Facebook Marketplace photo size

What the feed crop does to your cover

Thumbnail crops vary by platform and placement. Keep the item visible in the preview and leave enough room for alternate crops. A square can suit some layouts, but it is not a universal rule; Etsy's guidance also discusses landscape images and different thumbnail shapes.

That card is the whole decision. A buyer gets one photo at thumbnail size with a price under it, and either taps or keeps going, so the item has to read at about the size of a stamp. Detail you can only see at full width is detail nobody sees.

Shoot the cover with the item centred and some room around it. That margin is what lets you close a square later without cutting off the handle, the label, or the leaf that makes the thing recognisable.

eBay and Etsy want different numbers

eBay requires at least one listing photo with a longest side of 500 pixels. Etsy recommends listing photos at least 2000 pixels wide and high. These are different rules; neither makes a 1200 px square a universal marketplace requirement.

The accepted format and minimum dimensions belong to the listing service. Check the upload instructions and preview on Facebook Marketplace, eBay or Etsy. A 1200 px square is a possible working copy for a thumbnail, not a verified minimum or zoom guarantee.

Square it, then resize

Lock 1:1 in Crop image and keep the item filling the frame rather than the ceiling. Then set 1200 × 1200 in Resize image, or 1600 × 1600 if the same photo is going to eBay as well.

Do not upscale a 600 px photo to reach the number: the pixels are not there and the buyer sees mush. A 12 MP hallway shot is the opposite problem, too much wall and not enough plant.

1. Convert the camera roll with HEIC to JPG if the files are still HEIC.
2. Crop 1:1 in Crop image, keeping the item and dropping the ceiling.
3. Resize to 1200 × 1200, then run Compress image if the upload bar still complains. Up to 10 files, 20 MB each.

iPhone HEIC is the wrong file

If the listing field does not accept HEIC, make a JPEG copy with HEIC to JPG. Test the accepted format on that platform; HEIC support should not be stated as identical across every marketplace.

A file Chrome saved can be WebP with a .jpg name, and the listing bounces that the same way: Chrome WebP.

Strip GPS before the cover goes up

A photo of the spare room, the bike in the driveway, or the plant on your table usually carries the coordinates of your house, and that listing is public to strangers.

Sharing from the iPhone cleans only the copy you send, so the file about to be uploaded needs Remove EXIF first. The full walkthrough is strip GPS.

Marketplace recompresses it anyway

Keep an unmodified source and inspect the listing preview after uploading. Repeated lossy exports can reduce detail. Text overlays and watermarks are subject to the platform's picture policy; do not assume a seller handle is always permitted. For marking a separate proof, see watermarking a photo.

It also explains why a photo you upload twice looks worse the second time: their encoder is working on a file it already compressed once. Keep the JPEG you uploaded on your own disk, and the next listing starts from a square file instead of a screenshot of the old one.

Keep the cover clean

If you do need a mark on a proof you send privately, that is a different question: watermarking a photo. Other classifieds have their own pixel floors, but the same square JPEG usually travels without changes.