Glossary

og:image

The image tag that makes a shared link look like it was meant to be shared.

By Roger Campos · Last updated: September 2026

TL;DR

og:image is the Open Graph meta tag whose content is the absolute URL of the image a link preview should show. An image of 1200 × 630 pixels, a 1.91:1 ratio, displays well on Facebook, LinkedIn and most chat apps. Without it, apps pick an image from the page or show none.

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How it works

The tag and its companions

og:image, fully described

<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/og/pricing.png">
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200">
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630">
<meta property="og:image:alt" content="URLpipe pricing: four plans from free to Scale">

Width and height let an app lay out the card before the image has downloaded, which some apps need on the first share. og:image:alt is read by screen readers where the card supports it. og:image:secure_url exists for HTTPS but is redundant when og:image is already an https URL.

In practice

Getting it right

1200 × 630 px (1.91:1). X's summary_large_image crops to 2:1, so keep text away from the top and bottom edges.
An absolute https URL the preview fetcher can download without cookies — not behind a login, a bot check or a hotlink rule.
PNG or JPEG; keep it well under a few megabytes. Some apps skip large images.
A distinct image per page. One logo for the whole site is why every shared link looks the same.

Many sites generate these images: a template rendered with the page's title, captured as a PNG at build time or on first request.

URLpipe

With URLpipe

/meta returns main_image_url: the page's og:image, falling back to twitter:image and then the JSON-LD image, as an absolute URL. Run it across your pages to find the ones with no image or a default one.

To make one, /screenshot can capture a single element of a template page by selector, at a fixed viewport and scale:

POST /screenshot

{
  "url": "https://example.com/og-template?title=Pricing",
  "sync": true,
  "screenshot_options": { "selector": "#card", "viewport_width": 1200, "viewport_height": 630, "format": "png" }
}

The response's X-Result-Url is a link to the image that needs no key and works for 30 days — use it for previews, or copy the image to your own storage for anything permanent.

Try it

og:image, on a page you choose

Check a page's Open Graph tags and metadata

Paste a link and get the page's metadata — title, description, author, publication date, feed and main image — cleaned into one structured object.

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What size should an og:image be?

1200 × 630 pixels, a 1.91:1 ratio. It displays well on Facebook, LinkedIn and most chat apps, and survives X's 2:1 crop.

Can og:image be an SVG?

Don't rely on it. Most preview services expect PNG, JPEG or WebP; SVG is widely unsupported.

Why does Facebook show an old og:image?

It caches previews. Changing the tag affects new scrapes; use Facebook's Sharing Debugger to make it fetch the page again.

Keep reading

Screenshots capture the whole page Make Airtable Open Graph image sizes Microlink alternatives URLpipe vs Microlink All of glossary

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