A small circle that says a lot
LinkedIn shows your profile picture as a circle, cropped from a square image, and a recommended upload is 400 × 400 pixels. It is displayed small in most places, in search results and comments, so what matters is that your face is large and clear inside the circle, not how big the file is. The picture is the first thing a recruiter or a client sees, and it is worth a few minutes.
How to prepare it
- Drop your photo on this page. The 400 × 400 size is already selected.
- Crop to a square with your face roughly centred. Because the platform cuts a circle from the square, the corners are lost.
- Download and upload. The file limit is 8 MB, and a correct 400 × 400 image is a fraction of that.
What makes a good profile photo
- Your face should fill most of the frame. Head and shoulders, not a full-body shot where you are a dot.
- Use even light and a plain background. It compresses well and keeps attention on you.
- Look at the camera. A friendly expression reads well even at a small size.
- Use a recent picture. It should look like you do now.
- Start from a larger original. Shrinking an image to 400 pixels is sharp; enlarging a tiny one is blurry.
Leave some space above your head. In a circular crop, tight framing can cut off hair or the top of your head.
If you also need a banner, see LinkedIn banner. The LinkedIn image size guide covers every format, and passport photo sizes is a different matter altogether, with strict official rules.