WhatsApp template image size: photo, video and PDF limits
In short
A WhatsApp template's header image must be a JPEG or PNG of at most 5 MB, in 8-bit RGB or RGBA colour; WebP and GIF are not accepted. A video header must be an MP4 or 3GP of at most 16 MB, encoded as H.264 with AAC audio. A document header is a PDF of at most 100 MB. Meta sets no required pixel size or shape. In practice a landscape or square JPEG around 1,200 pixels wide, well under 1 MB, looks sharp on every phone and loads quickly.
Checked
A template can open with a photo, a video or a PDF — a festival offer, a product, an invoice. The limits are generous and few. The mistakes are in the details.
The limits Meta sets
Photo. JPEG or PNG, up to 5 MB, in 8-bit RGB or RGBA colour. Not WebP, not GIF, not HEIC — a photo straight off an iPhone is often HEIC and has to be converted first. A CMYK file from a print designer is refused too; ask for an RGB export.
Video. MP4 or 3GP, up to 16 MB, with H.264 video and AAC audio, and no more than one audio track. Meta recommends H.264’s Main profile without B-frames, or Baseline: Android’s WhatsApp does not play the High profile with B-frames. Most phone and Canva exports are fine; some editing software exports High by default.
PDF. Up to 100 MB. In practice, keep it to a few megabytes — the customer downloads it on mobile data.
The size Meta does not set
Meta publishes no required width, height or shape for a header image. What you are designing for is a narrow phone screen, in a chat, above the text of your message.
- Landscape or square. A tall image pushes your words and buttons down the screen. A wide one sits above them.
- About 1,200 pixels wide is plenty. It is sharp on every phone, and a file that size, saved as a JPEG, is usually a few hundred kilobytes. A 4,000-pixel photo is not sharper on a phone; it is just slower to arrive.
- Keep words in the image large, and few. It is read at the width of a thumb. If the message needs a sentence, put it in the template’s text, where it can be read, searched and translated.
- Keep the important part away from the edges, in case a phone shows it smaller than you expect.
Two files, not one
When you submit a template with a photo, video or PDF header, Meta asks for a sample to review the template with. That sample is used for approval only.
When you send the template, Meta wants the file again, every time, as part of the message. A template approved with a photo and sent without one is refused with error 132012, once per person, and the error does not name the missing file. What the error codes mean.
So the file has to be somewhere your sending tool can reach for as long as you keep sending that template:
- Uploaded to WhatsApp. A file uploaded to Meta is kept for 30 days and then forgotten, so a tool that uploads once and reuses the id breaks a month later — often on a scheduled broadcast.
- A link. WhatsApp fetches it when sending. It has to open without signing in, and it has to still exist when the message is sent; a link that expired returns error 131053.
Getting it right in talkv
In talkv a template with a photo, video or PDF keeps its sample, and a broadcast sends the same file to everybody — the sample or another file you choose. A broadcast cannot start without its file, so the 132012 failures never happen one person at a time. talkv keeps the file on its own private storage and uploads it again before WhatsApp forgets it.
Sending a different file to each person — an invoice, a ticket — is done through the API, as a link, which talkv passes to WhatsApp without storing.
