How to use the Twitter card validator
Paste the address of the page you want to share and press Preview card. The tool fetches the page the way X's crawler does, reads its tags, loads the share image, and shows approximate previews for X, Facebook and LinkedIn. Below the previews, a checklist explains anything missing or wrong, and the full list of social tags shows exactly what the page provides.
X stopped showing previews in its own Card Validator, so a quick way to see a card before posting is more useful than ever.
The tags that control an X card
| Tag | What it does |
|---|---|
twitter:card | The card type. summary_large_image shows a large image above the title; summary shows a small square thumbnail. |
twitter:title | The headline. If missing, X uses og:title. |
twitter:description | The summary text. If missing, X uses og:description. |
twitter:image | The picture. If missing, X uses og:image. |
twitter:site | The @username of the website, credited on the card. |
Because X falls back to Open Graph tags, most sites only need a complete set of Open Graph tags plus <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image">.
Share image size
For a large image card, use an image of at least 1200 by 630 pixels, around a 2:1 shape, under 5 MB, in JPG, PNG, WebP or GIF format. Keep important text and faces away from the edges, because each platform crops the image slightly differently. The image address must be a full URL starting with https://, and the server must allow outside sites to load it.
Why isn't my card updating?
X and other platforms cache link previews. If you shared a link before fixing its tags, the old preview can stick around for a while. Check the fixed page here first; once the tags are right, new posts will pick them up after the cache refreshes. Adding a harmless query parameter, such as ?v=2, creates a fresh link that is fetched again straight away.
Fetch as X, Facebook or a browser
Some sites serve different HTML to crawlers, for example pre-rendered pages for bots. Choose X (Twitterbot) to see what X receives, or Facebook crawler to match Facebook and many other apps. If a site blocks these crawlers in its firewall or robots.txt, its links will share as plain text, and the check here will show the error.
Frequently asked questions
Does X still have a Card Validator?
X removed the preview feature from its Card Validator, so it no longer shows what a card looks like. This tool shows an approximate preview and checks the tags that control it.
Why does my link show no image on X?
Usually the page has no twitter:image or og:image tag, the image URL is relative instead of a full https:// address, the image is too small, or the server blocks X's crawler from loading it.
What's the difference between summary and summary_large_image?
summary shows a small square thumbnail next to the title. summary_large_image shows a wide image across the full width of the post, which usually gets more attention.
Do I need both Twitter and Open Graph tags?
Not necessarily. X falls back to Open Graph tags for the title, description and image. You only need twitter:card, plus Twitter tags for anything you want to differ on X.
Last updated