An X avatar is uploaded as a 400 x 400 px square and displayed as a circle, with a 2 MB ceiling. Nearly everything that goes wrong comes from designing the square and forgetting the corners are cut away.
Where it shows
- Beside every post you make in the timeline
- Over the lower left of your profile header
- In replies and quote posts
- In the followers and following lists
- In direct message threads
The safe zone
X masks the square into a circle, so the four corners of a 400 x 400 px file are never seen by anyone. A logo that fills the square edge to edge loses its extremities, and a wordmark set across the full width loses its first and last letters. Draw a circle inside the square, keep the mark inside that circle with a margin, and remember the avatar is rendered far smaller than 400 px beside every post you make.
Quirks worth knowing
- The upload is a square but every surface renders it as a circle, so roughly a fifth of a 400 x 400 px file's area is masked away.
- The 2 MB avatar ceiling is far tighter than the 5 MB allowed for an image inside a post, and it is the limit a large logo PNG runs into.
- help.x.com sits behind a bot block, so the 400 x 400 px and 2 MB figures here come from the Buffer and Hootsuite size guides rather than a direct read of X's help page.
- The avatar is shown at a small fraction of 400 px next to each post, so a detailed illustration reads as a colored blob at the size most people ever see it.
- A transparent avatar is composited onto the page background, which means the same file looks different in light mode and dark mode.
- No minimum avatar dimension is published by X either, so minWidth is null here. The 400 x 400 px figure is the size to supply rather than a lower bound.
Common mistakes
- Uploading a horizontal logo lockup, which the circular mask trims down to its middle third.
- Leaving no padding inside the square, so the circle cuts into the mark itself.
- Sending a print resolution logo that breaks the 2 MB avatar ceiling when the same file would have posted fine as an image.
- Choosing a mark with fine linework that vanishes at the size the avatar appears beside a post.
What we recommend
- Build on a 400 x 400 px square, draw a circle inside it, and keep the mark inside that circle with room to spare.
- Fill the square with a solid brand color rather than transparency so the circle has a clean edge in both themes.
- Check the avatar at the size it appears next to a post, not at the size you designed it.
- Keep the file under 2 MB, which a 400 x 400 px export manages easily unless it is an uncompressed PNG.
Common questions
Why is my X profile picture cropped into a circle?
X displays every avatar as a circle even though the upload is a square. The corners of a 400 x 400 px file are masked and never shown to anyone. Design inside a circle drawn within the square and nothing you care about gets clipped.
What size should an X profile picture be?
400 x 400 px at a 1:1 ratio is the figure the size guides and X's own help have long carried. Going larger does not help, because X scales the file down regardless. Going smaller shows immediately on high density phone screens.
Why won't my logo upload as my X profile picture?
The avatar ceiling is 2 MB, which is much tighter than the 5 MB X allows for an image inside a post. A large or uncompressed PNG runs into it. Flatten the logo onto a solid background and re-export and it will clear the limit.
Should my X avatar have a transparent background?
It should not. The circle is composited onto whatever background the viewer's theme uses, so a transparent avatar reads one way in light mode and another in dark mode. A solid color behind the mark gives you one predictable result everywhere.
More answers on thumbnail, carousel and cover questions are on the FAQ.