Product images are the first thing shoppers see when scanning Google Shopping results. Before they read your title, check the price, or notice the seller, the image either grabs their attention or gets scrolled past. Yet images are also one of the most common reasons products get disapproved in Google Merchant Center.
This guide covers everything about Google Shopping image requirements: the exact technical specifications, what Google allows and prohibits, the most common rejection reasons with step-by-step fixes, category-specific rules, and a practical optimization workflow. Whether you are setting up your first feed or auditing an existing catalog with thousands of SKUs, you will find actionable guidance here.
Google's Official Image Requirements
Google defines two categories of image rules: technical specifications that determine whether your image can be processed, and editorial policies that determine whether it will be approved. Let us start with the technical specs.
Minimum and Recommended Dimensions
Image dimension requirements depend on your product category. According to Google's image_link documentation, these are the current minimums:
| Category | Minimum | Recommended | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-apparel | 100 x 100 px | 800 x 800 px+ | Applies to electronics, home, beauty, food, etc. |
| Apparel | 250 x 250 px | 1000 x 1000 px+ | Clothing, shoes, accessories |
| YouTube Shopping | 500 x 500 px | 800 x 800 px+ | Required for TV placements |
| Max resolution | 64 megapixels (no single dimension limit specified) | ||
Aim for at least 1200 x 1200 pixels. This gives Google enough resolution to display your product clearly across all placements, including high-density mobile screens, Shopping tabs, and newer surfaces like shopping ads in AI Mode. Products with larger, sharper images tend to perform better in terms of click-through rate.
File Size and Formats
Google accepts six image formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF (non-animated), WebP, BMP, and TIFF. The maximum file size is 16 MB. In practice, most merchants use JPEG for standard product photography and PNG when transparency or very sharp edges are needed.
Your image URL must start with http:// or https://, comply with RFC 3986, and be accessible to Googlebot-image. If your robots.txt blocks crawlers from your image directory, Google cannot process your images and they will be treated as missing. This is a surprisingly common issue; see our guide on feed errors for more details on crawl-related problems.
Framing and Aspect Ratio
Google recommends that the product fill 75% to 90% of the image frame. Too much whitespace makes the product appear small in Shopping results; too little cropping can cut off parts of the product. A square aspect ratio (1:1) works best for consistency across placements, though it is not strictly required.
Pro Tip: Additional Images
You can submit up to 10 additional images per product using the additional_image_link attribute. Use these for alternate angles, close-ups, lifestyle shots, and scale references. Products with multiple images give shoppers more confidence and tend to have higher engagement rates.
Image Policies: What Google Allows and Prohibits
Beyond technical specs, Google enforces editorial policies on image content. Violating these policies results in product disapprovals. Understanding them is essential for maintaining a healthy product feed.
What Is Prohibited
- Promotional text overlays: Any text on the image like "SALE", "20% OFF", "Free Shipping", "Buy One Get One", or price callouts. Google wants images to show the product, not marketing messages.
- Watermarks and logos: Store logos, brand watermarks, or any graphic elements placed over the product. The product must be shown with an unobstructed view.
- Placeholder or generic images: Stock photos that do not show the actual product, "no image available" graphics, or illustrations used as substitutes for real product photography.
- Borders and decorative elements: Colored frames, gradient borders, or styled edges around the image.
- Misleading images: Images that show a different product, wrong color variant, or an item that does not match the product data in the listing.
What Is Recommended
- White or neutral backgrounds: For non-apparel products, a clean white or light gray background is strongly preferred. This ensures the product stands out and looks consistent in Shopping results.
- Product-focused composition: Show only the listed product. Avoid group shots or scenes with multiple unrelated items.
- Accurate representation: The image must match the specific variant listed, including correct color, size, and packaging.
- Lifestyle images for apparel: Clothing shown on a model or mannequin typically performs better than flat-lay photography. Google encourages lifestyle-style images for apparel categories.
Automatic Image Improvements
Google offers an automatic image improvements feature that can attempt to remove promotional overlays from your images. While useful as a safety net, it does not catch everything. It is far better to submit clean images from the start.
Common Image Rejection Reasons and How to Fix Each
Image-related disapprovals are among the most frequent issues in Merchant Center. Based on industry data and common patterns, image problems represent a significant share of all data errors that cause Shopping disapprovals. Here are the top reasons Google rejects product images and how to resolve each one.
1. Promotional Text Overlays
The problem: Images contain text like "SALE", "NEW", percentage discounts, or price badges. This is the single most common image policy violation.
How to fix it: Remove all text from your product images. If you want to promote deals, use Google Merchant Promotions instead, which display as special annotations alongside your ads. Enable automatic image improvements in Merchant Center as an additional safety measure.
2. Watermarks or Logo Overlays
The problem: Store logos, photographer watermarks, or brand stamps are placed on the product image to prevent copying or for branding purposes.
How to fix it: Use clean, watermark-free versions of your product images. If image theft is a concern, protect your images through other means (DMCA, copyright registration) rather than watermarking. Google views watermarks as obstructing the product view.
3. Placeholder or Generic Images
The problem: The image does not show the actual product. This includes generic stock photos, manufacturer logos used as product images, or "image coming soon" placeholders.
How to fix it: Photograph every product you sell. For new products where photography is pending, wait until you have real images before submitting the product to your feed. Submitting products without real images not only gets them disapproved but can also hurt your overall feed quality score.
4. Image Too Small or Blurry
The problem: The image falls below the minimum dimension requirements (100x100 for non-apparel, 250x250 for apparel) or is pixelated, out of focus, or poorly lit.
How to fix it: Re-photograph the product at a higher resolution. Aim for at least 800x800 pixels for non-apparel and 1000x1000 for apparel. Use a tripod and proper lighting. Avoid upscaling small images, as this creates visible pixelation. Google's image too small help page provides additional guidance.
5. Image Does Not Match the Product
The problem: The image shows a different variant (wrong color, size, or model) than what is described in the product data. This happens frequently with variant products where all variants share the same parent image.
How to fix it: Map each product variant to its specific image. If you sell a t-shirt in five colors, each color variant needs its own image showing that exact color. Audit your feed to ensure image-to-data consistency. Tools like feed management platforms can help automate this mapping.
6. Multiple Products in a Single-Product Listing
The problem: The image shows a group of products or accessories when the listing is for a single item. This confuses shoppers about what they are purchasing.
How to fix it: Use an image that shows only the product being sold. If the product is a set or bundle, make sure the listing title and description clearly indicate it is a multi-item pack. For additional context, use the additional_image_link attribute to show accessories or styled arrangements.
Category-Specific Image Rules
Different product categories have different expectations for images. While the core policies apply universally, Google and shoppers expect certain standards depending on what you sell. Assigning the correct product category also helps Google understand what image standards apply.
Apparel and Fashion
Apparel has the strictest image requirements. The minimum dimension is 250x250 pixels (vs. 100x100 for other categories), and Google recommends at least 1000x1000. Lifestyle images showing the product on a model or mannequin perform significantly better than flat-lay shots. Showing the full garment without cropping is essential. Include images from multiple angles and use additional images to show fabric texture, fit details, and back views.
Electronics and Technology
Clean product-on-white images work best for electronics. Show the product powered off (no screens with active content that could be confused with product features). Include the product from the front, showing key physical features. Additional images should show ports, included accessories, and scale references. Model numbers in product titles paired with clear images help shoppers verify they are looking at the right item.
Home and Garden
For furniture and home decor, the main image should show the product on a white or neutral background. Lifestyle images showing the product in a room setting make excellent additional images. Always convey scale, either through context or by noting dimensions in the description. For multi-piece sets, show all included pieces in the main image if the listing is for the complete set.
Food and Grocery
Product packaging should be clearly visible. Show the front of the package with the label readable. For fresh or prepared foods, show the actual food item, not just the packaging. Including weight, count, and size information in both the image context and the product data helps reduce returns and improves shopper confidence.
Beauty and Personal Care
Show the product packaging clearly, including the brand name and product line on the label. For cosmetics, swatches and color samples are valuable as additional images. Accurate color representation is critical in this category since slight differences in shade can affect purchase decisions.
Image Optimization Best Practices
Meeting the minimum requirements gets your images approved, but optimization is what drives better performance. Here are practical steps to get the most out of your product images for Shopping ad optimization.
File Compression Without Quality Loss
Large image files slow down crawling and can cause timeouts. Compress your images to reduce file size while maintaining visual quality. JPEG at 80-85% quality offers an excellent balance for product photography. WebP format can achieve even smaller file sizes with comparable quality. Aim to keep images under 2 MB while maintaining sharpness.
Background Removal and Consistency
For non-apparel products, a pure white background (#FFFFFF) creates the cleanest appearance in Shopping results. Tools like remove.bg or Adobe's background removal can automate this process. Consistency across your catalog makes your brand look professional and helps your products stand out in the competitive Shopping carousel. Feed management platforms like Feedonomics can also help enforce image standards at scale.
Mobile-First Image Considerations
The majority of Shopping ad impressions now come from mobile devices. Your product images need to be clear and recognizable at small display sizes. This means:
- The product should fill most of the frame (no tiny product in a sea of whitespace)
- Key features should be visible without zooming
- Text on the product (like labels) does not need to be readable, but the product itself must be identifiable
- Test how your images look on a phone-sized Shopping result before finalizing
Lifestyle vs. White Background: When to Use Each
White backgrounds are preferred for the main image in most categories and tend to look more consistent in search results. However, lifestyle images (product in context) can be highly effective as additional images and sometimes outperform white backgrounds for the primary image in categories like apparel, home decor, and outdoor equipment. Test both approaches for your top products and measure CTR differences.
Key Takeaway: Images and CTR
Image quality directly impacts click-through rate in Shopping ads. Products with high-resolution, well-lit images on clean backgrounds consistently outperform products with low-quality or policy-violating images. Improving your images is one of the highest-ROI activities for ROAS improvement, especially for products that already get impressions but have below-average CTR.
How to Monitor Image Issues in Merchant Center
Fixing images once is not enough. New products, feed updates, and policy changes can introduce new issues at any time. Here is how to stay on top of image health in your account.
The Diagnostics Tab
In Merchant Center, navigate to Products > Diagnostics to see all active issues. Filter by "Image" to isolate image-specific problems. Common diagnostics include "Image too small", "Promotional overlay on image", and "Missing image". Each diagnostic links to specific affected products so you can fix them in bulk.
Image Crawl Errors
If Google cannot access your image URLs, you will see crawl errors in the diagnostics. Common causes include broken image links after site migrations, CDN configuration issues blocking Googlebot-image, rate limiting that prevents Google from fetching images, and robots.txt rules that inadvertently block the image directory. Check Merchant Center analytics regularly for crawl status trends.
Item-Level Issues
For individual products, click into the product detail in Merchant Center to see item-specific issues. This view shows the exact image Google has crawled and any problems detected. It is particularly useful for debugging variant-specific image mismatches where one color variant might have the wrong image mapped.
Setting Up Alerts
Merchant Center can send email notifications when new issues appear. Enable these alerts so you catch image problems quickly rather than discovering them weeks later when performance has already been affected. For larger feeds, consider tracking disapproval rates over time in your analytics setup. Tools like SKU Analyzer can surface performance changes at the product level, helping you correlate image updates with CTR and impression share movements.
Regular Audit Schedule
Review your Merchant Center diagnostics weekly for new image issues. Conduct a full image audit quarterly, especially after catalog expansions or website redesigns. Cross-reference image quality with product performance data to prioritize which images to improve first. For broader feed health, see our feed optimization guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the minimum image size for Google Shopping?
The minimum image size for non-apparel products is 100 x 100 pixels. For apparel products, the minimum is 250 x 250 pixels. However, Google recommends using at least 800 x 800 pixels for non-apparel and 1000 x 1000 for apparel to ensure images display clearly across all devices and placements.
Can I use lifestyle images for Google Shopping product listings?
Yes, but with conditions. The main product image (image_link) should show the product clearly, ideally on a white or neutral background for non-apparel items. Lifestyle images work well for apparel and are encouraged there. You can use the additional_image_link attribute to add up to 10 lifestyle or alternate-angle images per product.
Why are my product images getting disapproved in Merchant Center?
The most common reasons for image disapproval include promotional text overlays (sale badges, discount text), watermarks or logos on the image, placeholder or generic stock photos, images that are too small or blurry, images that don't match the listed product variant, and showing multiple products in a single-product listing. Check the Diagnostics tab in Merchant Center for specific error details.
What image file formats does Google Shopping accept?
Google Shopping accepts JPEG, PNG, GIF (non-animated), WebP, BMP, and TIFF formats. The maximum file size is 16 MB. JPEG is the most common choice for product photography due to its balance of quality and file size, while PNG is useful for products that need transparency or very sharp edges.
How many product images can I submit to Google Shopping?
You can submit one main image via image_link and up to 10 additional images per product using the additional_image_link attribute. Using multiple images is recommended as it gives shoppers more views of the product and can improve engagement. Additional images can include lifestyle shots, close-ups, alternate angles, and packaging views.
Conclusion
Product images are not just a feed requirement to check off. They are a core driver of Shopping ad performance, affecting approval status, click-through rate, and ultimately revenue. Getting images right involves meeting technical specs, following editorial policies, and continuously optimizing for quality.
Key takeaways:
- Meet the minimums, then exceed them: 100x100 gets you approved, but 1200x1200 gets you clicks
- Keep images clean: No promotional text, no watermarks, no placeholders
- Match every variant: Each color, size, and style needs its own accurate image
- Optimize for mobile: Most Shopping impressions are on phones, where image quality matters even more
- Monitor continuously: Check Merchant Center diagnostics weekly for new image issues
- Measure the impact: Track CTR and conversion performance after image improvements
Start by auditing your top 50 products by spend. Check each one against the requirements in this guide, fix any violations, and upgrade images to recommended dimensions. Then expand the audit to your full catalog. Even small improvements in image quality, applied across hundreds of products, compound into measurable performance gains. For a comprehensive approach, combine image optimization with title optimization and feed-only Performance Max strategies to maximize your Shopping ad ROI.