ElanoryaAmazon sellers
What Amazon requires of a product image, and what it only recommends
Amazon's image help article carries two standards at once: a technical table with its own Required column, and a separate, stricter set of lines written for the main image alone. The article also marks its own scope — selling in the United States.
Two standards stacked on one page
Amazon's image help article does two separate things in one place. A table of technical requirements applies to images generally and prints its own Required column beside each row. A shorter set of lines applies to one image only — the main image — and it is stricter than anything in the table.
The main image is defined by where it sits: Amazon writes that the first image on the detail page is called the main image, and that this image is also shown to customers in search results. That is a statement about placement, and this page draws nothing further from it.
The article also marks its own reach with a scope line: "This article applies to selling in: United States". Everything below is read inside that scope.
The technical table, row by row
These are the rows Amazon prints with a Required column. The right-hand column reproduces the article's own marking for each row; the middle column reports what the row contains.
| Row | What the article states | Required |
|---|---|---|
| Supported file formats — JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg) | Accepted | JPEG recommended |
| Supported file formats — TIFF (.tif or .tiff) | Accepted | Optional |
| Supported file formats — PNG (.png) | Accepted | Optional |
| Supported file formats — GIF (.gif) | Accepted, non-animated only | Optional |
| Image size | Minimum 500 pixels and maximum 10,000 pixels on the longest side | Yes |
| Resolution | Clear, non-pixelated, no jagged edges | Yes |
| Image names | Image files must be named: product identifier + variant code + file extension (example: B000123456.MAIN.jpg) | Optional |
The main image standard
These lines are written for the main image. The article does not restate them for the other images in a listing.
- The background is stated as a value, not as a description
- "Have a pure white background (RGB color values: 255, 255, 255) to create a consistent shopping experience for customers across search and product detail pages."
- The product's share of the frame is stated as a figure
- "Show the product as 85% of the image." Because the figure is about a share of the image, the same piece can meet it in one crop and miss it in another.
- Nothing may be cut off
- "Show the entire product within the frame of the image, not cutting off any part."
- Added graphics are excluded, over the product and behind it
- "No text, logos, borders, color blocks, watermarks, or other graphics covering the product or in the background. Products with multiple pieces must be relative in size, with no one piece enlarged."
- One main image is not optional
- "Every product on Amazon must have a main image." The article gives no equivalent obligation for any other image.
Required, recommended, and absent
Three statuses run through the article and they are easy to flatten into one. Required is printed in a column: image size and resolution both carry a Yes. Recommended is written into sentences: Amazon states that every product must have a main image and that it recommends at least six images and one video of the product — one obligation and one recommendation in the same breath. No maximum number of images is given anywhere.
Image naming sits in a third place. The article supplies the pattern — product identifier plus variant code plus file extension, with B000123456.MAIN.jpg as the worked example — and then marks the row Optional.
Amazon's public seller blog describes the intent behind the two kinds of rule: "The Amazon store has unique technical and content requirements for images to ensure that customers see accurate, helpful, and high-quality images." That is a guidance post, not the requirements article, and it adds no figure of its own.
Where a jewelry photograph meets these lines
Nothing in the article is written for jewelry specifically. These are the points where a jewelry photograph tends to arrive at a line that was written generally.
The background reads white to the eye but is not the value the main-image line names.
The main-image line states RGB colour values 255, 255, 255. Check the value rather than the impression, and only for the main image — the article states no background rule for the others.
A small piece is centred in a large frame, so it occupies a modest share of the main image.
The line states the product as 85% of the image. Crop the main image to that share; a wider composition can live in the additional images, which the 85% figure does not cover.
A long necklace or an open bracelet is cropped at the edge to keep the stone large.
The main image must show the entire product within the frame, not cutting off any part. The two main-image lines have to be satisfied together, not traded against each other.
A watermark, a size caption or a coloured backdrop panel is added to the plate.
The main image excludes text, logos, borders, colour blocks, watermarks and other graphics, over the product and in the background.
A pendant and its chain, or a ring and its matching band, are photographed together at flattering relative sizes.
Products with multiple pieces must be relative in size, with no one piece enlarged.
An upscaled or heavily reduced file is submitted because it clears the 500 pixel floor.
The resolution row is separate from the size row and is also marked required, in words: clear, non-pixelated, no jagged edges. The article converts that into no number.
What this page does not settle
Most of what a seller wants to hear about Amazon images is simply not in the article. Absence is stated here as absence, not filled in.
- No maximum file size. The article names no megabyte or kilobyte ceiling; the only size limits it gives are in pixels.
- No dpi or ppi figure, and no colour profile. Resolution is required in words only: clear, non-pixelated, no jagged edges.
- No aspect ratio rule of any kind.
- No background colour rule for images other than the main image, and no maximum number of images per listing.
- No zoom threshold and no optimal pixel width. Neither appears in the article, so phrasings of that kind attributed to Amazon do not come from it.
- The article's stated scope is selling in the United States, so this page settles nothing about Amazon's other marketplaces.
- No effect on search placement or on sales is claimed here for any of these lines. Amazon's own sentence about the main image appearing in search results is a statement of placement and is left at that.
- This app has no connection to Amazon. There is no upload, no export, no listing sync, and no check of a file against any line above. Nothing here claims that an image made in the app will be accepted.
- Whether to place a watermark or a logo on a product photograph at all is a separate decision with its own page, and it is not made here.
- What actually leaves your phone when a generation is submitted — including the bound applied to the longest side of an outgoing image, which only ever shrinks it — is recorded on its own page rather than re-derived here.
- A proof frame for an engraved or personalised piece is a different job with a different frame, and it has its own guide.
- Whether one file can serve several sales channels at once is answered on the multi-channel page.
Questions
Does Amazon's image article state a maximum file size in megabytes?
No. The article names no megabyte or kilobyte ceiling anywhere. The size requirement it does state is a pixel measurement: minimum 500 pixels and maximum 10,000 pixels on the longest side, marked required. A megabyte figure attributed to Amazon has not come from this article.
Does the 85% figure apply to every image in a listing?
It is written for the main image, alongside the pure white background at RGB 255, 255, 255, the rule that the entire product must be inside the frame, and the exclusion of text, logos, borders, colour blocks, watermarks and other graphics. The article states no background rule and no fill percentage for the other images in a listing.
What dpi should an Amazon product image be?
The article gives no dpi or ppi figure and names no colour profile. Its resolution row is marked required but written qualitatively: clear, non-pixelated, no jagged edges. There is no numeric conversion of that row on the page, and none is supplied here.
Does this article cover Amazon marketplaces outside the United States?
The article marks its own scope with the line that it applies to selling in the United States. Whether any other Amazon marketplace states the same requirements cannot be read out of it, and this page does not extend it.