How to make a link preview for VK: size, format, tips

When you share a link on VK (in a post, a comment or a private message), the network automatically shows a card: an image, a title and a short description. The card is taken from the page’s Open Graph markup. If the image is not set up, VK shows a bare link or a gray placeholder, and people click it noticeably less often. Below: which size to choose, how VK reads the preview and what to do if it shows an old picture.

VK works with the standard Open Graph size: 1200×630 pixels (aspect ratio 1.91:1). It is the same format used by Facebook*, Telegram and LinkedIn, so one image covers all of these platforms at once.

The VK card looks different in different places: in a post or comment the image is cropped to a compact square, while in private messages it expands to almost the full width of the chat. So the main rule is to keep important content (the headline, the logo, large elements) in the center of the image, with a margin of at least 60–80 pixels from the edges. Then no crop will spoil the preview.

The minimum size is 200×200 pixels: VK may ignore images that are too small and show the card without a picture. The maximum file size is 10 MB, but in practice 200–300 KB is enough.

When you paste a link, VK’s servers visit the page and read its meta tags:

• og:title: the card title
• og:description: the description under the title
• og:image: the image link

An example of correct markup:

<meta property="og:title" content="How we launched a product in 30 days">
<meta property="og:description" content="A story with no budget and with risks">
<meta property="og:image" content="https://site.com/og-cover.png">

Important: og:image must be an absolute link with the domain and https, and the image must open without authorization. VK will not pick up a relative path such as /images/cover.png. If the tags are missing, VK takes the title from <title> and the first image it finds on the page, most often the logo from the header or a random icon, and the card looks weak.

VK caches the preview the first time a link is pasted. If you replaced og:image and VK still shows the old version, there are two ways out.

The first is the official pages.clearCache method. Open the VK developer page, find the pages.clearCache method, paste your URL and click “Run”: the cache is reset, and the next time the link is pasted VK takes the fresh image. The second is the version trick in the address: add a parameter to the link, for example ?v=2. For VK it is a “new” link, so it extracts the preview again.

If you do nothing, the cache refreshes on its own within a few days. But when you need the cover “yesterday”, these two methods save the day. More ways to reset the cache on different networks are in the article on refreshing link previews.

• A large headline: in posts VK crops the image to a square, so the text must stay readable even in a small window. 4–7 words is ideal.
• Contrast: dark text on a light background or the other way round. Translucent and pastel combinations blur the edge between the card and the feed background.
• Content in the center: the edges of the preview get cut in messages and comments, so keep 60–80 pixel margins.
• Brand in a corner: a logo or community name improves recognition, but a corner can also be cropped: place it in the central zone.
• No tiny details: thin lines, long paragraphs and interface screenshots turn into noise on a compact card.

OG Studio has an “Open Graph” format (1200×630) that suits VK without cropping on the basic card. The AI copywriter suggests 3 headline options, and the ready-made templates survive a square crop too: the important elements are already in the safe zone.

You can go even faster: paste a link to your article or site and OG Studio extracts the title and description, so all that is left is to pick a template and download the image. Then just add it to og:image and check the card with pages.clearCache. For how the same image works in Telegram, see the Telegram cover guide.