Circle Crop Methodology

Two kinds of numbers

The site uses two kinds of numbers, and we keep them apart. Platform sizes, such as the pixel size LinkedIn asks for, come from that company’s help pages. Geometry figures, such as how much of a square photo a circle keeps, come from math. A platform size always has a source link and a date. A geometry figure is either calculated or clearly labeled as our own suggestion.

How platform sizes are checked

For each platform, the Circle Crop Image Team reads the company’s official help page and records only what it says: a pixel size, a size range, a file type, or a file-size limit. The link and the date we read it are stored with the row. The size chart, platform-sizes.json, and platform-sizes.csv are all generated from that same record, so they always match.

When a help page does not publish a single size, the chart says so, and 512 by 512 pixels is shown as our general recommendation rather than the platform’s rule. At the last check, that was the case for Discord, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, and X. LinkedIn publishes a range that starts at 400 pixels, so we show the range instead of one size. YouTube says the channel picture appears at 98 by 98 pixels, and a separate article gives 800 by 800 for official artist channels. We list them as two separate facts.

What the date means

The date on each row is the day we last read the help page. Rows are rechecked when that date is more than 180 days old, or sooner if someone reports a change. If a help page is removed, we take the official number out and say that no current source was found, instead of filling the gap from memory or from another website.

How the geometry figures are calculated

The numbers on the geometry page are calculated when the site is built, using the same formulas as the editor. That includes how much of a square a circle covers, the largest square that fits inside a circle, how Fit scales a wide photo, and how much of a 3:2, 4:3, or 16:9 photo stays inside the circle. If the editor’s math changes, the article changes with it.

The editor exports at most 4096 pixels across, and it does not enlarge a crop beyond the detail in the original photo. The geometry page uses the same limits, so the numbers it shows match what you can actually download.

Menu names in the app guides

Our guides for PowerPoint, Word, Google Slides, Canva, and Photoshop name a menu or button only when it appears in that company’s help article. For example, the PowerPoint and Word guides cite Microsoft’s article on cropping to a shape. When a step was not confirmed in a help article, the guide describes what to do in plain words and notes that the app’s layout can change.

Using the size data

You are welcome to read and reference the size chart and its JSON and CSV files. If you reuse a row elsewhere, please keep its source link and date, and do not present our 512 by 512 suggestion as a platform’s official rule. Always open the source link before you rely on a number, because companies change their help pages without notice.

Reporting a mistake

If a number or a step on this site disagrees with an official help page, please tell us. Send the page address, the sentence, and the link to the help page you read. We recheck the source and update the row and its date together. Please do not attach photos; we do not need them to check a fact.