Google Business Profile Post Image Size (2026 Guide)

Upload a 1200 x 900 px JPG or PNG (4:3), keep it under 5 MB, and put anything important in the middle of the frame. Google's own rules are looser than that: JPG or PNG, 10 KB to 5 MB, 250 x 250 px minimum, 720 x 720 px recommended. The 4:3 ratio and the safe area are practitioner advice, because Google publishes no aspect ratio for posts.

That split matters, because most spec lists online mix the two and present all of it as official. The table below labels each row.

Google Business Profile post specs at a glance

The photo rows come from Google's photo and video requirements page. The video rows come from its video requirements page. Google also asks that photos be in focus, well lit, and free of significant alterations or excessive filters or AI.

Why 1200 x 900 beats the 720 x 720 default

Google's recommended 720 x 720 is a square, and it is the number that gets copied into every cheat sheet. A square works. A wider 4:3 frame gives a product shot more air, and 1200 x 900 clears the recommended resolution with room to spare, so the picture stays sharp when the Maps carousel shrinks it.

Going bigger buys nothing. A 4000 px photo only makes the upload slower. Export a JPG at 80 to 85 percent quality and the file will sit far below the 5 MB ceiling.

One honest limit: only Google knows the exact crop on each surface, and surfaces change. Treat 4:3 as a working default, publish one post, and look at it on your phone in both Search and Maps before you batch the rest.

Image design by post type

Business Profile has three post types, described in Google's help page on adding posts: updates, offers and events. They share the same photo rules, so the differences are about what the picture has to carry.

Updates

Updates are the everyday post: a new arrival, a seasonal service, a finished job. Use one clear subject on a 1200 x 900 canvas. A real photo of your storefront, your team or the work you did tends to look more credible next to the rest of your profile than a polished graphic.

Offers

Offers require a title, start and end dates and times, and optionally a coupon code and terms. Because the title and dates render as text beside the image, the picture does not need to repeat them. Put the headline value in large type near the center ("20% off first visit"), and leave the fine print in the post body.

Events

Events require a title plus start and end dates and times. Skip the times and Google defaults the event to 24 hours. Show the thing people will experience, such as the room, the class or the table setup, instead of a flyer full of small print. Dates in tiny type are the first thing a crop destroys.

Other profile photo sizes

Posts are one slot among several. The format and file size rules (JPG or PNG, 10 KB to 5 MB) apply to all of them, but per-slot pixel sizes are not in Google's help pages. The figures below are the commonly cited ones, as in this Semrush photo size guide.

Setting a cover photo also does not guarantee it shows first. Google says a user-submitted photo can appear instead if your pick looks low quality or another image represents the business better.

Video specs for Business Profile

Videos can be up to 30 seconds, up to 75 MB, and 720p or higher. Allow 24 to 48 hours after upload before the clip appears on the profile, so do not plan a same-day promotion around a video.

Google publishes no aspect ratio for video. Widescreen 16:9 is the safe pick for display, and vertical 9:16 uploads, though you should expect some cropping or letterboxing. If you already have a vertical clip made for Reels or TikTok, trim it under 30 seconds, export at 1080p, and check how it looks before you schedule a series.

Open on the product or the result in the first second. Burn in captions for anything that needs explaining, since people browsing Maps often have the sound off. Keep the clip accurate: Google's content policy rules out misleading video.

Safe areas and cropping

Search, Maps and the profile feed each frame a post a little differently, so design for the worst case.

1. Start with a 1200 x 900 canvas.
2. Keep logos, faces, text and the call to action inside the central area. A square of roughly 900 x 900 px in the middle is a common rule of thumb.
3. Leave about 10 percent clear on every edge.
4. Shrink the image to thumbnail size. If the text is unreadable on a phone-sized preview, make it bigger.

The usual casualty is the square crop. A 4:3 image trimmed to 1:1 loses an eighth of its width on each side, and a price tag in the right corner disappears. The same logic applies to ads: our guides to Instagram safe zones and the safe zone checker work through it for other placements.

Mistakes that get posts cropped or rejected

Too much text. A post that looks like a banner ad buries its message once the crop hits. One short line over a real photo holds up better.

Heavy edits or AI that bends reality. Google's guidelines ask for photos without significant alterations or excessive filters or AI. A generated picture of a product you do not sell, or a storefront that does not exist, invites removal and costs you trust.

Tall vertical images. A 9:16 story graphic gets squeezed or cropped hard. Resize to 4:3 or 1:1 first.

Tiny files. Anything under 10 KB or 250 x 250 px falls below the minimum. Screenshots of low-resolution social posts often fail here.

Oversized files. Over 5 MB will not upload. Re-export as a JPG at lower quality.

Ignoring review. Posts can show as Live, Pending or Not approved after publishing. Links should go to trustworthy sites, and regulated products should not carry product-specific content. Posts older than six months are archived automatically unless you set a date range.

Producing sized creatives in bulk

A single post is easy. A multi-location business with a new offer every month needs a clean 1200 x 900 image for each one, and that is where the design-tool detour eats the afternoon.

EzUGC's AI ads generator and AI image generator produce static creatives you can export at the aspect ratio you choose, and the AI UGC video feature makes short clips you can trim to Google's 30 second limit. Real photos of your own premises still belong on the profile itself. Generated visuals suit offer and event posts. For paid placements, the Meta and Instagram creative specifications guide lists the equivalent numbers.