The short version
- Every major platform crops profile pictures to a circle (or a rounded square for some organisation accounts), so keep your face in the middle with some space around it.
- Upload a square image. If you upload a rectangle, the platform crops it for you and may cut off the top of your head.
- Bigger is safer than smaller, up to each platform's file-size limit. A 400 × 400 image shrunk to a 40-pixel circle in a chat list still looks sharp; a 100 × 100 image enlarged on a profile page does not.
Sizes and limits by platform
| Platform | What the platform says | Our export (px) |
|---|---|---|
| Discord | Discord's own guidance: a simple image around 200 × 200 pixels at minimum, under 10 MB, as JPG, PNG or GIF. Avatars are shown as circles. | 512 × 512 |
| X (Twitter) | X Help Center: recommended profile photo dimensions are 400 × 400 pixels. Personal accounts show it as a circle. | 400 × 400 |
| Instagram's Help Centre does not publish a pixel size for profile photos. They are shown as small circles. | 320 × 320 | |
| LinkedIn Help: between 400 × 400 and 7680 × 4320 pixels, maximum 8 MB, PNG or JPG (GIFs are not supported). | 800 × 800 | |
| YouTube | YouTube Help: the profile picture renders at 98 × 98 pixels, must not exceed 15 MB, and can be JPG, GIF, BMP or PNG (no animated GIFs). YouTube's artist avatar help asks for 800 × 800 at a 1:1 ratio. | 800 × 800 |
| TikTok | TikTok Support: photos must be at least 20 × 20 pixels to upload. No recommended size is published. | 512 × 512 |
| WhatsApp's Help Center does not publish a pixel size for personal profile photos. They are shown as circles. | 640 × 640 | |
| Twitch | Twitch Help: the profile picture must be JPEG, PNG or GIF and cannot exceed 10 MB. No pixel size is given. | 256 × 256 |
| GitHub | GitHub Docs: PNG, JPG or GIF, less than 1 MB and smaller than 3000 × 3000 pixels. GitHub recommends about 500 × 500 pixels for the best rendering. | 500 × 500 |
Some platforms publish an exact size, some give only a minimum or a file-size limit, and Instagram and WhatsApp publish nothing for personal profiles. Where there is no official figure we say so rather than repeat numbers we cannot check.
PNG or JPG?
PNG keeps transparency, so the corners outside a circle crop stay see-through, and it never adds compression blur. It is the better choice for logos, illustrations and anything with text. JPG files are smaller, which helps with strict limits such as GitHub's 1 MB, but JPG has no transparency, so the frame tool fills the corners with your background colour (or white).
Most platforms re-compress what you upload anyway, so a high-quality original gives them the best starting point.
File size limits we could confirm
| Platform | Limit | Formats |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub | Less than 1 MB, smaller than 3000 × 3000 px | PNG, JPG, GIF |
| 8 MB | PNG, JPG (no GIF) | |
| Discord | Under 10 MB | JPG, PNG, GIF |
| Twitch | 10 MB | JPEG, PNG, GIF |
| YouTube | 15 MB | JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG (no animated GIFs) |
The PNG and JPG files from the frame tool are usually well under 1 MB at these sizes, so they fit every limit above.
Detailed guides
- Discord avatar size
- LinkedIn profile photo size
- YouTube profile picture size
- X (Twitter) profile photo size
Sources
- Discord: Discord blog: profile pointers from design pros
- X (Twitter): X Help Center: how to customize your profile
- LinkedIn: LinkedIn Help: photo won't upload to your profile
- YouTube: YouTube Help: manage your channel branding
- TikTok: TikTok Support: adding a profile photo or video
- Twitch: Twitch Help: channel page setup
- GitHub: GitHub Docs: profile reference
Platforms change these figures without notice. If you spot one that has changed, please email hello@theaibarn.com and we will check and update this page.