How Facebook handles images
Facebook re-encodes every image you upload. It resizes to its own display dimensions (usually 2048px on the long edge) and compresses to a JPG quality it controls. The result is that the image displayed on someone's feed is always a re-compressed version of what you uploaded.
That said, the quality of Facebook's re-compression is heavily influenced by the quality of what you upload. If you send a heavily compressed image, Facebook's compression compounds the artefacts. If you send a clean, correctly sized image, the final result looks noticeably better.
Recommended dimensions for Facebook
- Feed post (landscape): 1200×630px
- Feed post (square): 1080×1080px
- Feed post (portrait): 1080×1350px
- Cover image: 851×315px (displays at 820×312px)
- Story: 1080×1920px
- Ad image: 1200×628px
These match Facebook's recommended ratios and dimensions. Uploading something larger adds no benefit and slows down your own upload.
Recommended file size
For most Facebook content, 300-500KB per image is ideal. It uploads quickly, uses minimal mobile data and looks sharp on any device.
For very high-quality photos — professional photography, product shots — 500KB to 1MB is fine. Facebook will compress it further, but starting with a clean high-quality file gives a better final result.
Format choice
JPG is the safest format for Facebook. It is universally supported and produces small, clean files for photographic content. PNG works for graphics with transparency or flat colours, but is unnecessarily large for photographs.
How FITLY helps
Set a target size and max dimension for your Facebook image, drop it in, and download. FITLY resizes and compresses in one step, locally in your browser. No upload, no account, no waiting.