Two crops, and you only ever see one
Whatever sits near the left and right edges is visible on desktop and gone on mobile. Whatever sits near the top and bottom is the other way round.
Free tool
Facebook Cover Photo Size Checker
Facebook crops your cover differently on desktop and on mobile. Drop your file in and see both crops and the area that survives them, on your own design.
Free forever No login Nothing uploaded
Your file
Drop in the image you are about to upload, or type its pixel dimensions if you already know them.
Drop an image here
or click to choose a file. It stays on your device.
- Export at
- 851 x 315
- Ratio
- 2.70:1
- Minimum
- 400 x 150
- Safe area (not published)
- Middle 66%, clear of the profile picture
- Asks for under
- 100 KB
- Formats
- JPG, PNG
What happens on upload
Every row above without a qualifier is Facebook's own published figure. Checked against Facebook's Help Center on 22 September 2026.
What survives
Free Facebook Cover Photo Size Checker
A Facebook cover is the one surface where a single number cannot describe what happens. It displays at 820 x 312 on a desktop browser and 640 x 360 on a phone, and those are different shapes rather than one shape at two scales.
So Facebook cuts a different piece out of your artwork depending on who is looking. Drop a file in and the checker marks both crops on your own image, so you can see which half of your layout is only visible to half your audience.
How the Cover Checker Works
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1
Drop the file in, or type the dimensions
Read off the decoded image in your browser. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.
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2
The shape is judged against the upload target
851 x 315 is what Facebook asks you to upload, so that is what a file is measured against rather than either display size.
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3
Both device crops are marked
The desktop view is shorter and the mobile view is narrower. Each is drawn on your frame so the difference is visible rather than described.
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4
The overlap is what is actually safe
Roughly the middle 640 x 312 survives on every screen. That is the area your logo and headline have to sit inside.
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5
The file type is checked too
JPG and PNG, and the checker says which yours is before Facebook does.
Four more, all free
One checker per surface. Every one runs in your browser, nothing is uploaded, and none of them wants an account.
🖼
YouTube Thumbnail Size Checker
Drop a thumbnail in and see what YouTube does to it, against the current 3840 x 2160 spec. Nothing is uploaded.
Try it free 📱Instagram Story Size Checker
See the 9:16 crop and the safe zones the profile row and reply box cover, drawn on your own story. Nothing is uploaded.
Try it free 💼LinkedIn Banner Size Checker
See the 4:1 crop, the 15 percent mobile cut and where your profile photo lands on your banner. Nothing is uploaded.
Try it free 📐Social Media Image Sizes
Every surface in one table, each figure dated against the platform own page, with a checker per surface.
Try it freeWhy Check a Cover Before You Upload
Covers fail in a way that is invisible to the person who made them, because designers check the device they designed on.
The recommended upload matches neither display
Facebook asks for 851 x 315 under 100 KB, and recompresses whatever you send. Handing it a file at display size leaves nothing spare for that pass.
Facebook re-compresses covers hard
An sRGB JPG survives that pass more gracefully than a PNG of the same photograph, which is a format decision rather than a size one.
Two crops, one file, and you only ever check one.
Designers build covers on the device they are holding. The other half of your audience is looking at a different rectangle of the same picture.
One Image, Two Crops, and Only One Is On Your Screen
Almost everything written about Facebook cover photos leads with a single number, and a single number cannot describe this surface. A cover is shown at 820 x 312 in a desktop browser and 640 x 360 on a phone. Those are not the same rectangle scaled up and down, they are different proportions, so Facebook cuts a different piece out of your artwork for each audience.
Facebook's own recommendation, 851 x 315, matches neither display exactly. It is larger than both, which is the point: it leaves headroom for the crop rather than handing the platform a file with none. The rule is the one that governs every surface with more than one crop: design for the overlap, let the imagery bleed, and keep anything that has to be read in the middle. A LinkedIn banner fails the same way for a different reason, and the full table says which other surfaces carry a safe area at all.
How to Export One That Survives
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1
Upload at 851 x 315, not at a display size
851 x 315 is Facebook's own recommendation and it carries headroom over the 820 x 312 desktop view. Give Facebook exactly the display size and there is nothing spare, which is what looks soft on a high-DPI screen.
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2
Keep everything readable inside the middle 640 x 312
That rectangle is inside both crops. The checker draws it on your own file.
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3
Let the background run to the edges
Photography behind a crop still reads as photography. Only type and marks need to respect the safe area.
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4
Export sRGB JPG for anything photographic
Facebook re-compresses covers hard, and a JPG survives that pass more gracefully.
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5
Use PNG for flat colour and hard type
There the edges stay clean where a JPG would smear them, and the file is usually smaller too.
Who This Checker Is For
Small businesses running their own page
No designer to catch the mobile crop, and the cover is the first thing a visitor sees.
Agencies shipping covers to clients
One check before handover beats a revision round after somebody opens it on a phone.
Anyone whose cover looks wrong on mobile
It is not a bug and it is not your export. It is a different crop, and this shows you where it lands.
What the Checker Tells You
Every check returns the same four things, so the answer has the same shape whichever file you drop in.
Refused, cropped, resized or clean
One line saying what Facebook does to this exact file, before you upload it.
All of them, worst first
Every thing wrong with the file, not the first one. A file can be the wrong type and the wrong size at once.
Drawn on your own image
Both device crops drawn on your own image, and the overlap that survives them.
Export at 851 x 315
What to re-export, and where a re-export will not help because the detail is not in the source.
Facebook Cover Photo Size: FAQ
01 What size is a Facebook cover photo? +
It displays at 820 x 312 pixels on desktop and 640 x 360 on mobile. Upload at 851 x 315, which is what Facebook asks for, as an sRGB JPG under 100 KB.
02 Why does my Facebook cover look different on my phone? +
Because it is a different crop, not a different scale. Desktop shows a wider, shorter rectangle and mobile shows a narrower, taller one. Anything outside the overlap of those two is visible to some people and not to others.
03 What is the Facebook cover safe zone? +
Roughly the middle 640 x 312 pixels, the area inside both the desktop and the mobile crop. Keep your logo, your headline and anything you need read inside it.
04 Should I upload a JPG or a PNG? +
JPG in sRGB for photographic covers, because Facebook re-compresses covers hard and a JPG survives that pass more gracefully. PNG for covers that are mostly flat colour and hard-edged type, where the edges stay clean.
05 Is an event cover the same size? +
No. An event cover is a wider shape at roughly 1.91:1, and a page cover dropped into an event loses a lot of its height. The safe-zone principle is the same: design for the area that survives every crop.
When the Cover Fits and the Page Underneath It Does Not Work
Sizing a cover takes one export and then it is done. Knowing what the page should say to the people who land on it, this month and next, is the part that stalls. Selzee reads your reviews, comments and post results, turns them into concepts worth making, and learns from what each one does.
- A file that arrives the way you made it
- Type and logos still visible after the platform draws its own interface
- One export instead of three attempts
- A check that takes a second, on your own device, with nothing uploaded
Start Making Pages Worth Landing On
The checker is free, with no signup and no credit card. When you want the page under the cover to work as hard as the cover does, start free.
Get started for freePrefer to explore on your own? Get started or browse free ecommerce tools.
Keep exploring: the LinkedIn banner checker, the YouTube thumbnail checker, every other surface, the Instagram size checker.