Google accepts JPG or PNG photos between 10 KB and 5 MB. It recommends 720 × 720 pixels and sets a 250 × 250 pixel minimum. Photos should be in focus, well lit, and show your business as it really is, without heavy filters or edits. Those are the photo requirements on Google's own help page. This guide covers the rest: which photos to add, how to upload them, why one gets rejected, and how a service business can use photos to earn more calls from Google Maps.
TL;DR
- Use JPG or PNG files between 10 KB and 5 MB. Aim for 720 × 720 px or larger, and never go below 250 × 250 px.
- Photos must be sharp, well lit and honest. Skip stock images, heavy filters, watermarks and promotional graphics.
- Add real photos of your work, team, vehicles, exterior and products, and keep adding them on a regular schedule.
- A new photo can take 24 to 48 hours to appear. A "not approved" message does not always mean the photo broke a rule.
- Video is allowed: up to 30 seconds, up to 75 MB, 720p or higher.
Table of Contents
- Google's official photo requirements
- Profile photo, logo and cover photo
- Which photos to add
- How to add photos to your Google Business Profile
- Why a photo is pending, rejected or missing
- A photo routine that fits a busy shop
- Photo checklist before you upload
- Perspective
- Get your profile photos handled for you
- FAQ
- Sources
Google's official photo requirements
Google publishes one short list of technical rules. Everything else you read online is interpretation. Here is what the Business Profile Help page states:
| Requirement | Google's rule |
|---|---|
| File format | JPG or PNG |
| File size | 10 KB to 5 MB |
| Recommended resolution | 720 × 720 px |
| Minimum resolution | 250 × 250 px |
| Quality | In focus and well lit |
| Editing | No significant alterations, no excessive filters |
| Accuracy | Must represent reality |
That last row matters most. Google wants a customer to see your profile photo and find the same business when they arrive, or the same crew when they open the door. A photo can meet every technical rule and still be rejected or pushed down if it misrepresents you.
What the numbers mean in practice
The minimum is not a target. A 250 × 250 pixel image will technically upload, but it will look soft on a phone screen, and most of your potential customers are on phones. Start with the 720 × 720 recommendation and go larger when your camera allows. Most modern phone cameras shoot far above that, so the file-size cap is the one you will bump into. If a photo is over 5 MB, export a smaller copy rather than shrinking it dramatically.
HEIC files (the default on many iPhones) and RAW files are not on Google's accepted list. Convert them to JPG before uploading. On an iPhone, you can set the camera to save as "Most Compatible" so you get JPGs from the start.
Square or wide?
Google's page gives a square recommendation, and square crops are the safest for the profile photo and logo. For wide images, Google generally displays landscape better than portrait. If you shoot a vertical photo of a technician at a furnace, expect it to be cropped in some views. Shoot or frame important details toward the center so a crop does not cut them off.
Profile photo, logo and cover photo
Google names three main photo types: logo, cover photo and business photos. Each has its own job.
Logo
Google says your logo helps customers recognize your business and may be highlighted once the profile has basic information such as a phone number or hours. If your logo does not appear, check that the profile has a name, a valid street address, categories, a phone number and opening hours. For service-area businesses that hide their address, this is a common snag, so review the profile fields carefully.
A practical note: Google Maps can show the profile image inside a circle. A photo-size guide from Pixotter suggests keeping your logo inside the middle 60% of the frame with generous padding. A logo that touches the edges of the square will get clipped.
Cover photo
The cover photo is the image you choose to best represent your business at the top of the profile. Google is clear that choosing one does not guarantee it will be the first image people see. If your selected cover is low quality, or other signals suggest it is not the best representation, Google may show a customer-submitted photo instead.
That is why the cover photo should be your single best image: bright, sharp and clearly about what you do. For a roofer, that might be a finished roof with a branded truck in the driveway. For an HVAC company, a clean install with a technician in uniform. The same Pixotter guide recommends 1024 × 576 px at 16:9 for covers and keeping key content in the center 80% because Google crops differently on desktop Search and mobile Maps. That is a third-party recommendation, not a Google rule. We cover the details in our guide to Google Business cover photo size.
Text on a cover photo is a bad bet. After compression and cropping it often becomes unreadable, and heavily edited images go against Google's own guidance.
Which photos to add
Google's tips for business-specific photos give minimums by category. The ones that apply to most service businesses:
- Exterior: at least three photos, taken from each direction customers approach, at different times of day.
- Interior: at least three photos.
- Products: at least three photos.
- At work: at least three photos representative of the services you offer.
- Team: at least three photos.
Google also lists food and drink photos for places that serve them, common-area photos, and guest-room photos for hotels. Those do not apply to most contractors.
What this looks like for a service business
If you work in customers' homes, you may not have a storefront interior worth photographing. Translate Google's categories:
- Exterior: your shop, office or warehouse, plus your branded vehicles parked out front.
- Interior: your showroom, parts room or dispatch area if customers ever see it.
- Products: the equipment you install, such as thermostats, water heaters, shingles or filters.
- At work: technicians on real jobs. Before-and-after pairs are the most persuasive format.
- Team: the people who will show up at the door. Names and faces build trust before the first call.
Get permission before photographing a customer's property or family, and avoid anything that shows addresses, license plates or personal documents.
Why volume and freshness matter
Semrush's profile-optimization advice is to follow Google's guidelines, post different types of photos and videos, and add new ones periodically. Regular uploads make a profile look active and reassure people that what they see is still current.
There is also data on volume. Bill Ross, in an interview with Influencer Marketing Hub, cites BrightLocal's Google My Business Insights Study: businesses with more than 100 images got 520% more calls, 2,717% more direction requests and 1,065% more website clicks than the average business. Treat that as a correlation. Busier, better-run businesses tend to have more photos. Still, a profile with a few dozen real images tells a much better story than one with three.
How to add photos to your Google Business Profile
Here is the process on a computer, per Google's instructions:
- Open Google Search or Google Maps.
- Search for your business name and city.
- Click Photos, then Add photos.
- Select your photo or video. You can choose several at once.
To set a cover photo or logo, click Photos, then Add a cover photo or Add a logo, and select the file.
You need to be signed in with the Google account that manages the profile. If you cannot see the add options, the profile may not be verified yet. Our video verification checklist walks through that step, and our guide to setting up a Google Business Profile covers the basics from scratch.
Name your files before you upload
Bill Ross points out that file names, location and date are the most overlooked data on uploaded photos. His example is naming an image after the actual job, such as fixing a broken garage door spring in Raleigh with the date, instead of a generic name like "garage-door-photo.jpg". His point is that Google can see every data point attached to an image, and those data points add to everything else it uses to evaluate a business. It costs you ten seconds per photo, and it also keeps your own library organized.
Video
Google's video rules are simple: up to 30 seconds, up to 75 MB, resolution of 720p or higher. A quick walk-around of a finished install or a technician explaining what a part does fits well inside that.
Why a photo is pending, rejected or missing
Most photo frustration comes from timing and policy, not from your file.
Pending
A photo may sit as pending while it uploads or processes, or if the profile is unverified. Google reviews uploaded media against its policies, and it can take 24 to 48 hours for photos and videos to appear. Give it two days before you change anything.
Rejected
Every photo must follow Google's photos, videos and posts content policy, and you are responsible for the imagery you post complying with applicable laws. Under the overview of Business Profile policies, content that fails to meet the criteria may be rejected, and a pattern of violations may lead to restricted access. If an account is restricted, all associated profiles are suspended. That is a good reason to keep every upload clean, not just to retry until something sticks.
The usual causes of rejection, based on common experience among profile managers:
- Blurry, pixelated or dark images.
- Stock photos or AI-generated images that do not show your real business.
- Watermarks, logos pasted over the picture, or text overlays and promotional graphics.
- Heavy filters or major edits.
- Anything inappropriate, which automated safety filters can flag.
- Portrait or multi-frame files, which some tools and uploaders reject. Rotating to landscape and re-exporting as a single-frame JPG often solves it.
A "not approved" message with no clear reason
Sometimes a good photo gets rejected anyway. Local search analyst Mike Blumenthal has argued that the owner photo pipeline is fragile and that the message can appear by default when the system fails, with images often approved on their own within about 48 hours. His advice is to wait a few days or upload through the Google Maps interface instead.
If waiting does not work, try this sequence:
- Wait 24 to 48 hours.
- Re-export the file, change the file name and try again.
- Upload the same photo from a different Google account as a regular Maps user. If it goes through, the photo is fine and the problem sits with the profile. If it fails both ways, the photo itself is the issue.
- If the profile itself looks flagged, review the basics: name, address, categories, hours, and verification status.
Customer photos you do not want
You cannot delete a photo a customer uploaded. Only the person who uploaded it can remove it. As the owner, you can report it, and Google removes only photos that violate its content policies. The best defense is a strong set of your own photos, so the first images people see are the ones you chose.
A photo routine that fits a busy shop
Nobody has time for a photo shoot in peak season. A simple routine works better:
- Every job: a technician takes two or three photos before, during and after. Agree on what to avoid, such as customer faces, house numbers and paperwork.
- Weekly: one person picks the best two or three, converts to JPG if needed, renames them with the job type, city and date, and uploads.
- Monthly: check the profile as a customer would. Is the cover photo still your best image? Are old photos of discontinued trucks or retired logos still up? Are any customer photos misleading?
- Quarterly: add a short video and refresh team and vehicle photos.
Photos also pair well with updates on your profile. See our guide to what to post on Google Business Profile for ways to reuse the same images, and how to use profile products to show your services visually. If you are building out the whole profile, our 90 day plan for service businesses puts photos in context with everything else.
Photo checklist before you upload
| Check | Pass if |
|---|---|
| Format | JPG or PNG, not HEIC or RAW |
| File size | Between 10 KB and 5 MB |
| Resolution | 720 × 720 px or larger |
| Focus and light | Sharp, bright, no heavy filters |
| Honesty | Real location, real crew, real work |
| Clean frame | No watermark, no text overlay, no promo graphic |
| Subject placement | Key details near the center so crops do not cut them |
| File name | Describes the job, city and date |
Perspective
Most of the owners we work with treat photos as an afterthought, something to upload once when the profile is created and never touch again. We see it differently. For a service business, your photos are the closest thing a customer has to meeting your crew before the call.
We focus exclusively on local service businesses, and the pattern repeats: a strong website, a good reputation in town, and a profile with a handful of dark, outdated images. The profile is where the customer decides, and the photos are the proof.
Our approach is hands-on. We manage the profile for you, so the photo routine does not become one more tool your team has to learn. The goal is a steady flow of real, current images that match what Google asks for and what your next customer wants to see.
John
Get your profile photos handled for you
If you would rather have your crew working than renaming files and chasing approvals, that is what we do. Local Growth Direct provides Google Business Profile management and optimization for local service businesses, including HVAC, home services, automotive, health and wellness, and professional firms. We also handle review and reputation management and track your visibility in Google Maps.
See how we work on the Local Growth Direct site, or ask for a personal local SEO audit to see where your profile stands today. If you run several locations, our guide to multi-location profile management explains how we keep photos consistent across markets. And if you are weighing doing it yourself against hiring help, read DIY or hire.
FAQ
What size should Google Business Profile photos be?
Google recommends 720 × 720 pixels and sets a minimum of 250 × 250 pixels. Files must be JPG or PNG and between 10 KB and 5 MB. Larger, sharper images generally look better on phones, as long as you stay under the file-size cap.
How long does it take for a new photo to show up?
Google says it can take 24 to 48 hours for photos and videos to appear after review. A photo may also stay pending if the profile is unverified. If nothing shows after two days, re-export the file and upload it again.
Can I use stock photos or logos with text on my profile?
It is a poor idea. Google's guidance is that photos should represent reality and avoid heavy editing, and stock images, watermarks and promotional overlays are common causes of rejection. Real photos of your team, trucks and jobs are the safest choice and the most persuasive.
How many photos should I add?
Google's tips list at least three photos in each relevant category, such as exterior, interior, products, work and team. Past that minimum, add new ones regularly. A steady stream of real job photos keeps the profile current.
Can I add videos to my profile?
Yes. Google allows videos up to 30 seconds long, up to 75 MB, at 720p or higher. Short clips of finished work or a team introduction suit service businesses well.
Sources
- Manage your Business Profile photos & videos (Google Business Profile Help)
- Tips for business-specific photos (Google Business Profile Help)
- Business Profile photos, videos & posts content policy (Google)
- Overview of Google Business Profile policies (Google)
- Google Business Profile Photo Size (Pixotter)
- 7 Google Business Profile Optimization Tips (Semrush)
- Interview with Bill Ross on Google Business Profile photos (Influencer Marketing Hub)
- How to Remove a Customer Photo from Google My Business (TryPostBase)