to send people to my website. It looked good on my laptop, but it was reduced to a little thumbnail with a description to the right on my phone. I tried sorting through the updates and comments, but I’m not sure what size I should use. I was creating Facebook post graphics using Canva’s “Facebook Post” template, but that must be too large because it cut off parts of my graphic when I made it clickable. Can you tell me what size I should use to have a large, but not cutoff, image on both desktop and mobile? Thanks so much!

    • Sorry Karie, I haven’t figured that out. I’mm not sure why FB started doing the little links on mobile 🙁

  72. Hi Louise,

    Do you also know how to make the thumbnails smaller?
    Whenever I share a post on Facebook, the thumbnails are so big for my liking. So I want it to be like the tiny postage-stamp size in the link preview.

    I have tried sharing it in different ways and using different sized photos to no avail.

    Thank you in advance for your help. (sorry my previous question was confusing)

    -Olivia

    • Hi Olivia,

      I honestly don’t think we have much control over how our posts look on Facebook. I haven’t tried to make a small thumbnail, but it sounds like you have, without success.

      It’s Facebook – it’s frustrating. 😉

  73. Hi Louise, I was wondering if you can help me as you are the Fb guru. When I post a link to my website on my Business FB page using Business Manager then try to replace the image, the TXT moves from the bottom to the right hand side and the image gets cropped into a Portrait. I have tried both recomended image sizes of 470×246 and 1200×628. I have also googled the heck out of it and cant seem to find a solution. Just wondering if you have any ideas I could try. Here is an image of the undesired result.

    • Hi Steve,

      Have you tried to see if it actually posts that way? I’ve noticed this too, but it always posts like a normal, landscape image for me.

  74. Facebook debugger is telling my my share image is larger than 8MB, when in actuality it is only 23K. It is defaulting to another undesired image on my site. Is there any interactive way, or FB phone number to call to get a real answer as to why this is happening, other than trying to guess what the problem is through trial and error? FB is pathetic.

    • There’s no phone support unless you’re a big advertiser. Depending on your website platform, you can look for a plugin that allows you to specify the FB image to be shared, or learn how to specify that with code.

  76. I have a problem, because 2 of my 3 pages suddenly cannot post large thumbnail meanwhile I didn’t do any change on it and in my another page the feature adding extra image is still working.

    Could you please help to give me the solution?
    Thanks in advance.

  77. If you want to make large facebook or twitter thumbnail , When clicked on the user direct to your site.
    From here : linkimage2url.com/ar/engpromopage.html .

  78. Thanks for the July update! You saved me a lot of time I would have wasted trying to figure out how to do something that can’t actually be done 🙂

    Facebook — so useful, so fickle!

  80. When I post a link on FB it shows me 2 thumbnails. I want to remove the post thumbnail and keep the new. Please tell me how can I fix it. Thanks

  81. Hi, I want to show a preview on my own website before feed is published to facebook. I see that facebook is cropping image in 476*248px and showing on page timeline but when I am resizing image in same dimensions both the images look different.

    My image is complete with new dimensions while Facebook’s image is not complete if original image size is not in ration e.g 1000*1000px.

    please help me

  82. Hi and thanks for that post,
    Facebook fetches a preview images, then I’m adding a picture and then, when i’m trying to de-select the preview it wouldn’t let me.
    I’ve tried switching between them (so that my image would be “1” and the preview “2”) but even after that, i can only deselect my image and not the preview.
    Any suggestions?

  83. Thanks for this. I was able to change my song artwork previews to full size on FB using 1200 x 630 pixels for my music download website. 600 x 315 doesn’t seem to work (any longer).

    Thanks again.

  84. Thanks for the detailed writeup, Louise! It’s such a shame that Facebook decided to disable customizing link previews. Have you seen sharekit.io, which brings back the ability to edit link previews? I’m using it for the pages that I manage and so far it’s working well.

  85. Thanks for this. I was able to change my song artwork previews to full size on FB using 1200 x 630 pixels for my music download website. 600 x 315 doesn’t seem to work (any longer).

  86. Oh, my goodness. I have been trying for 3 days to figure out how to make the thumbnail show up properly.

    Your blog answered my question, and I am now so HAPPY!!!!!!!

  87. When I post a link on FB it shows me 2 thumbnails. I want to remove the post thumbnail and keep the new…. how to fix it?

    • X it out.

      BTW for future reference I don’t allow use of a keyword instead of a real name. I remove the keywords as well as the URL on comments like this (or mark them as spam).

  88. Hello! I tried all the sizes in this post but none of them worked. I couldn’t make a big image, just the “little, totally square” one. What could be the problem? Thank you! 🙂