Twitter Card Validator
Test and validate your Twitter/X Cards before you tweet
What are Twitter Cards?
Twitter Cards are rich media previews that appear when you share a link on Twitter (now X). Instead of a plain URL, your followers see an image, title, and description — dramatically increasing engagement and click-through rates.
Twitter Cards work alongside Open Graph tags but have their own meta tag namespace (twitter:). The most important tag is twitter:card, which determines the card type. Without this tag, Twitter won't render any preview at all — even if you have perfect OG tags. Twitter falls back to OG tags for title, description, and image, but the card type must be explicitly set.
The two most common card types are 'summary' (a compact card with a small square thumbnail) and 'summary_large_image' (a full-width landscape image that dominates the tweet). Tweets with large image cards consistently outperform those with summary cards or no cards at all, making 'summary_large_image' the default choice for most content.
Twitter Card size requirements by platform
| Platform | Recommended Size | Aspect Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Summary Large Image | 1200 x 628 px | 1.91:1 |
| Summary | 144 x 144 px (min) | 1:1 |
| Player | 1200 x 628 px | 1.91:1 |
Common Twitter Card issues and how to fix them
1. Missing twitter:card meta tag
This is the #1 cause of broken Twitter Cards. Without this tag, Twitter ignores all other twitter: and og: tags entirely.
<!-- Required for any Twitter Card --> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
2. Using property instead of name for Twitter tags
Twitter Card tags use the 'name' attribute, not 'property' like OG tags. Using the wrong attribute means Twitter won't read the tag.
<!-- Wrong --> <meta property="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" /> <!-- Correct --> <meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
3. Image too small for summary_large_image
summary_large_image requires a minimum of 300x157 pixels. Images smaller than this will either not render or fall back to a summary card with a tiny thumbnail.
4. Twitter-specific content not set
If you want different content on Twitter vs Facebook, set twitter:title, twitter:description, and twitter:image. Otherwise Twitter uses the og: equivalents.
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" /> <meta name="twitter:title" content="Title for Twitter" /> <meta name="twitter:description" content="Description optimized for Twitter's character limits" /> <meta name="twitter:image" content="https://example.com/twitter-specific-image.png" />
Frequently Asked Questions
What types of Twitter Cards are there?▾
Twitter supports four card types: 'summary' (small square image with title and description), 'summary_large_image' (large landscape image above title and description — the most popular), 'app' (for mobile app install cards), and 'player' (for inline video/audio playback). Most websites use summary_large_image for maximum visual impact.
Do I need both OG tags and Twitter Card tags?▾
Twitter will fall back to OG tags if Twitter-specific tags are missing. However, setting twitter:card is always required — without it, Twitter won't render any card at all. Best practice is to set at minimum twitter:card, then let twitter:title, twitter:description, and twitter:image fall back to their og: equivalents.
Why is my Twitter Card not showing?▾
The most common cause is a missing twitter:card meta tag — this is required for any card to render. Other causes: your domain hasn't been approved for cards (rare now), the og:image URL returns an error, or your page is blocked by robots.txt. Use Unfurli to diagnose the specific issue.
How do I clear Twitter's card cache?▾
Twitter's official Card Validator used to allow cache-clearing, but the tool was simplified. Currently, Twitter caches cards and refreshes them periodically. Changing the og:image URL (even adding ?v=2) can help force a refresh. For persistent issues, wait 24-48 hours for the cache to expire.
What's the ideal Twitter Card image size?▾
For summary_large_image cards: 1200x628 pixels (1.91:1 ratio), minimum 300x157, maximum 4096x4096, file size under 5MB. For summary cards: 144x144 minimum, 4096x4096 maximum. Twitter crops images to fit, so keep important content centered and avoid text near edges.
Can I have different previews on Twitter vs other platforms?▾
Yes. Set your defaults with og: tags, then override with twitter: tags. For example, twitter:image will override og:image only on Twitter. This lets you use a landscape image on Twitter while keeping a different image for Facebook or LinkedIn.