When a link is posted on X (formerly Twitter), it can appear as a rich preview card with an image, title and description instead of a bare URL. Twitter Cards are the meta tags that control that card. Set them up and your links stand out in the feed; skip them and X falls back to a guess, or a plain link. This guide covers the card types, the tags you need, image sizes, and how to test.
What Twitter Cards are
Twitter Cards are a set of meta tags, prefixed with twitter:, that you add to a page’s <head>. They tell X how to render your link when someone shares it: which image to show, what headline and description to display, and which card layout to use. Because a scroll-stopping card earns more clicks than a plain link, cards are worth setting up on any page you expect to be shared, articles, products, landing pages.
The card types
There are two you will use in practice:
| Card type | Looks like |
|---|---|
| summary | A small square thumbnail beside the title and description |
| summary_large_image | A large, full-width image above the title, higher impact |
For most content, summary_large_image is the better choice, the bigger image draws far more attention in a busy feed. Reserve the small summary card for pages where a prominent image does not fit the content.
The tags you need
A complete large-image card uses a handful of tags: twitter:card (set to summary_large_image), twitter:title, twitter:description, and twitter:image. You can also add twitter:site (your @handle) so the card credits your account. That is the whole set, four or five tags, placed in the head. Keep the title concise and the description within a sentence or two, since X truncates long text on the card.
Image size for Twitter Cards
For a large-image card, use an image with a 2:1 ratio, commonly 1200 x 628 pixels, which displays crisply without awkward cropping. For the small summary card, a square image (at least 144 x 144) works. Keep the file reasonably small so it loads fast, and keep key elements away from the edges in case of minor cropping. A wrong-ratio image gets letterboxed or cut, which undercuts the whole point of the card.
Twitter Cards and Open Graph
Here is a useful shortcut: X falls back to Open Graph tags when the Twitter-specific ones are missing. So if you have already set og:title, og:description and og:image, X will build a reasonable card from those even without any twitter: tags. Adding the Twitter-specific tags simply gives you finer control, especially choosing summary_large_image and setting a different image or copy tuned for X. If you manage both, set Open Graph as the base and layer Twitter tags on top. Learn more in our guide to Open Graph tags.
Which pages need a card
You do not have to hand-craft a card for every URL, but you should make sure the important ones are covered. Prioritise pages people actually share: blog posts and guides, product and landing pages, and anything tied to a campaign. For these, a strong custom image and tight copy pay off every time the link is posted. For the long tail of utility pages, thank-you pages, account screens, terms, a sensible default (from your Open Graph tags or a site-wide fallback image) is fine, since they are rarely shared. The practical rule: invest card attention where sharing happens, and let a good default cover the rest so no link ever renders as a bare, unloved URL.
Test before you post
Always preview a card before sharing a link widely, cards cache, so a mistake can persist. Our free Twitter Card validator lets you build and preview your card and copy the exact meta tags to paste into your page, so you can confirm the image, title and description look right first. If the card ever shows an old version after you update the tags, X’s own card validator can force a fresh scrape.
The takeaway
Twitter Cards turn shared links on X into rich previews, and setting them up takes just a few twitter: meta tags plus a properly sized image, usually summary_large_image with a 2:1 image for maximum impact. They fall back to your Open Graph tags, so set those first and layer Twitter tags on top. Build and preview yours with the Twitter Card validator, and explore the rest of our free SEO tools.