Checked against the source
LinkedIn profile picture size
Short answer
LinkedIn accepts a profile photo from 400 x 400 px up to 7680 x 4320 px, under 8 MB, and shows it as a circle. Upload 800 x 800 px: it covers a 2x screen exactly and gives the crop a 566 px square to work with.
Key takeaways
- The published range is 400 x 400 px to 7680 x 4320 px, 8 MB maximum. LinkedIn gives no recommended size.
- The photo is cropped to a circle. At 800 x 800 px that clips the corners 166 px in and leaves a 566 px square intact.
- Upload 800 x 800 px. At 400 px you have exactly enough for a 1x screen and none for a 2x one.
- LinkedIn recommends a photo that needs little cropping, which is the platform telling you the crop is the thing to plan for.
- PNG or JPG only. LinkedIn Help states it does not support GIFs.
The size
| What | Value |
|---|---|
| Width | 400 px |
| Height | 400 px |
| Aspect ratio | 1:1 |
| Where this comes from | LinkedIn Help a549049, which states the range and the 8 MB cap |
What the platform publishes
| What | Published value |
|---|---|
| Allowed size | From 400 × 400 px up to 7680 × 4320 px |
| File size | 8 MB maximum |
Source: LinkedIn Help: Photo won't upload to your profile (checked 2026-10-05)
To scale
What the circle removes
| Quantity | Value | Working |
|---|---|---|
| 800 px | the side (diameter = side, because the circle is inscribed) | |
| 502,655 px2 | 78.5% of the square (pi x (800 / 2)^2 = 502655) | |
| 137,345 px2 | 21.5% of the square (800^2 - 502,655 = 137,345) | |
| 165.7 px | from each edge ((800 / 2) x (sqrt(2) - 1) = 165.7) | |
| 565.7 px | largest square inside the circle (800 / sqrt(2) = 565.7) |
Computed at the 400 x 400 px profile picture this page recommends.
What your photo loses
| Source | Scale to fill | Lost each side | Lost top and bottom | Source area kept |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phone photo, 4:3 (4032 x 3024) | 0.265 (max(800 / 4032, 800 / 3024)) | 133.3 px ((1066.7 - 800) / 2) | none ((800 - 800) / 2) | 5.2% |
| Camera, 3:2 (6000 x 4000) | 0.2 (max(800 / 6000, 800 / 4000)) | 200 px ((1200 - 800) / 2) | none ((800 - 800) / 2) | 2.7% |
| Feed post, 4:5 (1080 x 1350) | 0.741 (max(800 / 1080, 800 / 1350)) | none ((800 - 800) / 2) | 100 px ((1000 - 800) / 2) | 43.9% |
Computed cover crop into the 800 x 800 px frame this page targets.
Device pixels at each display size
| Display size | Device pixels at 1x | at 2x | at 3x | Against this upload |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| In a comment thread, 40 px | 40 px | 80 px (40 x 2) | 120 px (40 x 3) | 800 px covers it |
| On your profile, 110 px | 110 px | 220 px (110 x 2) | 330 px (110 x 3) | 800 px covers it |
| Introduction block, 400 px | 400 px | 800 px (400 x 2) | 1200 px (400 x 3) | 800 px covers it |
800 px covers all three.
What this frame costs to upload
| Format | File size | Against PNG |
|---|---|---|
| PNG, lossless | 195,606 bytes (191 kB) | the reference |
| JPEG, `-q:v 5` | 28,858 bytes (28 kB) | 15% of the PNG |
| WebP, `-q:v 75` | 11,730 bytes (11 kB) | 6% of the PNG |
| LinkedIn maximum file size, if that is the cap | 8,388,608 bytes (8192 kB) | the PNG is 2% of it |
ffmpeg 6.1.1. Upper bounds: a flat logo or a soft portrait compresses much further. The full method is in the evidence file.
Resize it now
400 x 400 px is the minimum LinkedIn states and the tool's default. Change it to 800 x 800 px if you want the photo to hold up on a 2x screen, because the crop circle will then have 566 px of intact square to work with rather than 283 px.
Batch is unlimited and free - every image is processed on your device, so there is no queue and no daily cap.
LinkedIn gives you a range, not a number
The Help article "Photo won't upload to your profile" states the accepted range directly: a profile photo pixel size between 400 x 400 px and 7680 x 4320 px, maximum file size 8 MB. It does not give a recommended size, and it does not state an aspect ratio.
It does say something more useful than a number: "we recommend adding a photo that won't require much cropping". That is LinkedIn telling you the crop is the design problem, which is why the circle arithmetic below comes before anything about resolution.
The same article covers the background photo, the banner behind your photo, at 1584 x 396 px recommended in PNG or JPG.
Why 800 x 800 rather than the 400 x 400 minimum
A 400 x 400 px file is exactly 400 device pixels. LinkedIn shows the same photo at roughly 40 px in a comment thread and around 110 px on the profile itself, and most screens are 2x or 3x. A 400 px file therefore has to be upscaled every time it is shown at anything but 1x.
800 x 800 px covers a 2x screen at 110 px exactly, with room over a 3x screen. Going much above that buys nothing: the photo is never displayed at anything close to 800 px, so a 4000 px upload adds load time to a page recruiters open on a phone.
Upload larger only if you plan to crop or reposition after uploading, which LinkedIn permits. LinkedIn's own guidance when a photo looks blurry or pixelated is to choose an image with a larger file size, and it suggests a compression tool rather than a bigger export.
What survives the circle, and at what position
The circle is inscribed in your square, so the four corners are gone and the diagonal is where content disappears first. The numbers below are computed from the square you upload.
The practical test: put a dot at each corner of your composition, and one at each edge midpoint. Everything within the corner clearance survives. Anything outside is not shown, and LinkedIn will not tell you it was cut.
- Head and shoulders centered, with room above the head. A tight crop against the top of the circle reads as a cut-off headshot at 40 px.
- Shoulders inside the inscribed square. Shoulders are the widest thing in most headshots and are what the circle clips first.
- Background contrast against hair and clothing, so the edge of the head separates at small sizes.
- No text, no wide wordmark, no banner across the bottom. A horizontal line across a circle disappears at the ends.
- A neutral expression. This is the smallest image on your profile, so expression has to carry at low resolution.
What other guides report, and where they sit
Several widely read guides put 640 x 640 px on LinkedIn profile photos. That figure appears on postfa.st's LinkedIn profile specification page, read 2026-10-07, and on Canva's LinkedIn sizes page, and Canva's own table lists 400 x 400 px.
All of those sit inside LinkedIn's published 400 to 7680 px range, so none of them contradicts anything LinkedIn says. They are publishers' recommendations, not LinkedIn's wording. 800 x 800 px is chosen here because it covers a 2x screen, not because a guide recommended it.
Resizing without blurring it
The blur people report on LinkedIn is almost never the resize itself. It comes from one of three places: the original was smaller than the frame, the file was already compressed once through a messaging app, or a screenshot was used instead of the original.
A screenshot arrives at whatever scale the phone captured the screen and has already been through a JPEG pass. Crop from the original file in your photo library instead, and scale down rather than up.
- Start from the original in your camera roll, not from a copy you have sent to yourself on WhatsApp.
- Crop first, then scale, and never upscale. Scaling up a 200 px file to 400 px invents pixels that carry no detail.
- Use the tool above rather than a screenshot: it writes the exact frame in one pass, in your browser.
- Export as JPEG at a high quality setting. PNG of a photographic headshot is several times larger for no visible gain at avatar sizes.
- Leave the top 15% of the square free. LinkedIn overlaps the introduction block with the photo at small viewport widths.
Frequently asked questions
What size should a LinkedIn profile photo be?
At least 400 x 400 px and at most 7680 x 4320 px, under 8 MB, which is the range LinkedIn publishes. 800 x 800 px is the practical upload because it covers a 2x screen.
Is 400 x 400 the minimum or the recommendation?
It is the minimum. LinkedIn Help states the accepted range as 400 x 400 px to 7680 x 4320 px and gives no recommended size, so any single "best" figure you see elsewhere is that publisher's opinion.
Does LinkedIn crop the profile photo?
Yes, to a circle. A circle inscribed in your square removes 21.5% of the area, computed as 1 − pi/4. At 800 x 800 px the corners clip 166 px in from each edge and the largest square that survives intact is 566 px.
What file formats does LinkedIn accept?
PNG or JPG, up to 8 MB. LinkedIn Help states explicitly that it does not support GIFs.
Will a bigger photo look better on LinkedIn?
Only to about 1000 px. The photo is displayed at a few hundred pixels at most, so above that a bigger file slows the page load without a visible gain. LinkedIn's own fix for a blurry profile photo is a larger file, but within reason.
Why does my LinkedIn profile photo look soft on my phone but fine on my laptop?
The upload is smaller than the screen needs. A 400 x 400 px file is upscaled on a 2x phone. Upload 800 x 800 px, or accept that the original had no more detail to give.
Other LinkedIn sizes
Sources
- LinkedIn Help: Photo will not upload to your profile (checked 2026-10-05)
- LinkedIn Help: Add or change the cover image on your profile (checked 2026-10-07)
- LinkedIn Help: Image specifications for your LinkedIn Pages and Career Pages (checked 2026-10-07)
The range and the file limit are LinkedIn's own. The 800 x 800 px recommendation is derived from the display arithmetic on this page, not from LinkedIn, whose Help article gives a range and no recommended size.