Favicon Checker
Enter your website and the checker finds every icon it uses, tests each file, checks that Google can crawl it, and scores the whole setup. You see exactly how your favicon looks in a browser tab, in Google results and on an iPhone or Android home screen.
- Finds every icon and tests each file
- Checks Google favicon guidelines
- Previews on tabs, Google and phones
Next, check the rest of the head with the Meta Tag Checker, or see how links to your site look with the Social Media Preview Tool.
Everything a favicon has to get right
A favicon is more than one file. Each place that shows your icon has its own requirements.
Google Search
Google shows your favicon next to your result on mobile and desktop. It needs a square image, a supported format, and crawl access to the icon and the home page.
Browser tabs
Tabs and bookmarks need a sharp 16 and 32 px icon, ideally an SVG or an ICO with several sizes.
iPhone and iPad
The Apple touch icon is used when someone adds your site to their home screen. It should be 180 px with no transparency.
Android and installs
A web app manifest with 192 and 512 px icons powers installs and the Android home screen, and a maskable icon fills the shape.
Dark mode
A dark logo can disappear on a dark tab bar. An SVG with colour-scheme rules, or a logo that reads on both, avoids that.
Weight and delivery
Icons load on the first visit, so they should be small, served over HTTPS and free of redirects.
Which icon sizes to provide
Most sites need five files. This table shows what each one is for.
| File | Size | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| favicon.ico | 16, 32 and 48 px layers | Older browsers, feed readers, and the fallback many tools request directly. |
| favicon.svg | Scalable | Sharp tabs at every density, and optional dark-mode styling. |
| apple-touch-icon.png | 180 × 180 px, solid background | iPhone and iPad home screens. Transparent areas turn black. |
| icon-192.png and icon-512.png | 192 and 512 px | Android home screen and installable web apps, listed in the manifest. |
| Maskable icon | 512 px, logo in the central 80% | Lets Android shape the icon without cropping your logo. |
How to check your favicon
Three steps, under a minute.
Enter your site
Type your domain. The checker reads the home page, the manifest and robots.txt, and tests every icon.
Check the previews
Look at the tab, Google result and phone previews. If the icon looks soft or hard to read at small sizes, simplify it.
Fix and recheck
Work through the errors first, copy the recommended tags, upload the files and run the check again.
What Google says about favicons
These come from Google's favicon guidelines for Search.
Square and big enough
The image must be square (1:1) and at least 8 × 8 px. Google recommends more than 48 × 48 px so it looks good on every surface.
Supported formats
Google lists BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM and TIFF. SVG is not listed, so keep a PNG or ICO as well.
Crawlable
Googlebot must be able to crawl the home page and Googlebot-Image the icon file. A robots.txt block stops the favicon appearing.
One per site
Google uses one favicon per hostname, taken from the home page. Subdirectories cannot have their own.
A stable address
Keep the icon at the same URL. Changing it often makes Google start again.
It takes time
Recrawling can take days to weeks, and meeting every guideline does not guarantee an icon will show.
What a favicon is and why Google Search cares about it
A favicon is the small icon that stands for your site in browser tabs, bookmarks and history. Google can also show it beside your result in search, so for many people it is the first thing that tells your site apart from the others in a list. It is usually declared with a link tag in the head of the home page, for example <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico">.
The catch is that one icon file does not cover every place it appears. Google Search has its own favicon guidelines: a square image of at least 8 by 8 pixels (larger than 48 by 48 is recommended), a supported file format, and a home page and icon file that Google's crawlers are allowed to fetch. Phones need other files again, such as an Apple touch icon and the icons listed in a web app manifest.
A favicon checker finds every icon your page declares, requests each file, and compares what it finds with those rules. It reports what is missing, broken or blocked, and previews the icon as it would appear in a tab, in a Google result and on a phone's home screen. Even if everything passes, Google says an icon is not guaranteed to appear, so treat a clean report as removing the obstacles, not as a promise.
When to check your favicon
Check it whenever the icon changes, the site moves or a search result shows a grey globe.
When a grey globe shows in Google
Run the check to find out why. The usual causes are a non-square image, a robots.txt block on the icon or home page, an unsupported format, or a recrawl that has not happened yet.
After a rebrand or new logo
Make sure the new files replaced the old ones in every place: the ICO, the PNG sizes, the Apple touch icon and the manifest. Old files often linger in a theme or a CDN.
After a migration or domain change
Confirm the icon is declared on the new home page and that its URL loads without a redirect. A move can drop the tag or leave the file on the old host.
Before promoting an app-like site
If visitors may add your site to a home screen, check the Apple touch icon and the 192 and 512 pixel manifest icons, so the shortcut does not show a blank tile.
When tightening robots.txt or a firewall
A new rule can block Googlebot-Image or the home page by accident. Re-run the check after changing crawl rules, bot protection or a security plugin.
During a technical audit
Add the favicon to the quick checks for the head, alongside the title, canonical and viewport. It takes seconds and catches issues that otherwise go unnoticed for months.
Favicon mistakes and how to fix them
Most missing favicons come from a missing tag, a blocked file or an icon that breaks one simple rule.
No icon tag on the home page
What goes wrong: Google's documented method is a link tag in the head of your home page. A file sitting at /favicon.ico with no tag is not the setup its guidelines describe.
The fix: Add a link rel="icon" tag to the home page head that points to the file. In WordPress, set the Site Icon in the Customizer and it adds the icon for you.
Blocking the icon or the home page
What goes wrong: Googlebot-Image must be able to crawl the favicon file, and Googlebot must be able to crawl the home page. A Disallow rule on an images or assets folder can block the icon, and a broad rule or bot protection can block the home page.
The fix: Test the icon URL against your rules in a robots.txt tester, then allow it. Check any bot protection that might challenge Google's crawlers.
An image that is not square or too small
What goes wrong: A favicon must be square, 1:1, and at least 8 by 8 pixels. A wide logo squeezed into a square tile, or a tiny file, looks stretched or unreadable.
The fix: Make a simple square mark, not the full logo with text, and export it larger than 48 by 48 pixels. WordPress asks for a Site Icon of at least 512 pixels.
Using SVG as the only favicon
What goes wrong: Browsers display SVG icons well, but Google's list of supported favicon formats is BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM and TIFF, and does not include SVG.
The fix: Keep an SVG for browsers if you like, and also declare a PNG or ICO file so Google has a supported format to read.
Expecting a favicon per folder
What goes wrong: Google supports one favicon for each hostname, taken from the home page. A subdirectory such as /news cannot have its own, though a subdomain can.
The fix: Use one recognisable icon for the whole host. If a section truly needs its own, move it to a separate subdomain with its own home page.
Changing the file often, then waiting
What goes wrong: Google says the favicon URL must be stable and should not be changed frequently. Even a correct change can take several days to several weeks to show in results.
The fix: Keep the favicon at a stable URL and replace the file in place. After a change, request indexing of the home page in Search Console and allow time.
Favicon terms explained
- Favicon
- The small site icon shown in browser tabs, bookmarks and, when Google decides to show it, beside a search result. Google bases its choice on the tag in your home page.
rel="icon"- The
linkrelationship that declares a favicon. Google also acceptsshortcut icon,apple-touch-iconandapple-touch-icon-precomposed, and thehrefcan be relative or absolute. - ICO file
- A favicon format that can hold several sizes of the same icon in one file, such as 16, 32 and 48 pixels. It is on Google's list of supported favicon formats.
- Apple touch icon
- The icon iOS uses for a home screen shortcut. Apple's documentation shows a 180 by 180 pixel version for high-resolution iPhones, supplied through an
apple-touch-iconlink. - Web app manifest
- A JSON file that tells a browser how a site behaves when installed, including its icons. Chrome's install checks expect a 192 pixel and a 512 pixel icon in it.
- Maskable icon
- An icon with extra background so platforms can crop it to a circle or rounded square. Keep the important artwork inside a central circle with a radius of 40 percent of the icon width.
- Googlebot-Image
- The Google crawler that fetches images, including favicons. If robots.txt blocks it from the icon file, the favicon cannot be used in search.
- Hostname
- The part of a URL that names the server, such as
www.example.com. Google treats each hostname as one site for favicons, so subdomains can differ and subfolders cannot.
Related tools and services
A favicon is one tag in the head. These cover the other tags, the crawl rules and the files.
Meta Tag Checker
Check the rest of the head, including the title, canonical, viewport and robots tags.
ToolRobots.txt Tester
Test whether your rules let Googlebot-Image fetch the icon and Googlebot reach the home page.
ToolImage Compressor
Shrink your PNG icon files before you upload them, without losing sharpness.
ToolSocial Media Preview Tool
See how a link to your site looks when it is shared, which is a separate image from the favicon.
ToolWebsite Health Check
Run a broader check of speed, security and SEO basics for the whole site.
ServiceTechnical SEO service
Get crawl rules, head tags and site-wide technical details reviewed and fixed.
Built by
Madhav Kushwaha
A favicon looks like a small thing until it is missing in Google results or turns into a grey globe on a phone. I built this checker to test the whole set in one go, including the parts people forget, such as robots.txt access, the Apple touch icon and the manifest, and to show the result the way a visitor will see it.
Favicon Checker: Frequently Asked Questions
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