How to Create a Facebook Cover Photo (Sizes and Tips)

Facebook’s own help documentation gives one number for cover photos: 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall. That is the size to design to, but it is not the size everyone sees. Desktop, mobile and the various surfaces that reuse a cover image all crop differently, so the real skill is keeping anything that matters inside a safe zone in the middle of the frame.

Below are the working sizes for each surface, where the crops happen, what file format to export, and a short list of tools that will not charge you for a single banner. Two of the numbers come straight from Facebook’s help center. The rest are working sizes that designers have settled on because they survive every crop, and they are labeled as such.

Cover photo sizes by surface

Facebook publishes one official cover size and one official minimum. The other rows below are practical working sizes rather than published specifications, so treat them as safe starting points rather than gospel.

Notice the pattern. Every cover surface is wide and short, and none of them is the same ratio as the others. If you build one asset and paste it everywhere, three of the four will be cropped in a way you did not plan for.

The safe zone that actually matters

A Page cover on a laptop shows nearly the whole width. The same cover on a phone shows a narrower slice, because the browser and the app both crop toward the center to fit a portrait screen. The consequence is simple and worth repeating: the left and right edges of your cover are decoration, not content.

Design with a center band of roughly 640 pixels of the 851 pixel width, and keep the top and bottom edges clear too. Anything you would be annoyed to lose belongs in that band. That means the tagline, the logo, the date of the sale, and the URL. Anything outside it should be texture, gradient, or a photograph that reads fine when its edges vanish.

There is a second obstruction on Pages: the profile picture and the Page name sit over the lower left of the cover on desktop, and above it on mobile. Leave the bottom left corner empty rather than fighting it.

File format, color and file size

Facebook’s guidance is direct. For the fastest load, use an sRGB JPG that is 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall and under 100 kilobytes. If the image contains a logo or text, use PNG instead, because JPG compression puts visible fuzz around hard edges and small type.

The sRGB part matters more than people expect. If you export from a design tool still set to Adobe RGB or Display P3, the colors shift once Facebook converts the file, and brand colors come out slightly dull or slightly acid. Convert to sRGB on export.

If you have a command line handy, ImageMagick will do the resize, the color conversion and the compression in one pass.

# Photograph based cover, exported as an optimized sRGB JPG
magick input.png \
  -colorspace sRGB \
  -resize 1702x630^ \
  -gravity center -extent 1702x630 \
  -strip -quality 82 \
  cover-851x315@2x.jpg

# Cover containing a logo or text, exported as PNG
magick input.png -colorspace sRGB -resize 1702x630 -strip cover.png

The -strip flag removes metadata, which trims the file and also removes any location data embedded by a camera. The caret in 1702x630^ tells ImageMagick to fill the box and crop the overflow rather than letterboxing.

Free tools that do the job

You do not need a design suite for a banner. Canva, Figma and Photopea all run in a browser and all export sRGB files at an exact pixel size. Figma is the best of the three if you want to build one frame per surface and keep them in sync. Canva is the fastest if you want a template and are done in ten minutes. Photopea is the closest thing to a familiar layered editor without an installation.

Whichever you pick, start from a blank frame at your target pixel dimensions rather than a template sized for a different year. Templates go stale, and a template built for an older layout will put your logo directly under the profile picture.

Add two guides in the file: a vertical pair marking the center 640 pixels, and a rectangle over the lower left where the profile picture will sit. Save that as your starting document and every future cover takes minutes.

Text overlay and what to actually put on it

The strongest covers do one job. They either say what the business does, or they announce one current thing, such as a sale, a launch or an event date. Trying to do both produces a cluttered strip that nobody reads.

Keep the type large. A cover is short, so a line of text sitting at 24 pixels in your design file will be tiny on a phone. Aim for something you can read at arm’s length on a laptop without leaning in. Two lines maximum, and no paragraph.

Avoid putting a phone number or a URL in the image alone. Text baked into a picture is not selectable, not searchable and not accessible to a screen reader. Put the real link in the Page’s contact fields and in the cover photo’s description, which Facebook shows when someone clicks the image. If your goal is a click, the call to action button on a Facebook Page does that job far better than words on a banner.

While you are tidying the top of the Page, it is worth checking that the vanity URL matches the brand people search for. Our walkthrough on changing the username on a Facebook Page explains the rules and the restrictions that apply.

Contrast is the last thing to check. Dark type on a busy photograph fails constantly. If you must place text over an image, put a solid or gradient panel behind it rather than relying on the photograph being conveniently empty in that spot.

Common problems and fixes

The cover looks blurry after upload. The source was smaller than 851 pixels wide, or it was exported as a heavily compressed JPG. Re export at 1702 by 630 and raise the JPG quality, or switch to PNG if the artwork has flat color and text.

Colors changed after upload. The file was not in sRGB. Convert the color profile on export rather than trusting the design tool’s default.

Half the design disappears on a phone. Content is outside the center band. Move logos and text into the middle 640 pixels and let the edges be background.

Facebook will not let you reposition the image. Repositioning is only offered when the upload is taller than the display frame. If you uploaded an image at the exact display ratio there is nothing to drag, which is usually the outcome you wanted.

The cover looks fine but the thumbnail preview is cropped oddly. Some surfaces reuse the cover as a square or a wide card. If a specific placement matters, upload a separate asset for it rather than expecting one file to serve every crop.

Frequently asked questions

What is the correct Facebook cover photo size?

Facebook’s help center specifies 851 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall, with a minimum upload of 399 by 150. Designing at exactly double the official size, 1702 by 630, gives you a sharper result on high density displays without changing the aspect ratio.

Should I use JPG or PNG?

Use JPG for photographs, because Facebook explicitly recommends an sRGB JPG under 100 kilobytes for the fastest load. Use PNG when the cover contains a logo, flat color blocks or text, since JPG compression softens hard edges and small type.

Can I use a video instead of a cover photo?

Pages have supported cover videos, though availability has varied by Page type and region over time. Check whether the option appears in your Page’s cover menu. If it does not, a still image is the reliable choice, and it loads faster anyway.

Do event covers use the same size?

No. Event covers render in a wider landscape frame, so an image around 1200 by 628 pixels holds up better than a Page cover pasted across. If you run events regularly, our guide to creating and managing a Facebook event covers the rest of the setup.

How often should I change the cover?

Change it when the message changes, not on a schedule. A cover that announces a finished sale is worse than a plain brand image. If nothing is happening, a clean evergreen design beats rotating artwork for the sake of activity.

The bottom line

Design at 851 by 315, or at 1702 by 630 for sharpness, export as sRGB, and keep everything important inside the center 640 pixels. Those three decisions solve almost every cover photo complaint before it happens.

After that it is an editing problem rather than a sizing problem. One message, large type, real contrast, and nothing important hiding behind the profile picture. Facebook’s own cover photo help page is the source to check whenever a number in a template looks suspicious.