The recommended LinkedIn profile banner size is 1584 x 396 pixels, and here is every other image size LinkedIn actually publishes.

What is the LinkedIn profile banner size?

The recommended LinkedIn profile banner size is 1584 pixels wide by 396 pixels high. LinkedIn states that figure in its help article on adding or changing the cover image on your profile, and repeats it on the help page about photos that will not upload.

That shape is 4:1, a long thin strip. The same help page sets two other hard facts: the file must be a JPG or PNG, and it must be lesser than 8MB. Those three numbers are the whole published specification for a personal banner.

Every pixel figure on this page was read on a LinkedIn Help page and linked in the sources. Where LinkedIn publishes nothing, this page says so instead of repeating a figure that circulates on design blogs.

Every LinkedIn image size LinkedIn publishes

LinkedIn does not keep its image specifications in one place. They are spread across six help pages written for different products. Here they are together, with the page each figure comes from.

Two things stand out. The profile banner and the Page cover image are different shapes, so one artwork cannot serve both. And the profile photo is published as a range, not a size, which is why no single number for it is correct.

Banner, background photo or cover image?

Searches use the word banner. LinkedIn does not. Its current help page calls the image on your profile a cover image. Its troubleshooting page calls the same image a background photo. Older interface text called it a background image.

All three names point at one thing: the strip behind your profile photo in the introduction section. If a help page mentions a background photo at 1584 x 396 pixels, that is your banner.

• Cover image: the current name in the main help article and in the profile editor.
• Background photo: the name used on the upload troubleshooting page, with the same recommended size.
• Cover photo: the term LinkedIn uses for the equivalent image on a LinkedIn Page.
• Banner or header: not LinkedIn's words, but what almost everyone searching for the size types.

The naming matters when you go looking for an answer yourself. Searching LinkedIn Help for "banner" will miss the page that actually holds the specification.

LinkedIn banner dimensions and what happens if you ignore them

The published LinkedIn banner dimensions are a recommendation, not a gate. LinkedIn will accept an image that is not 1584 x 396 pixels, and it will fit that image to the space. What it does to your artwork in the process is the problem.

A useful habit is to build at a multiple of the recommended shape, such as twice 1584 x 396 pixels, then export down. You get a sharp file and a version you can reuse later without rebuilding the layout.

File types and maximum file size

LinkedIn's cover image specifications list JPG or PNG, and a file lesser than 8MB. The upload troubleshooting page adds one blunt sentence that settles a common question: GIFs are not supported.

So an animated banner is not possible on a personal profile. The moving cover image some people have is a Premium slideshow feature, not a GIF, and LinkedIn also replaces a cover image temporarily while that member runs a LinkedIn Live broadcast.

LinkedIn profile photo size

The profile photo size is the second number people need, and it is published in an unexpected place. The help page for adding, changing or deleting your photo gives click by click steps and no dimensions at all.

The figures sit on the troubleshooting page instead: the pixel size must be between 400 x 400 and 7680 x 4320 pixels, the maximum file size is 8MB, and the file must be PNG or JPG.

Because the published range is wide, choose a square image comfortably above the 400 pixel floor. LinkedIn also recommends adding a photo that will not require much cropping, since the frame is a circle on almost every surface.

The photo and the banner are read together. Your LinkedIn profile introduction section shows the photo, the headline and the banner in one block, so design them as one block.

LinkedIn company page cover image size

A LinkedIn Page is not a profile, and the company page cover image size is different: 1512 x 256 pixels, listed as both the minimum and the recommended size. Every Page image must be PNG or JPEG and under 3MB.

That ceiling is smaller than the 8MB allowed on a profile, which catches people out when they export a large PNG. The same specifications page lists the logo at 400 x 400 pixels recommended, with 268 x 268 as the floor.

LinkedIn adds a detail worth knowing before you design a logo: it is displayed on both light and dark backgrounds, and a transparent logo is shown on a white background. Test both before you upload.

The safe area is practical guidance, not a published rule

This is the part most banner guides get wrong. LinkedIn publishes no safe area, no safe zone and no overlap measurement for a personal profile banner. There is no help page that states how many pixels your profile photo covers.

The safe zone figures quoted across design blogs are measured by designers on their own screens. They may be close to right, and they are still not LinkedIn's numbers, so none of them appear on this page as facts.

What LinkedIn does publish is softer and more useful. On the cover image help page it warns that how your image appears may change based on the size of your web browser window and screen resolution.

For Pages it goes further, and this is the only placement advice LinkedIn writes down: place key details away from the edges of your cover photo, especially in the lower right corner, because images may get cropped on different screen sizes.

A banner layout that survives cropping

Since the crop is unpublished and moves with the screen, the sensible approach is to design so that no crop can remove the message. That means treating the middle band as the only reliable real estate.

• Keep the message centered. Words in the middle of the strip survive edge trimming on either side.
• Leave the lower left alone. Your profile photo sits over that corner on the profile, so put nothing there you need read.
• Leave the lower right alone too. This is the corner LinkedIn explicitly names for Page covers, and the same caution costs you nothing on a profile.
• Give the type room to breathe. A margin inside the edges means a trim removes background, not letters.
• Use contrast, not size. Dark type on a light panel stays legible after scaling down, where thin light type does not.
• Check it small. Shrink the artwork to thumbnail width; if the first line is unreadable, it is too long.

This layout is written for this page. It is deliberately conservative, because the cost of being wrong is that a prospect sees half a sentence.

Aspect ratio matters more than the pixel count

Pixels set the quality. The aspect ratio sets the composition, and it is the ratio that decides whether your design survives on other devices. LinkedIn banners and cover images use four different ratios across the platform, and mixing them up is the usual design error.

A single professional design usually needs three exports: the 4:1 profile banner, the wider company cover, and a 16:9 version for events and articles. Build the brand elements once, then recompose them for each ratio rather than stretching one file.

Quality follows from the same discipline. Export each ratio at or above the published size, keep the type large enough to read at thumbnail width, and check the result on the devices your buyers actually use.

What actually changes between desktop and mobile

LinkedIn does not publish a separate mobile banner size. There is one recommended size, and the app fits it to the space available. The practical differences are worth naming so you know what to check.

The last row surprises people who broadcast. LinkedIn notes there is currently no option to opt out of that behavior, so a banner is not permanently visible for anyone who goes live.

How to upload and change your LinkedIn banner

1. Export at 1584 x 396 pixels

   Build the artwork at the recommended size, or at a clean multiple of it, and export a JPG or PNG under 8MB.

2. Open your profile and click the camera icon

   On desktop, click the Me icon, click View Profile, then click the camera icon in the upper right corner of your introduction section.

3. Upload the image or pick one from the gallery

   Choose Upload a single photo, or select a ready made image from LinkedIn's custom image gallery where that is offered.

4. Crop, reposition and apply

   Crop the photo, adjust it, change the position and size, or rotate it, then click Apply so the image uploads.

5. Check it on a phone before you leave it

   Open your own profile in the LinkedIn mobile app and confirm the words still read after the profile photo and the crop.

6. Replace it when the offer changes

   Use the edit icon on the cover image to change or delete the photo, and treat the banner as copy that expires, not decoration.

On mobile the path is the same idea with different taps: open your profile, tap the camera icon on the upper right of the introduction section, upload or choose an image, then save.

Two extras exist. LinkedIn offers a gallery of custom cover images to choose from instead of uploading, currently available to members in the USA, and a cover image slideshow is offered as a LinkedIn Premium feature on several plans.

Why your banner looks blurry, in LinkedIn's own words

Blur is the most common complaint, and LinkedIn answers it directly on the cover image page. If your cover image appears blurry or pixelated, choose an image with a larger file size. Photos also look better than images with logos.

That second sentence is the useful one. A banner built from a flat logo and thin type shows compression artifacts more than a photograph does, which is why so many corporate banners look soft while a headshot backdrop looks clean.

LinkedIn's next suggestion is compression, using a tool such as Trimage on Windows or ImageOptim on Mac before uploading, while noting that it does not support third party tools. The same note appears on the Page specifications article.

• Start bigger, not smaller. Scaling up a small export is the usual cause, and no upload setting fixes it.
• Prefer a photograph. LinkedIn says so twice, once for profiles and once for Pages.
• Use a high resolution JPEG for Pages. LinkedIn recommends it over PNG for best resolution there.
• Compress last. Reduce file size only after the composition is final, so you compress once.

What to put on a sales banner

The size is the easy part. The banner is the only piece of your profile you fully control visually, and it is seen by everyone who lands there from a connection request, a comment or a search.

Treat it as a headline you can set in type. The job is to answer one question for a stranger in under two seconds: is this person relevant to me? Everything else is decoration.

If you run outbound, the banner and the headline carry more weight than the rest of the profile, because a prospect checks you before replying. Our guide to LinkedIn prospecting covers what they do next.

A personal banner and a company banner do different jobs. The company Page cover carries the brand: the logo, the color, the one line about what the business does. Your profile banner carries you, and a professional design that only repeats the company message wastes it.

Keep the brand elements consistent across both, in color and type, so the two read as the same organization. Then let the personal banner say something the Page cover cannot: who you personally help, and what happens when they talk to you.

Keep the claims honest. A banner that promises a number you cannot support is worse than a plain one, and it is the first thing a careful buyer tests in a call.

Event, article, newsletter and ad image sizes

Sellers who post as well as prospect need four more sizes, and LinkedIn publishes all of them on separate pages.

• Event cover image: LinkedIn lists 480 x 270 or 1280 x 720 pixels, a minimum width of 480 pixels, and a required 16:9 ratio. You can add alt text after uploading. See LinkedIn Events.
• Article and newsletter cover: 1920 x 1080 pixels is called optimal, and covers are cropped to 16:9. In article images accept GIF, and GIFs must be smaller than 400 frames.
• Newsletter logo: 300 x 300 pixels recommended in LinkedIn's newsletter best practices, alongside the same 1920 x 1080 cover photo per edition. See LinkedIn newsletter.
• Link preview on a Page post: a 1.91:1 ratio at 1200 x 627 pixels, and the image must be more than 200 pixels wide or it renders as a small thumbnail.

If you use a link preview image, the LinkedIn Post Inspector shows what LinkedIn has cached for a URL, which is the fastest way to see the crop before you post.

Ad image specifications

Single image ads sit under their own published specs: JPG, PNG or GIF, a 5 MB file size, and a maximum image size of 7680 x 4320 pixels. Images under 401 pixels wide display as a thumbnail.

LinkedIn lists three recommended shapes for those ads: 1200 x 628 pixels at 1.91:1 for horizontal, 1200 x 1200 pixels for square, and 720 x 900 pixels at 4:5 for vertical. Carousel cards are recommended at 1080 x 1080 pixels.

Those are advertising figures, not organic ones. A LinkedIn carousel you post organically is a different object from a carousel ad, and the ad specifications do not govern it.

What LinkedIn does not publish

Knowing the gaps is as useful as knowing the numbers, because the gaps are where confident blog figures come from.

Other pages on Jeluvi run the same test. The LinkedIn post character limit guide separates the limits LinkedIn publishes from the ones everyone quotes, and reaches the same conclusion about several widely repeated figures.

The check before you upload

The last row is the one people skip. Two minutes on your own phone catches almost every cropping problem that a pixel chart cannot predict.

Common LinkedIn banner mistakes

• Designing at a square or 16:9 shape, then squeezing it into a 4:1 strip.
• Putting the key line in a corner, where any crop can take it.
• Reusing the Page cover image on a personal profile, which is a different shape.
• Exporting a huge PNG for a Page and hitting the 3MB ceiling.
• Scaling a small image up and then blaming LinkedIn for the blur.
• Filling the banner with logos and thin type, which compresses badly.
• Advertising an event that happened last quarter.
• Trusting a safe zone diagram that LinkedIn never published.
• Never looking at the result on a phone.

Does the banner affect how you are found?

No. An image is not indexed text, and nothing LinkedIn publishes suggests a banner changes where you rank in search on the platform. What gets you found is the wording in your headline, About section and experience.

The banner works after that, at the moment someone arrives. It turns a visit into a read, which is why LinkedIn SEO and banner design are separate jobs that pay off in sequence.

Track it the plain way: watch profile views in LinkedIn analytics and, more usefully, notice whether replies mention what the banner says. If nobody ever references it, the message is too vague.

The three lines to set on your banner

The template below is the copy, not the artwork. It was written for this page. Fill it in, set it in type at the real banner size, and cut anything that does not survive a phone screen.

Line 1: {{whoYouHelp}} teams that {{situation}}

Line 2: {{whatChanges}} without {{commonTradeoff}}

Line 3: {{proofOrNextStep}}

Frequently asked questions