Image resolution
Image resolution is the number of pixels in a picture, given as width by height (such as 1500 by 1500), and it sets how much detail the picture can show.
- Pixel dimensions
- Image dimensions
What it means
On a screen, resolution means pixel count. A photo 1500 pixels wide and 1500 high can show far more than one 160 by 160, however large either is displayed. Google uses the word this way: it is raising “the minimum resolution” for product images to 500 by 500 pixels.1
Until 31 January 2027, Google’s floor is 100 by 100 pixels, or 250 by 250 for clothing.2 From that date it is 500 by 500 for every product.1 Google recommends “around 1500 x 1500 pixels or above”, and no image may be over 64 megapixels or 16 MB.3
Stores have ceilings too. Shopify takes images of “any size up to 5000 x 5000 px, or 25 megapixels”, in a file smaller than 20 MB.4 A manufacturer’s full-size original may need resizing down before it goes in.
Think of it like this
Think of the number of tiles in a mosaic. A hundred tiles can only ever make a rough shape, while ten thousand can show an eyelash. Making the tiles bigger does not add any.
For example
A supplier’s link opens a picture 400 by 400 pixels. It passes Google’s 100 by 100 floor today, but falls short of 500 by 500 from 31 January 2027. The manufacturer’s original, at 2000 by 2000, clears both and sits above the 1500 Google recommends.
Why it matters
Channels measure resolution and act on it. Google says it disapproves products that do not “provide an image with the right dimensions”.2 Read the figure from the file itself, because a name like large.jpg says nothing about what is inside.
Not to be confused with
Resolution is a different thing from the dpi figure a supplier may quote, such as 300 dpi. That is a print setting stored in the file. It adds no pixels, and Google’s rules are written in pixels.
Sources
- Google Merchant Center Help. Merchant Center product data specification update 2026.
- Google Merchant Center Help. How to fix: Image too small.
- Google Merchant Center Help. Image link [image_link].
- Shopify Help Center. Product media types.