Open Graph Image Specs: What the Protocol Requires and What Networks Ask

What does the Open Graph protocol actually require?

The protocol’s home at ogp.me lists four required properties for every page: og:title, og:type, og:image and og:url. The og:url is the canonical address that acts as the object’s permanent ID, and for an ordinary site og:type is website. Markup goes in the <head> as <meta property="og:…" content="…" /> tags. Optional but recommended properties include og:description, described as a one to two sentence description, og:site_name, og:locale and og:determiner.

The part people get wrong is the image. The protocol defines structured properties for it, and none of them is a required size. They are og:image:url, og:image:secure_url, og:image:type (a MIME type), og:image:width, og:image:height and og:image:alt. Its text adds that a page which specifies an og:image should also specify og:image:alt, a description of what is in the picture rather than a caption. If a tag can repeat, as og:image can, you add several tags, and the first one from the top is preferred when there is a conflict.

<meta property="og:title" content="Product name: what it does" />
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/" />
<meta property="og:description" content="One or two sentences on who it helps and how." />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/og/home.png" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />
<meta property="og:image:alt" content="A screenshot of the product’s main screen" />

So where does the image size come from?

From whoever renders the preview. We tried the networks’ own pages on 13 November 2026, with this result:

You will see 1200 x 630 pixels quoted almost everywhere. It sits close to LinkedIn’s 1.91:1 ratio and its 1200 pixel minimum width, and it is a sensible default, but we cannot attribute that figure to a page we read, so treat it as a common convention and not a platform rule. If a network’s tool shows your card cropped, believe the tool. Our launch platform screenshot sizes page applies the same caution to launch boards.

How should you design a card that survives cropping?

• Work in the 1.91:1 wide ratio. It is the only ratio a source we read names for link previews, and a wide card crops less than a tall one.
• Keep the message in the middle. Previews are cropped differently by each client, and a headline at the edge is the first thing to go.
• One idea, large type. The card is shown small in a feed. A product name and a five-word promise survive; a feature grid does not.
• Use a real screenshot or a clean graphic, not a logo alone. A card that shows the product tells a stranger more than a card that shows a wordmark.
• Use an absolute HTTPS URL. The protocol’s examples use full URLs, and a relative path will not resolve for a crawler that reads only your head.
• Write the alt text. It costs one sentence and the protocol asks for it.

Only the first rule rests on a document we read. The rest are craft advice from making previews, not specifications. Check them by pasting the finished address into a draft post on each network you care about and looking at the preview before you publish.

Should every page have its own image?

For a launch, give at least the home page and the page you will share their own image. A shared link to a generic site card reads like an advert; a card with that page’s own headline reads like a recommendation. If you build the site with a framework that can generate an image per route, do that; otherwise make two or three cards by hand. A one-page product needs one good card, plus a second if you also share a pricing or changelog page.

Add a tracked address for the shared link, as the UTM tagging guide shows, and keep the og:url canonical so the tracking parameters do not create a second object. When the product is public, launch it here free; the link on a launch page is an ordinary followed link, and the card you built is what people see when they share it onward. The landing page launch checklist puts the preview card among the other tasks, and the website pre-launch SEO checklist covers the tags around it. Need something to preview? Browse creative tool ideas.