LinkedIn Banner Checker

Upload your banner and see what LinkedIn will do to it: scale, stretch or crop, plus the zone your profile photo is about to sit on.

LinkedIn banner checkerThe image is checked in your browser and never uploaded.

Upload your banner image

100% free
No signup
Runs in your browser
Nothing uploaded

Example, fictional upload

A 2000x400 upload would read: "2000x400 is not 4:1, so LinkedIn will crop the left and right edges to fit. Re-frame at 1584x396 to control what survives." The overlay would then show the avatar circle covering the lower-left, where this fictional banner had placed its tagline.

How it works

Upload the image

It is measured locally; the file never leaves your browser.
Read the verdict

Exact fit, safe scale-down, upscale risk, or crop warning with the crop direction.
Check the safe zones

Toggle the desktop and mobile overlays and keep faces, logos and text out of the covered area.

What this tool does and does not do

It does

Verifies dimensions against LinkedIn’s 1584x396 (4:1) recommendation
Predicts what LinkedIn will do: scale down, stretch up, or crop which edges
Overlays the approximate profile-photo occlusion zone for desktop and mobile
Processes the image entirely in your browser; nothing uploads

It does not

Upload, store or transmit your image anywhere
Claim pixel-exact occlusion; the overlay approximates LinkedIn’s current layout
Judge the design; it measures geometry, not taste
Edit the image; it tells you what to re-export and why

What is a LinkedIn banner checker?

A pre-upload inspection for the background image on your profile. It answers three questions LinkedIn will otherwise answer for you, destructively: is the size right, what happens if it is not, and which part of the image the profile photo will sit on. All three are pure geometry, which is why this tool can be exact about dimensions and honest about the one thing that is approximate, the overlay.

How do I check my banner before uploading to LinkedIn?

Drop the file in the checker above. You get the measured dimensions, a verdict in plain language, and the safe-zone preview in a true 4:1 frame. Fix problems in your design tool, not by hoping: re-export at 1584x396 and re-check. Thirty seconds per iteration, no uploads wasted.

The banner geometry that actually matters

1584x396 exact. Uploads clean, no scaling, no cropping, no surprises. This is the target for every export.
Larger but 4:1 (3168x792 and friends). Safe: LinkedIn scales it down. Useful when your design tool works at 2x.
Smaller than 1584 wide. LinkedIn stretches it up and the stretch is where sharpness goes to die. Always export at full size.
Off-ratio. LinkedIn center-crops to 4:1. Wider than 4:1 loses the left and right edges; taller loses top and bottom. The checker tells you which, so you can re-frame deliberately.

Designing around the avatar, not under it

The profile photo overlaps the banner's lower left on most layouts, and the overlap is proportionally bigger on mobile. Practical rules that survive both overlays: keep all text and key visuals in the right two-thirds; keep them vertically centered, since the top edge crops on some devices and the bottom hosts the avatar; and never place a face or logo in the lower-left quarter. If your current banner has its message there, this is why nobody has ever mentioned it.

One banner, one message

The banner is glanced at, not studied. One readable message at thumbnail size is the ceiling of what it can carry: a positioning line, a proof point, or a visual from your actual work. Full sentences of body text, contact details in small type, or collages of six achievements all render as texture. Write the one line, set it in large type in the safe area, and spend the saved effort on the sections people actually read.

Frequently asked questions

What size should a LinkedIn banner be in 2026?

1584 by 396 pixels, a 4:1 ratio, for personal profiles. Exactly that size uploads cleanest; larger 4:1 images scale down fine; anything off-ratio gets cropped by LinkedIn without asking you which part survives. The checker above verifies your file in your browser before LinkedIn gets a vote.

Why does my profile photo cover part of my banner?

By design: LinkedIn overlaps the avatar on the banner’s lower left. Anything placed there, faces, logos, taglines, gets hidden. The checker overlays the approximate covered zone for desktop and mobile so you can keep important content out of it. It is an approximation of the current layout, and we label it as one.

Does the checker upload my banner anywhere?

No. The image is read by your browser, measured, and previewed locally. It never leaves your device, which you can verify in the network tab. The same privacy holds for the image metadata remover, worth running on photos before they go public anywhere.

What should I actually put on my banner?

One message readable at a glance: what you do plus one proof point, or a single visual tied to your work. Keep text in the right two-thirds and vertically centered, clear of the avatar zone and the edges. A banner with substance beats an empty gradient; a banner with a paragraph on it beats nothing but not by much.

My banner looks sharp on desktop and soft on mobile. Why?

Mobile crops tighter and stretches the same file across less width, so compression artifacts show sooner. Export at exactly 1584x396, keep text away from the top and bottom 15%, and preview both overlays in the checker. If the source is smaller than 1584 wide, LinkedIn upscales it, which is where most of the blur comes from.

Is the banner even worth the effort?

It is the largest visual on your profile and the cheapest one to fix: 20 minutes once a year. Nobody hires you for the banner, but the identity strip (photo, headline, banner) sets the first-glance impression the rest has to live up to. The profile scorer asks about it in its completeness checklist for that reason.

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