The LinkedIn banner size for a personal profile is 1584 x 396 pixels, a 4:1 aspect ratio. For a company page, the cover image is 1128 x 191 pixels. Upload a PNG or JPG under 8 MB and you are within LinkedIn's limits.
Those numbers answer the immediate question. The rest of this guide covers the details that actually determine whether your banner looks good: safe zones, how the image crops differently on mobile and desktop, design principles that survive the crop, free tools to build one, and the mistakes that make a profile look careless.
One note on accuracy: these specs are current as of 2026 and have been stable for years, but LinkedIn occasionally adjusts its layouts. If your upload looks wrong, check the preview before saving, the preview is always the final authority.
LinkedIn Banner Dimensions at a Glance
Personal profile background photo: 1584 x 396 pixels, 4:1 ratio. This is the recommended upload size; LinkedIn will accept larger images at the same ratio and scale them down, which is fine, and generally sharper than uploading small.
Company page cover image: 1128 x 191 pixels, a much shorter, wider strip at roughly 5.9:1. Do not reuse a personal banner here; the crop will destroy it.
File requirements for both: JPG or PNG, up to 8 MB. GIFs are not supported for banners. If your file exceeds the limit, export at higher compression or resize to the exact pixel dimensions, an image at exactly 1584 x 396 rarely comes anywhere near 8 MB.
Profile photo, for reference, since it interacts with the banner: LinkedIn recommends 400 x 400 pixels or larger, displayed as a circle overlapping the banner's lower left on desktop.
The Safe Zone Problem
Here is what catches most people: the banner is not fully visible. Two things eat into it.
First, the profile photo. On desktop, your circular avatar overlaps the lower-left portion of the banner. Anything you place there, text, a logo, a face, gets covered. On mobile, the avatar sits further left and proportionally larger, covering a somewhat different region.
Second, the crop itself shifts between devices. Desktop shows close to the full width; mobile crops the sides more aggressively and can shave the top and bottom edges depending on screen size.
The practical safe-zone rules that follow from this: keep all text and important elements in the right two-thirds of the banner, keep them vertically centered rather than hugging the top or bottom edge, and treat the bottom-left quarter as a dead zone. Leave breathing room on the far right edge too, since aggressive mobile crops can clip it.
After uploading, check your profile on both desktop and your phone. Thirty seconds of checking catches what no template can guarantee.
What to Put on Your Banner
A banner is free advertising space at the top of the profile page your prospects, recruiters, and partners actually visit. Most people waste it on an abstract gradient. Here is what works better, depending on your goal.
If you sell something or consult: a one-line value proposition, who you help and with what, plus a subtle credibility marker or a call to action pointing to the link in your profile. Think of it as a billboard, seven words or fewer of headline.
If you are job hunting: a clean visual that signals your field, a designer shows design, a data person might show a tasteful chart motif, plus optionally your specialty in text. Avoid writing seeking opportunities on the banner itself; the open-to-work signals handle that.
If you represent a company as a founder or executive: brand colors, the company wordmark placed safely right of center, and the company's one-line pitch. This turns every profile visit into brand exposure.
Whatever the goal, the banner should agree with your headline and about section. A profile where the banner says one thing and the headline another reads as unfinished.
Design Tips That Survive the Crop
Use high contrast between text and background. Banners render small on mobile; low-contrast text simply disappears. Test by viewing your draft at roughly a third of its size, if you cannot read it, neither can anyone else.
Keep text large and minimal. A banner is a glance, not a paragraph. One short line of large text beats three lines of small text every time.
Use your brand colors deliberately. A banner in the same palette as your website and content makes you recognizable across touchpoints, and recognition is most of what a banner does.
Avoid busy photographs behind text. If you want a photo background, darken it with an overlay so the text stays readable, or confine text to a solid-color block.
Export at exactly 1584 x 396, or a clean multiple like 3168 x 792, to avoid unexpected cropping, and prefer PNG for banners with text or flat graphics, JPG for photographic backgrounds. PNG keeps text edges crisp; JPG compresses photos more efficiently.
Skip trends that age badly. QR codes on banners are rarely scanned from a screen someone is already using, and heavy visual effects date quickly. Clean and legible outlasts clever.
Free Tools to Make a LinkedIn Banner
You do not need a designer for a competent banner. Three practical options.
Canva is the fastest path for non-designers. It offers LinkedIn banner templates at the correct dimensions on its free tier; search its template library for LinkedIn banner, swap in your text and colors, and export as PNG. The main caution: popular templates are used by thousands of people, so change the colors and layout enough to be yours.
Figma suits anyone slightly more design-comfortable. Create a 1584 x 396 frame, design with full control, and export at 1x or 2x. Figma's free tier is more than enough, and community files include LinkedIn banner templates with safe zones pre-marked.
Any image editor works if you already know one, Photoshop, Affinity, GIMP, even PowerPoint with a slide sized to 1584 x 396 pixels. The tool matters far less than respecting the safe zones.
Whichever tool you use, build the safe zone into your working file: block out the lower-left area with a guide layer before you design, then hide it before export.
Common LinkedIn Banner Mistakes
Using the default banner. The generic backdrop signals that you have not invested in your profile, which is a strange message to send on a professional network. Even a plain brand-colored field with one line of text beats the default.
Putting text behind the avatar. The single most common error, the bottom-left of the banner is covered by your profile photo, and text placed there gets amputated mid-word.
Uploading the wrong shape. A square image or a wide photo cropped carelessly to 4:1 leads to stretched logos and beheaded photos. Start from the correct canvas size instead of cropping after the fact.
Tiny text. If your value proposition is a full sentence in small type, it is invisible on mobile, where a large share of profile views happen.
Outdated information. A banner advertising a webinar from last year or a company you left tells visitors the profile is unmaintained. If you put time-sensitive content on a banner, put a reminder in your calendar to remove it.
Mismatched company reuse. Stretching the 1128 x 191 company cover onto a personal profile, or vice versa, produces blur and bad crops. The two formats are different shapes; make two files.
FAQ
What is the LinkedIn banner size in 2026?
1584 x 396 pixels for personal profiles, 1128 x 191 pixels for company page covers, as of 2026. Both accept JPG or PNG up to 8 MB.
Can I upload a bigger image?
Yes, larger images at the same aspect ratio are scaled down and generally look sharp. Problems come from wrong ratios, not from extra resolution.
Why does my banner look blurry?
Usually one of three causes: the source image was smaller than 1584 x 396 and got upscaled, heavy JPG compression, or text rendered too small to survive scaling. Re-export at exact or double dimensions as PNG and re-upload.
Does a banner affect the LinkedIn algorithm?
Not directly, banners are not a ranking signal for the feed. Indirectly, yes: content brings visitors to your profile, and a strong banner converts more of those visits into follows and conversations, which is the outcome that matters.
How often should I update my banner?
When something material changes, positioning, company, offer, or roughly once a year to keep it current. There is no benefit to changing it constantly; recognition builds through consistency.
The Bottom Line
Get the dimensions right, 1584 x 396 for profiles, 1128 x 191 for company pages, keep critical elements out of the avatar's corner and vertically centered, use one large legible line of text, and check the result on both desktop and mobile.
It is thirty minutes of work in a free tool, and it upgrades the first impression of every profile visit you will get for the next year. Few things on LinkedIn pay off that reliably for that little effort.
