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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Use a 1200×630-pixel image (1.91:1) as the practical default for a Telegram link preview. This Open Graph card size usually balances cropping, readability and file size. It is an interoperability recommendation—not a dimension or byte limit Telegram officially guarantees for ordinary link previews. Publish it at an absolute, public HTTPS URL, include server-rendered Open Graph tags, and keep the file comfortably below 5 MB.
The recommended Telegram preview image size
Create your preview image at 1200×630 px, which is a 1.91:1 aspect ratio. It is the common Open Graph card format and a sensible target for Telegram, websites and other sharing clients.
Telegram has not published a definitive minimum or maximum Open Graph dimension, nor a universal byte limit for ordinary URL previews. Therefore, 1200×630 is best treated as a practical default rather than a Telegram-certified requirement. A technically valid image can still fail to appear because Telegram’s crawler or cache does not process it as expected.
Keep the important content in the center
Place the logo, headline and essential visual elements inside a generous central safe area. Clients can display media as a small or large preview; TDLib exposes force_small_media and force_large_media controls, so the visible crop and scale can vary between clients and contexts. Avoid putting critical text against the extreme top, bottom or side edges.
Choose the format for the artwork
- JPEG: a good default for photographs and gradients.
- PNG: preferable for logos, diagrams and text-heavy graphics where sharp edges matter.
- WebP: can reduce bytes when the receiving client supports it, but JPEG and PNG remain safer interchange formats.
Compress the image until it is comfortably below 5 MB without making small text unreadable. The 5 MB figure is not an officially documented limit for ordinary Open Graph previews; it is a useful operational ceiling and is also mentioned in Telegram’s separate Instant View guidance.
What Telegram officially documents
Telegram’s Instant View manual says that whenever Telegram needs to display a link preview, it also checks whether an Instant View template exists for that domain. The manual defines image_url as the “Link preview photo (used in link preview)” and lists description and site_name as preview fields: Telegram Instant View manual.
The official Instant View checklist says a link preview should include a photo when a suitable image or document exists and should include a description. It warns that images from meta-tags are often designed for sharing widgets and may not work well in the Instant View environment: Instant View checklist. That warning concerns Instant View extraction; it does not make ordinary Open Graph images useless for normal Telegram previews.
For Instant View image handling, Telegram lists an optimal resolution range of 1280–2560 pixels and says images larger than 5 MB will fail to load (2019 checklist guidance). Do not present those figures as a universal ordinary-link-preview requirement. Telegram’s public documentation does not state a fixed ordinary OG minimum, maximum or byte limit.
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Open Graph metadata Telegram can read
Put the tags in the initial HTML response, inside the document’s <head>. Do not rely on JavaScript to insert them after page load; a crawler may never execute that code.
<meta property="og:title" content="Your page title">
<meta property="og:description" content="A concise description">
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/images/telegram-preview.jpg">
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200">
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630">Requirements for the image URL
- Use an absolute HTTPS URL, not a relative path.
- Allow access without login, cookies or a browser-only session.
- Return HTTP 200 and an actual image content type such as
image/jpegorimage/png. - Avoid redirect chains, hotlink protection and robots or firewall rules that block Telegram’s fetcher.
- Keep
og:url, the canonical URL and the shared URL consistent.
Use a descriptive og:title and concise og:description. Telegram’s Instant View model also recognises image_url, description and site_name, but normal website previews are primarily controlled by the page metadata and Telegram’s own crawler.
Designing a 1200×630 card that survives small previews
Set typography for thumbnail viewing
Use a short headline, high contrast and a simple visual hierarchy. Test the card at thumbnail size: if the headline cannot be read at roughly one-quarter of its original width, shorten it or increase its weight. Keep logos large enough to identify but not so large that they crowd the title.
Protect against cropping
A 1200×630 canvas is wider than a square thumbnail. Keep faces, product silhouettes and text away from the outer margins. Do not assume every Telegram client will display the entire canvas at the same scale.
Balance quality and bytes
Export photographs as progressive JPEG with a quality setting that preserves edges and text, then inspect the actual file size. Use PNG when JPEG introduces halos around lettering or transparent artwork is required. Remove unnecessary metadata. A smaller file generally fetches more reliably, but aggressive compression that destroys legibility defeats the purpose of the card.
Why a valid image may still produce no preview
- Inspect the initial HTML. Fetch the page with a crawler-like request and confirm the OG tags are present before any JavaScript runs.
- Fetch the exact image URL. Verify HTTP 200, the expected content type, no authentication challenge and no blocked redirect.
- Check URL consistency. Compare the shared URL, canonical URL and
og:url; remove accidental query-string variants while debugging. - Change the asset URL when updating artwork. A new filename or query-free versioned path can help distinguish a fresh image from a cached one.
- Allow for cache refresh. Telegram may retain an earlier crawl or image. Repeatedly editing the page does not guarantee an immediate refresh.
- Test multiple clients. Desktop, Android, iOS and embedded Telegram clients can differ in presentation and backend behaviour.
Telegram’s public bug tracker records cases in which valid 1200×630 JPEG or PNG files were fetched successfully but no preview appeared. Those reports reinforce that ordinary Open Graph limits are not fully specified and that a server-side or cache-side failure remains possible.
Practical troubleshooting checklist
Telegram shows the wrong image
Confirm that only one intended og:image is being emitted, that it is absolute, and that the image at that URL has actually changed. Check for a stale CDN or Telegram cache, then publish a versioned image URL and wait for a new crawl.
Telegram shows a blank or broken thumbnail
Request the image directly with an HTTP client. A login page, HTML error document, unsupported content type, expired signed URL or redirect requiring JavaScript will not work as a public image. Replace it with a stable URL that returns the image bytes directly.
The title or description is missing
Move the tags into server-rendered HTML in the initial response. Check quotation marks, HTML escaping and that a framework or SEO plugin has not generated conflicting tags later in the document.
The preview appears for one URL but not another
Compare hostnames, redirects, canonical tags, response status, firewall rules and cache headers. Telegram evaluates each URL and domain independently; a working page does not prove that every route or image host is accessible.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Verify pages without building a browser-capture setup
For a visual check of how a page renders before you share it, ScreenshotNeo can return a clean screenshot or PDF from one GET request. It accepts consent banners before capture and removes more than 60 known consent platforms, newsletter popups and chat widgets; each step can be disabled. Only clean shots are billed, while bot checks or CAPTCHAs, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads and cache hits cost nothing, with X-Page-Verdict and X-Billed headers explaining the result.
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Use the API endpoint documented at ScreenshotNeo’s documentation:
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchcurl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://example.com/page -o preview.webpThe same request in Python:
import requests
r = requests.get("https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot", params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://example.com/page"}, timeout=90)
r.raise_for_status()
open("preview.webp", "wb").write(r.content)And Node.js:
const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://example.com/page' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`HTTP ${res.status}`);
const body = Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer());
require('fs').writeFileSync('preview.webp', body);ScreenshotNeo also provides an MCP server for Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients, so an AI agent can call take_screenshot, get_page_info or capture_pdf. Every feature is included on every plan. The Free plan includes 1,000 shots per month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 shots. Create a free ScreenshotNeo account.
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Performance, caching and reliability considerations
- Serve the image from a geographically reachable HTTPS host with a stable cache policy.
- Prefer one reasonably sized image over a huge original that must be resized during crawling.
- Keep the HTML response fast enough that a crawler can obtain the metadata without timing out.
- When replacing artwork, use a new filename or path rather than relying solely on an overwrite at the same URL.
- Validate both the page and image independently; a fast page can still reference an inaccessible image.
FAQ
Is 1200×630 an official Telegram requirement?
No. It is a practical Open Graph default. Telegram has not published fixed ordinary-preview dimensions or a universal byte limit.
Can I use a square image?
You can, but the 1.91:1 canvas is safer for consistent card composition and reduces the chance that important content is cropped or surrounded by unused space.
Does Telegram always refresh a changed image?
No. Telegram can cache the URL or image, and refresh timing is not guaranteed. A new asset URL and time for recrawling are often necessary.
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