WhatsApp Link Preview Not Working? Free Check + Fixes

Are you sharing a link or editing the website?

Website owner's fix checklist

1. Inspect the page response. Put Open Graph tags in the HTML returned by your server, so a fetch can read them without running your app. Inspect View Source or the document response, rather than relying only on the browser's updated Elements panel.
2. Declare the page and image. The Open Graph protocol defines og:title, og:type, og:url and og:image as its core properties. Add a useful description and avoid conflicting copies from multiple plugins.
3. Use a public image URL. Use an absolute HTTPS URL for your intended public image. Open it without signing in and check that it returns an image, rather than a login page, expired link or error. Check the image response separately from the page response.
4. Choose a clear, lightweight image. A 1200×630 JPEG or PNG is our practical starting point. Keep important details away from the edges and compress the file. This is design guidance, not a verified WhatsApp size limit or a guarantee against cropping.
5. Review hosting blocks. If the checker or app cannot fetch an intended public resource, inspect redirects, firewall rules and server logs. A successful fetch from your own browser alone does not establish app access.
6. Recheck after publishing the fix. Confirm that the live page references the intended image, then test the URL in WhatsApp. A passing metadata check does not refresh WhatsApp's cache.

Example Open Graph tags

Replace these examples with your page's content and a public image you own.

<meta property="og:title" content="Your page title" />
<meta property="og:type" content="website" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/your-page" />
<meta property="og:description" content="A useful summary of this page." />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/images/share.jpg" />
<meta property="og:image:width" content="1200" />
<meta property="og:image:height" content="630" />
<meta property="og:image:alt" content="A description of the image" />

Set the width and height to the actual file dimensions. See the image size guide for crop and file-size guidance, or the Next.js metadata guide if your tags need to be generated by a framework.

Wrong image after updating the page?

First compare the live image URL in the checker with the file you changed. Publishing a new file will not help if the page still points to the old one. When you intentionally replace an image, a new image filename can make that change explicit; it does not guarantee that existing messages update.

Try the current page URL in a new draft or on another device, keeping existing messages intact. We do not publish a fixed WhatsApp cache-expiry time because this check cannot measure the app's cache. For a broader diagnosis, use the debugger tools guide.