Image violations are one of the most common causes of product disapprovals in Google Merchant Center. The rules are specific and not always intuitive. This guide covers every image requirement Google enforces in 2026.
Non-apparel products: minimum 100 x 100 pixels. Google recommends 800 x 800 or larger for Shopping ads to display at full quality. Images below the minimum will cause disapproval. Apparel products: minimum 250 x 250 pixels. Images below this threshold for clothing, footwear, or accessories trigger automatic disapproval.
Watermarks: any visible watermark, whether your brand logo or a stock photo attribution, violates Google's image policy. The product image must show only the product. Promotional text overlays: price stickers, "Sale", "New", "Free Shipping", or any text placed on top of the product image are prohibited. This is different from the product title, which is in your feed attributes. Decorative frames and borders: colored borders, shadow effects, or any design element added around the product image are not allowed. Placeholder images: images showing a silhouette, a generic category image, or a "coming soon" placeholder will be disapproved.
Google does not require white backgrounds for most product categories, but the background must be clean and not distract from the product. Lifestyle images (product in use) are allowed for most categories. For apparel, lifestyle images showing a model wearing the product are preferred over flat-lay images. For home and garden, lifestyle images showing the product in a room are acceptable.
The image URL in your feed must be publicly accessible, must return a 200 status code, and must not require login or cookies to load. Google's crawler fetches images directly from the URL in your feed. Images behind CDNs or load balancers sometimes fail this check if the crawler IP is blocked. Check that your CDN does not block Google's crawlers.
Update the product image to comply with the policy, then update the image_link attribute in your feed to point to the new image. Re-fetch the feed in Merchant Center. Products typically re-review within 24 to 48 hours after a feed re-fetch. If the same product continues to be disapproved after the image is fixed, check whether the live product page image matches the feed image, as Google cross-references both.
Google requires at least 100 x 100 pixels for non-apparel products and 250 x 250 pixels for apparel. Recommended size is 800 x 800 pixels or larger for best Shopping ad performance.
No. Google prohibits watermarks, promotional text overlaid on images, and decorative borders. Product images must show only the product on a clean background.