Facebook Cover Photo Size in 2026: Exact Dimensions and Safe Area

Upload your Facebook Page cover photo at 851 x 315 pixels as an sRGB JPG under 100 KB. That is the size Facebook itself tells you to use, and the minimum it will accept is 400 x 150 pixels. But the number is only half the job: Facebook shows the same file at a different shape on desktop and on mobile, so a cover that looks perfect on your laptop can lose its edges on a phone. This guide gives you the exact spec straight from Meta, the desktop versus mobile crop that actually decides what people see, and the different sizes for profile, Page, group, and event covers.

Facebook cover photo size: the exact spec

These are the numbers from Facebook's official Help Center page on Page profile picture and cover photo dimensions:

A few things worth knowing before you export:

• 851 x 315 is a recommendation, not a hard requirement. Facebook accepts anything from the 400 x 150 minimum upward, but it says a cover "loads fastest as an sRGB JPG file that's 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall and less than 100 kilobytes." Match that and you get the sharpest result with the least loading delay.
• Use PNG when the cover has a logo or text. Facebook notes that PNG "may get a better result" for images with lettering. JPG stays smaller for photographic covers; PNG keeps hard edges and type crisp.
• The profile picture sits on top of the cover. Your Page profile picture should be 320 x 320 pixels for best quality and displays as a circle. On mobile it overlaps the lower-left corner of the cover, so keep that zone clear.
• This is the Page cover. Personal profiles, groups, and events use different dimensions, covered further down.

Is FB cover photo 16:9?

On desktop, yes: Facebook's Help Center says the cover displays with a 16:9 aspect ratio, left aligned and full bleed. On mobile it is not 16:9; the same file is shown at a 2.4:1 aspect ratio, also left aligned and full bleed. That is the catch that trips up most covers. You upload one 851 x 315 image, and Facebook crops it to two different shapes depending on the device. Because both crops align to the left, content pushed to the right edge, top, or bottom is the first thing to disappear.

The desktop versus mobile crop: the part everyone misses

Facebook does not show your whole 851 x 315 file untouched on every screen. It fits that one image into a 16:9 frame on computers and a wider 2.4:1 frame on phones, both left aligned with no letterboxing. The practical consequences:

• The two shapes differ, so no single region is guaranteed to be safe on both. The reliable move is to keep every element that must be read, meaning text, a logo, faces, and a call to action, well inside the center of the image, away from all four edges.
• The left-bottom corner is spoken for on mobile. The circular profile picture overlaps it. Do not put a logo or headline there.
• Treat the edges as disposable. Background texture and color can run to the edges freely; anything that carries meaning should not.

The working rule is the same one that governs every platform banner: design the full 851 x 315 canvas as atmosphere, then keep the message in a centered core that survives both the desktop and mobile crop. Before you commit, preview the Page on an actual phone and a desktop browser, because Facebook's own upload preview does not always match the live crop exactly.

How do I get my cover photo to fit on Facebook?

Follow four steps and the fit takes care of itself:

1. Build the canvas at 851 x 315 pixels. Starting at the recommended size means no upscaling and no surprise softening when Facebook renders it.
2. Create the background art at that ratio. Shoot it, design it, or generate it. If you want cover art without fighting a photo editor, the AI banner generator makes wide-format graphics from a description: describe your brand, subject, and style, and generate a few options with free trial credits.
3. Add text and your logo in a layout tool, centered. AI image models render lettering unreliably, so generate the art clean and typeset the words separately in Canva, Figma, or Photoshop, keeping them in the safe center core.
4. Export as an sRGB JPG under 100 KB, or PNG if it has text. Then upload, and check the crop on both desktop and a phone before you publish.

Try it now

Free to try, no account needed

What are you advertising? *

Visual style

Tone

Generate

Example output

Your generated image will replace this example.

Which ratio is best for a Facebook cover photo?

Design at the 851 x 315 pixel size Facebook recommends, which is roughly a 2.7:1 ratio. That single file is what Facebook then reshapes into the 16:9 desktop crop and the 2.4:1 mobile crop. You cannot pick one ratio that displays uncropped everywhere, so the honest answer is: use Facebook's recommended 851 x 315 file and design for the centered safe core rather than chasing a perfect ratio. A cover "fits" when the message lives in the middle, not when the math is clean.

Facebook cover sizes: profile, Page, group, and event

Facebook uses different cover dimensions in different places, and using the wrong one is the most common cause of a stretched or badly cropped banner. The Page and profile numbers below come straight from Facebook's Help Center. Facebook does not publish a dedicated pixel spec for group and event covers, so those are the widely used working sizes the design community has settled on, not official Meta figures. Verify them against your own live preview.

The event size in particular is worth getting right: many older guides still quote 1920 x 1080, and that 16:9 file visibly crops on the left and right on mobile, which is why the working standard shifted to 1920 x 1005. Whichever surface you are designing for, the discipline is identical to a YouTube banner or a LinkedIn banner: keep the message centered and let the edges be background.

Design rules for a cover that works everywhere

• One message, readable in a second. A cover is a positioning statement, not a mural. A visitor should grasp who you are before they scroll.
• High contrast between text and background. If the art is busy where the words sit, darken or blur that region. Thin, low-contrast type dies at mobile size.
• Keep the lower-left clear. The circular profile picture lands there on mobile and will cover anything underneath it.
• Center what matters. Between the two device crops and the left alignment, any element near an edge is at risk. The middle is the only reliably visible zone.
• Update it when the brand changes. A cover advertising a promotion that ended tells visitors the Page is stale.

Fixing a cover photo that is too small or blurry

If your source image is under the 400 x 150 minimum, or it looks soft once Facebook renders it, do not stretch it in an editor. Run it through the AI image upscaler to reach 851 x 315 cleanly, then confirm the text edges stay crisp at full size before uploading. Starting from a sharp file at the recommended size is the difference between a cover that looks deliberate and one that looks improvised.

The spec itself is the easy part: one 851 x 315 file, sRGB JPG under 100 KB, message centered so it survives both the desktop and mobile crop. Nail that once and swapping your cover becomes a five-minute job instead of a design project.