Glossary Term

Twitter Card

glossary twitter card featured

A Twitter Card is the rich link preview that X (formerly Twitter) shows when someone posts a URL. The site controls the card through twitter: meta tags in the page’s HTML <head>, which set the card type, title, description, and image. X still calls them Cards, so “Twitter Card” and “X Card” mean the same thing.

Why Twitter Cards Matter

A post with a card takes up far more of the feed than a bare URL. The image and title give people a reason to click before they leave X. Without card tags, X has to guess, and the result is often a plain link with no image.

Cards also make the preview consistent. Every share of the URL renders the same image and title, no matter who posts it. That matters for campaign links, where the creative should match the ad or email it sits beside.

Twitter Cards are one kind of link preview, the general term for the card any platform builds from a shared URL.

Types of Twitter Cards

X supports four card types, set with the twitter:card tag:

  • summary: a small square thumbnail beside the title and description. Good for articles where the image is secondary.
  • summary_large_image: a full-width image above the link. The most common choice for blogs, landing pages, and product pages.
  • app: a card that links to a mobile app listing, with the app name, icon, and store link.
  • player: a card that plays video or audio inline. It needs an HTTPS player URL and has stricter requirements than the other types.

Most sites only need summary_large_image. Use summary when the page has no strong landscape image, such as a logo-only page.

Twitter Card Tags

A basic large-image card needs four or five tags:

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@linkutm" />
<meta name="twitter:title" content="UTM Parameters Explained" />
<meta name="twitter:description" content="How to tag campaign links so every click shows up in GA4." />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://linkutm.com/images/utm-parameters-card.png" />
<meta name="twitter:image:alt" content="A tagged URL with five UTM parameters highlighted" />
Tag Purpose Limit
twitter:card Card type Required
twitter:title Card headline 70 characters
twitter:description Summary line 200 characters
twitter:image Absolute image URL Under 5MB
twitter:image:alt Image alt text 420 characters
twitter:site X handle of the website Optional
twitter:creator X handle of the author Optional

How Twitter Cards Work With Open Graph

X falls back to Open Graph tags when a matching twitter: tag is missing. It checks twitter:title first, then og:title. The same rule applies to the description and image.

This means most pages need only one Twitter-specific tag: twitter:card. It has no Open Graph equivalent, so X’s markup reference lists it as required. A lean setup looks like this:

<meta property="og:title" content="UTM Parameters Explained" />
<meta property="og:description" content="How to tag campaign links so every click shows up in GA4." />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://linkutm.com/images/utm-parameters-card.png" />
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />

Add separate twitter: tags only when the X card should differ from the Facebook or LinkedIn preview. Note the attribute difference: Open Graph uses property, while Twitter Card tags use name.

Twitter Card Image Sizes

Use an image close to a 2:1 ratio for summary_large_image. 1200 x 600 pixels works well, and 1200 x 630 (the standard Open Graph size) also renders with only a slight crop.

  • summary card: square, minimum 144 x 144 pixels.
  • summary_large_image: minimum 300 x 157 pixels.
  • Maximum: 4096 x 4096 pixels and under 5MB for both types.
  • Formats: JPG, PNG, WEBP, and GIF. Only the first frame of an animated GIF is used. SVG is not supported.

Keep text and faces near the center. X crops the edges differently on mobile and desktop.

How to Test a Twitter Card

Paste the URL into the X post composer. The card renders in the draft before you post, which is now the only official preview. X removed the preview from its Card Validator in August 2022, and the tool no longer shows how a card looks.

X caches card data for up to 7 days after a URL is first shared. If you fix a tag after sharing, the old card can persist. Adding a query string, such as a UTM parameter, makes X treat the URL as new and fetch it again.

For a link going to several networks, also check the LinkedIn and Facebook previews. Those read Open Graph tags only, so a card that looks right on X can still break elsewhere.

Common Twitter Card Issues

  • Twitterbot blocked: X fetches pages with the Twitterbot user agent. A robots.txt rule that blocks it stops the card from rendering.
  • Relative image path: /images/card.png fails. The image URL must be absolute.
  • Image too large or wrong type: files over 5MB and SVGs are ignored.
  • Missing twitter:card: without it, X may not pick the card type you expect.
  • Stale cache: a card scraped before your fix stays in place for days.

In October 2023, X began showing large-image cards as the image plus a small domain label, with no headline or description below. Put the key message in the image itself, not only in the tags.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an X Card?

An X Card is the same thing as a Twitter Card. X kept the Cards system and the twitter: tag names after the rebrand from Twitter in July 2023. Existing card markup did not need to change.

Are Twitter Cards the same as Open Graph tags?

No, but they work together. Open Graph is the protocol Facebook introduced in 2010, and most platforms read it. Twitter Cards are X’s own tags, and X falls back to Open Graph values when a twitter: tag is missing.

Do I need Twitter Card tags if I already have Open Graph tags?

You need at least twitter:card. X can read the title, description, and image from your Open Graph tags, but the card type has no Open Graph equivalent. One line is usually enough to turn a plain link into a large-image card.

What size should a Twitter Card image be?

Use 1200 x 600 pixels (2:1) for a summary_large_image card and a square image of at least 144 x 144 pixels for a summary card. Keep the file under 5MB. JPG, PNG, WEBP, and GIF are supported.

Why is my Twitter Card not showing?

The most common causes are a missing twitter:card tag, a relative image URL, an image over 5MB, or Twitterbot blocked in robots.txt. A cached version from an earlier share can also hide your fix for up to 7 days. Test again by pasting the URL into the X composer.

Before sharing a campaign link on X, run it through linkutm’s link preview checker to confirm the image and title render correctly.

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