Free Favicon Checker

It tests each icon the page points to, the way a browser or search engine would load it. The page is fetched once, every link tag whose rel names an icon is read, and the web app manifest is read if the page links one. Then each icon address is fetched once, reading only the start of the file, which is enough to tell its real format and pixel size.

• Whether the icon loads, answers an error, or is not an image at all, such as an HTML error page served at the icon's address.
• The real format, read from the file's bytes rather than its name or Content-Type, and the width and height from its header. An ICO file lists every size it holds, and each is shown.
• For the icons Google reads: whether it is square, at least 8×8 px, larger than the 48×48 px Google recommends, in a format Google lists, and not blocked by your robots.txt for Googlebot-Image.
• The /favicon.ico file at your site root, which browsers request when a page declares no icon.

Nothing is guessed. An icon we could not fetch, a size a file's header does not give, or a robots.txt on another site that we did not read is reported as exactly that.

Usually because Google cannot use the icon the home page declares. Google reads the favicon from a link tag in the head of your home page, with rel set to icon, shortcut icon, apple-touch-icon or apple-touch-icon-precomposed. A favicon declared only on inner pages, only in a manifest, or only as mask-icon is not the one Google looks for.

Google also says the icon must be square and at least 8×8 px, at a stable address, and crawlable: Googlebot must be able to crawl the home page and Googlebot-Image the icon file. Google Search lists the formats it supports as BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM and TIFF, so the checker warns about any other. A robots.txt rule that blocks either crawler, or an icon that answers an error, keeps it out of results.

Even when every rule is met, Google says a favicon is not guaranteed to appear, and a new one shows only after Google crawls the home page again. Google shows one favicon per hostname, so a subdomain can have its own but a subdirectory cannot.

For Google, any square size of at least 8×8 px meets the rule, and Google recommends one larger than 48×48 px so it looks good on various surfaces. That is a recommendation, not a requirement, so this checker flags a smaller icon as a warning rather than an error. Sizes such as 96×96 px or 192×192 px are common choices that scale down cleanly.

Browsers commonly draw the icon at 16 px in a tab and at 32 px on high-density screens, and phones use the apple-touch-icon, commonly 180×180 px, for a home-screen shortcut. The checker draws each icon at 16, 32 and 48 px, and the icons Google reads beside a search result as well, so you can see whether fine detail survives at small sizes.

An ICO file can hold several sizes in one file, and browsers pick the closest. The checker lists every size in the file's directory and judges the largest against Google's rules.

SVG is not in the list of favicon formats Google Search supports, so an SVG-only favicon may show in browsers but not in results. Keep the SVG if you like it for browsers, and add a PNG or ICO link for Google. The checker names the format of each icon and warns when an icon Google reads is in a format Google does not list.

Icons listed in a web app manifest are used by browsers and phones when someone installs the site or adds it to a home screen. Google's favicon guidelines name link tags only, so the checker lists manifest icons and mask-icon, checks that they load, and does not judge them against Google's rules.

It is a safe default. When a page declares no icon, browsers request /favicon.ico at the site root. The checker always fetches it, so you can see whether that fallback exists, which sizes it holds and whether it matches the icon your pages declare.

If your pages declare an icon, the fallback matters less, but an old /favicon.ico left over from a previous design can still appear in places that read only that file. Replace it when you change your icon, and keep the address stable: Google asks for a favicon URL that does not change often.

The checker applies these rules from Google's favicon guidelines, each at the level Google gives it. A recommendation is reported as a warning, never as a requirement.

• Google: must. The favicon must be square (a 1:1 aspect ratio).
• Google: must. It must be at least 8×8 px.
• Google: recommended. Google recommends a favicon larger than 48×48 px, so it looks good on various surfaces.
• How Google works. Google Search supports BMP, GIF, ICO, PNG, JPEG, PPM and TIFF favicon files; it does not list SVG or WebP.
• Google: must. Googlebot must be able to crawl the home page, and Googlebot-Image must be able to crawl the favicon file; neither may be blocked by robots.txt or by other means.
• Google: must. The favicon URL must be stable: don't change it frequently.
• How Google works. Google reads the link tag in the head of the home page, with rel icon, shortcut icon, apple-touch-icon or apple-touch-icon-precomposed.
• How Google works. Google shows one favicon per site, where a site is a hostname: a subdomain can have its own, a subdirectory cannot.

Google: Define a favicon to show in search results · Checked Oct 29, 2026