OG Image Checker — Test and Validate Your Open Graph Image

Last updated: April 2026 6 min read

What the OG Image Checker Validates
OG Image Requirements by Platform
Why Your OG Image Is Not Showing
Adding og:image:width and og:image:height
Checking and Clearing the OG Image Cache
Frequently Asked Questions

The og:image tag is the most visible part of any link preview. Get it right and your shared link shows a clean, full-width thumbnail. Get it wrong and you get a broken preview, no image, or a random image from somewhere else on the page.

Validating your og:image before sharing catches the most common problems: wrong URL format, undersized images, images the platform cannot fetch, and images that are cropped unexpectedly.

Here is how to test your og:image and fix the most common problems.

What the OG Image Checker Validates

The checker reads your page HTML and validates the og:image tag against the rules each social platform uses to decide whether to show the image.

What it checks

Tag presence — does og:image exist in the head section?
URL format — is the value an absolute HTTPS URL? Relative URLs fail on every platform.
Tag location — is the tag in the <head> and not in the page body?
Companion tags — are og:image:width and og:image:height present? (Helps platforms display faster without fetching the image first)

What it shows you

The checker renders the og:image URL as a preview card in both Facebook/LinkedIn format and Twitter format. You can see exactly how the image will be cropped and displayed on each platform before anything goes live.

If the og:image tag is missing or broken, the recommendations panel explains exactly what to fix and what format the corrected tag should take.

OG Image Requirements by Platform

Each platform has its own minimum size requirements and cropping behavior.

Facebook

Minimum: 200x200px for any image to appear
Recommended: 1200x630px for the large card format
Aspect ratio: 1.91:1 for the large card; square images show in the small format
Maximum file size: 8MB

Recommended: 1200x627px
LinkedIn may not show an image if it is below a certain threshold — use at least 1200x627 to guarantee large card display

Twitter / X (summary_large_image)

Minimum: 300x157px
Recommended: 1200x600px (2:1 ratio)
Maximum file size: 5MB for PNG or GIF, 15MB for JPEG (but keep it under 1MB for speed)

Universal safe choice

1200x630px at 1.91:1 ratio works well on every major platform. Create one image at this size and use it as og:image. Add a twitter:image at 1200x600 if you want a pixel-perfect Twitter card, but the 1200x630 image will also work fine on Twitter.

Why Your OG Image Is Not Showing

These are the five most common reasons an og:image tag is present but the image does not appear in the preview.

1. Relative URL instead of absolute URL

The og:image value must be a full absolute URL. This is the most common mistake:

<!-- Wrong -->
<meta property="og:image" content="/images/preview.jpg" />

<!-- Correct -->
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/images/preview.jpg" />

Social platforms fetch the image from their own servers, not from a browser context. They need the full URL to find the image.

2. Image is behind authentication

If your og:image URL points to an image that requires login or is stored in an S3 bucket with restricted access, the platform scraper cannot fetch it. og:image must point to a publicly accessible image.

3. Image is too small

Facebook will not display an image below 200x200px. LinkedIn may silently drop images below its threshold. Always check actual image dimensions, not just what the tag says.

4. The tag is in the body, not the head

Open Graph tags must be inside the <head> element. Some page builders inject them at the bottom of the body. Platforms stop parsing the document once they have found the head tags they need.

5. Platform cache has not refreshed

The tag is correct now but was wrong when the platform first scraped the page. See the cache refresh section below to force a re-scrape.

Adding og:image:width and og:image:height

These two companion tags are optional but worthwhile. They tell the platform the image dimensions without it having to fetch and decode the image first.

<meta property="og:image" content="https://yourdomain.com/og-preview.jpg" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />
<meta property="og:image:alt" content="Brief description of the image" />

Facebook specifically uses these values to decide which card format to render before fetching the image. If the dimensions are not declared, Facebook has to fetch the image to determine its size, which can cause the preview to display in the smaller format on first load.

The og:image:alt tag adds an accessibility label. Facebook uses it as alt text for screen readers. It should describe what the image shows, not just repeat the page title.

Checking and Clearing the OG Image Cache

After updating your og:image tag, platforms may continue showing the old image for hours or days. Each platform has a tool to force a fresh fetch.

Facebook — Sharing Debugger

Go to developers.facebook.com/tools/debug and enter your URL. Click "Scrape Again" to force Facebook to re-fetch the page. After scraping, the preview updates immediately. If the image still looks wrong, scroll down to see what Facebook's scraper actually found in your head tags.

LinkedIn — Post Inspector

Go to linkedin.com/post-inspector and enter your URL. Click "Inspect." LinkedIn will show you what its crawler saw and refresh the preview. Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn's refresh may take a few minutes to propagate.

Twitter — Cards Validator

Go to cards-dev.twitter.com/validator and enter your URL. Twitter will fetch the page and show the resulting card. This is also useful for seeing which card format Twitter chose based on your tags.

After forcing a re-scrape on all three platforms, run your page through the OG checker one more time to confirm the image tags are reading correctly.

Try It Free — No Signup Required

Runs 100% in your browser. No data is collected, stored, or sent anywhere.

Open Free OG Tag Checker

Frequently Asked Questions

Does my og:image have to be a JPG? Can I use PNG or WebP?

JPG and PNG are the safest formats — all platforms support both. WebP is not universally supported by platform scrapers; Facebook and LinkedIn may not fetch or display a WebP og:image. Stick with JPG for photos and PNG for graphics with text or transparent areas.

I have the correct og:image tag but the checker shows no image. What should I check?

First confirm the URL in the og:image tag is a full absolute HTTPS URL. Then check that the image is publicly accessible — paste the URL directly into a private/incognito browser tab. If the image loads in the incognito tab, the tag is correct and the platform cache may just need to refresh.

Can og:image point to a different domain than the page?

Yes. The og:image URL can point to any publicly accessible image, including images hosted on a CDN, a different subdomain, or an image hosting service. The only requirement is that it is a full absolute HTTPS URL and the image is publicly accessible without authentication.