The short version: the correct LinkedIn profile banner dimensions are 1584 by 396 pixels, a 4:1 ratio, under 8MB, saved as a JPG or PNG. That's the pixel-perfect answer, but the real problem I see on client profiles every single week isn't the size, it's that the top-left corner gets covered by the profile photo on desktop and the whole thing gets cropped differently on mobile, so a banner that looks great on your laptop can look broken on someone's phone.
The exact numbers you need
Here's what LinkedIn asks for, no guessing:
- Width: 1584 pixels
- Height: 396 pixels
- Aspect ratio: 4:1
- File size limit: 8MB
- Formats accepted: JPG, PNG, GIF (static only, no animated GIFs)
- Colour mode: RGB, not CMYK, or the colours will look flat and slightly off once uploaded
That 1584 x 396 figure is what LinkedIn's own help documentation lists, and it's the number I tell every client to hand their designer, or type straight into Canva's custom dimensions box themselves. If you upload something smaller, LinkedIn will stretch it to fit, and stretched images go soft and pixelated fast. If you upload something bigger, LinkedIn compresses it down, which is usually fine, but it's still worth exporting at the exact size so you control the crop yourself rather than letting an algorithm decide.
Why the pixel size is the easy part
I've built banners for maybe two hundred client profiles over the last decade, and the size has never once been the thing that caused a problem. The problem is always the safe zone.
On desktop, your profile photo sits on top of the left side of the banner, roughly the bottom-left 300 pixels or so, depending on screen width. Any text or logo you put there gets partly hidden. On mobile, LinkedIn crops the banner differently again, pulling in tighter from the top and bottom, so text that sat comfortably in the middle of your desktop banner can end up half cut off on a phone screen.
I had a client, a fractional CFO based in Manchester, who paid a freelance designer £150 for a beautiful banner with her tagline running along the bottom third: "Numbers that make sense, decisions that make money." Looked sharp on her laptop. On mobile, LinkedIn's crop chopped off "that make money," so it just read "Numbers that make sense, decisions that make." She'd had that banner live for eight months before anyone mentioned it to her, including me, because I'd only ever looked at her profile on desktop too. That's the uncomfortable bit nobody tells you: most of the people checking your banner dimensions never open your profile on their phone to see what it looks like there, and most of your visitors are on their phone.
The fix is simple once you know it. Keep your most important text and any logo dead centre, within the middle 60 percent of the banner both horizontally and vertically. Treat the outer edges, especially the bottom 60 to 80 pixels and the left 300 pixels, as decorative space only.
Step by step: getting it right the first time
- Open Canva, Photoshop, or Figma and set a custom canvas at 1584 x 396 pixels.
- Design with your key message centred, leaving generous margin on all four sides.
- Keep your text at least 40 pixels away from every edge as a minimum, more if you can.
- Export as PNG for anything with text or sharp lines (it stays crisp), or JPG for photo-heavy banners (smaller file size).
- Check the file is under 8MB, though at 1584 x 396 you'd have to work hard to hit that limit.
- Upload it, then immediately open your own profile in a private browser tab on your phone to see the real crop.
- Adjust and re-upload if anything important is cut off. LinkedIn lets you reposition the image slightly during upload, so use that to nudge things into view.
That last step, the private browser phone check, is the one step almost every guide skips, and it's the one that catches problems.
What to put on the banner
The dimension question is really a proxy for a bigger one: what's worth putting in that space at all. I generally tell clients to pick one of three routes and stop overthinking it.
- The one-line positioning banner: your name or job title plus one sentence about who you help and how. Good for consultants, coaches, and fractional executives.
- The brand-colour banner: just your business colours, maybe a subtle logo watermark, no text at all. Safest option if you post a lot and don't want the banner to date.
- The proof banner: a stat, an award logo strip (Forbes, a industry body, a client logo), or a book cover if you've written one. This one converts best for consultants and speakers because it does the credibility work before anyone reads your headline.
What I'd avoid, and what I still see constantly, is cramming a full paragraph of services onto the banner. Nobody reads six bullet points on a strip that's 396 pixels tall. If you're deciding whether your business should even be running a LinkedIn presence rather than a neglected personal profile, it's worth reading my honest take on business pages versus personal profiles before you spend money on banner design at all, because the answer changes what your banner needs to say.
Banner size versus everything else on the profile
Getting the banner right is one piece. The other pixel questions people ask me in the same breath are about the posts themselves, and those numbers are different again. If you're also updating your content strategy alongside your profile, it's worth knowing the best LinkedIn post image dimensions for 2026 and the ideal size for LinkedIn post images, because a banner sized correctly next to blurry, wrong-ratio post images still looks like an unfinished profile. I've also written up the ideal image and video sizes for LinkedIn posts in more detail if you're planning video content too, and a separate breakdown of the exact pixels for LinkedIn post photos if you're posting personal shots rather than graphics.
And if this is part of a wider rebrand across platforms, the same "I thought this size was universal" mistake happens constantly with YouTube channel banners too, where people reuse a LinkedIn or Facebook cover and wonder why it looks stretched or cropped wrong. I broke down why YouTube channel banners come out the wrong size and how to fix it if that's on your list this month as well.
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The mistake that costs the most
If I had to name the single most expensive banner mistake, it isn't wrong pixel dimensions, it's uploading a banner sized for a different platform without resizing at all. I see people take their Facebook cover photo, at 820 x 312 pixels, and drop it straight into LinkedIn. LinkedIn stretches it to fill 1584 x 396, and because the aspect ratios don't match, everything gets distorted horizontally. Faces look wider. Logos look squashed. It's a small thing, but on a platform where you're trying to look like someone worth taking seriously for a £3,000 consulting retainer or a speaking booking, a warped logo undoes a lot of goodwill in about two seconds of someone's attention.
If you're rebuilding your profile as part of a bigger push, whether that's positioning yourself for AI consulting work or any other specialism, getting a professional to sanity-check the whole profile, banner included, alongside your positioning is often worth the hour it takes. If that's the stage you're at, this breakdown of what an AI consultant costs covers the kind of investment and return you should expect from that sort of work, banner design being the smallest part of a much bigger positioning exercise.
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Here's why didn't LinkedIn post my work anniversary and what to check.
Frequently asked questions
What size should a LinkedIn banner be for a company page versus a personal profile?
Both use the same 1584 x 396 pixel dimensions and 4:1 ratio. LinkedIn doesn't differentiate the banner size between personal profiles and company pages, though company pages have slightly less profile photo overlap in the bottom-left corner, so you have a touch more usable space for text.
Why does my LinkedIn banner look blurry after I upload it?
Almost always because the original file was smaller than 1584 x 396 pixels and LinkedIn stretched it up to fit, which softens the image. Always design or export at the full 1584 x 396 size rather than uploading something smaller and hoping the platform scales it cleanly.
Can I use an animated banner on LinkedIn?
No, LinkedIn only accepts static images for the profile banner, in JPG, PNG, or non-animated GIF format. Animated GIFs will either fail to upload or LinkedIn will use only the first frame.
Why does my banner text get cut off on mobile even though it looks fine on my laptop?
LinkedIn crops the banner differently for mobile screens than for desktop, pulling in from the top and bottom, and the profile photo overlaps the left side on desktop. Keep any important text within the centre 60 percent of the banner and check your own profile on your phone after uploading, not just on your laptop.
