Twitter (X) Header Size Guide 2026
An X header — still called a Twitter header by most people — is 1500 × 500 pixels, an ultra-wide 3:1 banner. The number is the easy part. What actually ruins headers is placement: your circular 400 × 400 profile photo sits on top of the banner's bottom-left corner, and many screens shave a thin strip off the top and bottom edges. Keep text and logos in the vertical middle of the canvas, clear of that corner, and your header will hold up on every device. The rest of this guide walks through each number, the overlap, and the design habits that keep a 3:1 banner clean.
X header and profile photo sizes at a glance
| Element | Size | Ratio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Header (upload) | 1500 × 500 px | 3:1 | The size X recommends. Max 2MB as JPG, PNG or GIF. |
| Header (as displayed) | Full width, slightly shorter | varies | Some screens trim a thin strip from the top and bottom. |
| Profile photo (upload) | 400 × 400 px | 1:1 | Max 5MB. Shown as a circle, so the corners get cut. |
| Avatar overlap zone | Bottom-left of header | — | Permanently covered by the profile circle — background only. |
The avatar overlap: a corner you don't own
The single most common Twitter header mistake has nothing to do with resolution. On every profile, X floats the circular avatar over the lower-left corner of the header — it literally covers that part of your banner, on desktop and in the apps alike. A logo, name or handle placed there ends up hidden behind your own profile photo.
The fix is to plan around the circle from the start. Let a photo, texture or brand color run through that corner, and begin any meaningful content — words, product shots, faces — to the right of where the avatar lands. Many strong headers lean their layout toward the center or right half of the canvas for exactly this reason.
Why headers get shaved at the top and bottom
X adapts the header to wildly different screen widths, from a phone held upright to an ultrawide monitor. To keep the banner filling its slot, some of those layouts crop a modest strip from the top and bottom of your 1500 × 500 image rather than letter-box it. The crop is small, but it is enough to clip descenders off a tagline or slice the top of a logo that hugs an edge.
The practical rule: reserve the outer edges for background and keep everything you would be sad to lose inside a horizontal band through the vertical center of the canvas. Combined with the avatar rule, that gives you the real safe area — the middle band, starting clear of the bottom-left circle.
Design tips for a 3:1 banner
A 3:1 canvas is far wider than almost anything else you design, so compositions that work on a poster collapse here. Favor one short message in large type over several small ones; horizontal arrangements — a row of products, a wide landscape, a name plus tagline side by side — sit naturally in the shape. And because the header renders quite small on phones, test your design at thumbnail size: if the text is not legible when the image is a few centimeters wide, it is too small.
Match the header to your avatar, too. The two are always seen together, so pick a header palette that lets the profile circle stand out instead of blending in. If you want a head start, the free template library has banner layouts you can restyle in the browser. Refreshing every profile at once? The same rules-with-different-numbers treatment exists for LinkedIn in the LinkedIn banner size guide and for YouTube in the YouTube banner size guide.
Common mistakes to avoid
Putting anything in the bottom-left corner. The avatar circle will cover it — always. This is the mistake you see on real profiles every day: a company logo or website URL half-buried behind a profile photo.
Text touching the top or bottom edge. The responsive crop takes its slice from exactly those edges. A tagline that sits flush against the top of the canvas will lose its ascenders on some screens.
Uploading an off-ratio image. A 16:9 photo forced into the 3:1 slot gets aggressively cropped or awkwardly zoomed. Start from a true 1500 × 500 canvas instead of repurposing an image made for another platform.
Blowing past the 2MB limit. A huge PNG can exceed the header's 2MB cap and fail to upload. Export photographic headers as JPG, or flatten heavy textures, and the file lands comfortably under the limit.
Frequently asked questions
What is the correct Twitter (X) header size in 2026?+
The header on X — the platform formerly known as Twitter — is 1500 × 500 pixels, a 3:1 ratio. Upload a JPG, PNG or GIF under 2MB at exactly that size. Because the display adapts to different screens and your profile photo covers the bottom-left corner, keep text and logos in the vertical middle of the image and away from that corner.
Did the header size change when Twitter became X?+
No. The rebrand from Twitter to X changed the name and the logo, but not a single pixel of the layout. Headers are still 1500 × 500 and profile photos are still 400 × 400, so any banner built for Twitter works unchanged on X — and every current size guide applies to both names.
Why does my profile picture cover part of my header?+
That overlap is built into the profile layout, not a bug. X anchors your circular avatar over the bottom-left corner of the header, on every device. Roughly the lower-left region of your banner will always sit behind the circle, so treat that corner as unusable — fill it with background only and shift real content toward the center and right.
What size should my X profile photo be?+
Upload your profile photo at 400 × 400 pixels, as a JPG, PNG or GIF up to 5MB. X displays it as a circle, which slices off the corners of your square file — center your face or logo and leave padding around it so nothing important touches the edges that get rounded away.
What file types and sizes does X accept for headers?+
Headers accept JPG, PNG and GIF files up to 2MB; profile photos allow the same formats up to 5MB. Note that a GIF header won't animate — X shows it as a static image. For banners with text or flat colors, PNG holds its sharp edges best; for photographic banners, a quality JPG is smaller and looks identical.
What is the safe area for a Twitter header?+
Think of it as a horizontal band through the middle of the 1500 × 500 canvas. Some screens shave a thin strip off the top and bottom of the header, and the avatar circle claims the bottom-left corner. Content that sits in the vertical center, starting right of that corner, survives every crop — edges and corners should carry only background.
Design your header on a ready-made 1500 × 500 canvas
Graphtr opens straight onto a 1500 × 500 X header canvas — the ratio, the pixel count and the export settings are already correct, so you can go straight to designing. Free, in the browser, no watermark.