What’s going on

WhatsApp can show a text-only preview (title + description) even when the image fails. If you see a preview but no image, check these in order.

Image too small

Images below 100 x 100 pixels are dropped entirely. Between 100-300px wide, you get a small thumbnail instead of full-width. Use 1200 x 630 pixels for full-width display.

File too large

Images over 600KB risk timing out or failing to process. JPEG at 80% quality is usually sufficient.

Relative URL

WhatsApp needs an absolute HTTPS URL. Relative paths don’t resolve:

<!-- Won't work -->
<meta property="og:image" content="/images/preview.jpg">

<!-- Will work -->
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/images/preview.jpg">

HTTP instead of HTTPS

og:image must use https://. HTTP image URLs are silently dropped:

<!-- Won't work -->
<meta property="og:image" content="http://example.com/images/preview.jpg">

<!-- Will work -->
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/images/preview.jpg">

SVG format

WhatsApp ignores SVG entirely. Convert to JPEG or PNG.

Image behind authentication or CDN protection

The crawler can’t fetch images that require auth or are blocked by CDN rules:

• Hotlink protection requiring a Referer header
• Signed URLs that expire before the crawler gets to them
• Auth-gated images on private or staging servers

Diagnosis

1. Open the og:image URL directly in a browser. Does it load?
2. Confirm the URL is absolute and uses HTTPS
3. Verify at least 100x100px and under 600KB
4. Confirm JPEG, PNG, WebP, or GIF (not SVG)
5. Run the Facebook Sharing Debugger to see if Meta’s crawler can fetch the image