AliExpress is one of the largest cross-border marketplaces in the world, putting your products in front of buyers across Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. But that global reach comes with a catch: shoppers cannot touch or try your product, so your images do almost all of the selling. Get them wrong and your listing can be rejected, buried in search, or simply scrolled past. Get them right and you give yourself the best possible chance of winning the click.
This guide covers the current AliExpress product image requirements for 2026, the rules that quietly get listings penalised, and the practical steps that help your photos convert. Whether you are a new seller setting up your first listing or scaling a catalogue of hundreds of SKUs, these are the specs and habits worth locking in.
AliExpress image specifications at a glance
Before the strategy, here are the hard numbers. AliExpress is reasonably forgiving on dimensions but strict on content, so it pays to know both.
| Requirement | Specification |
|---|---|
| Minimum main image size | 800 x 800 pixels |
| Recommended size | 1,000 x 1,000 pixels or higher |
| Maximum size | 2,000 x 2,000 pixels |
| Ideal aspect ratio | 1:1 (square); up to 1:1.3 accepted |
| Main image background | Clean, preferably pure white |
| Images per listing | Up to 6 in the main gallery |
| File formats | JPEG (.jpg) and PNG (.png) |
| Maximum file size | 5 MB per image |
| Brand logo | Upper-left only, no more than 10% of image area |
Why square at 1,000 x 1,000 is the sweet spot
AliExpress will accept a main image as small as 800 x 800 pixels, but small is not the same as good. The platform offers a zoom feature on product pages, and zoom only works well when there are enough pixels behind it. Upload at 1,000 x 1,000 or higher and buyers can inspect stitching, texture and finish; upload at the bare minimum and your zoomed image looks soft and cheap.
Square (1:1) is strongly preferred because it displays cleanly on both mobile and desktop without awkward cropping. The overwhelming majority of AliExpress traffic is on mobile, where the app crops thumbnails to a square grid. If you upload a tall or wide image, the system will crop it to fit, and that crop rarely lands where you want it. Shoot and export square from the start and you control exactly what the shopper sees.
Do not go above 2,000 x 2,000 pixels expecting better results. Beyond that size you gain nothing visible while adding file weight that slows your page. The goal is the largest image that stays sharp and stays under the 5 MB ceiling, not the largest image possible.
The white background rule for your main image
Your first image, the one that appears in search results and category pages, should sit on a clean, preferably pure white background (RGB 255, 255, 255). This is not enforced as rigidly as it is on Amazon, but it is heavily favoured for a practical reason: a consistent white field makes your product the only thing the eye lands on, and a grid of white-background listings looks far more professional than a patchwork of cluttered desks and bedroom floors.
A pure white background also makes your thumbnail blend seamlessly into the white app interface, so the product appears to float. That clean, premium look directly affects whether shoppers trust your listing enough to tap it. You can reserve your lifestyle shots, infographics and detail close-ups for the remaining gallery slots, where backgrounds and context are welcome.
Removing backgrounds without a studio
You do not need professional lighting to achieve a clean white background. Shoot against a sheet of white card or a cheap pop-up tent near a window, then tidy the result in editing. The key is consistency: every main image in your catalogue should use the same true white, not one ivory, one grey and one slightly blue. Inconsistent whites are one of the most common giveaways of an amateur store.
Content rules that get listings penalised
This is where many sellers trip up. AliExpress is far stricter about what appears on the image than about its dimensions. The following are explicitly discouraged or forbidden on main images, and breaching them can lead to the listing being down-ranked or rejected:
- Watermarks, including store names, URLs or contact details splashed across the photo.
- Promotional text such as "limited-time offer", "buy one get one free", "free shipping" or "hot sale".
- Price tags and discount badges baked into the image.
- Watermarks from other platforms (an image still carrying a Taobao or 1688 logo is an instant credibility killer).
- Misleading or exaggerated representations, including before/after claims the product cannot deliver.
Brand logos are the one exception, and even they are regulated: a logo must sit in the upper-left corner and occupy no more than 10% of the total image area. Anything larger or anywhere else reads as clutter to the platform's quality checks.
How to use all six gallery slots
AliExpress gives you up to six images in the main gallery, and listings that fill every slot consistently outperform those that use two or three. Each image should do a specific job rather than repeat the same angle. A reliable sequence looks like this:
- Main image: the hero shot on a clean white background, square and sharp.
- Front and primary angle: the product as the buyer will most often see it in use.
- Secondary angles: back, side or underside, so nothing is hidden.
- Scale reference: the product next to a common object (a hand, a coin, a phone) so buyers understand the real size. This single image cuts a surprising number of "smaller than expected" returns.
- Lifestyle or in-context shot: the product being used in a real setting, which helps buyers picture owning it.
- Detail or variant shot: a close-up of texture, material or finish, or a clean layout of available colours.
For products with multiple colour or style variants, give each variant its own dedicated image so the gallery updates correctly when a shopper selects an option. Mismatched variant images are a frequent source of confusion and disputes.
Keep file sizes lean for faster loading
The 5 MB ceiling per image is generous, but you should not aim for it. A large slice of AliExpress shoppers browse on mobile data, and a heavy gallery that loads slowly costs you sales before the buyer has seen anything. The aim is the smallest file that still looks crisp on a high-resolution phone screen.
In practice, a well-compressed 1,000 x 1,000 JPEG can look identical to the original while weighing a few hundred kilobytes rather than several megabytes. Use JPEG for standard product photos and reserve PNG for images that genuinely need transparency or contain sharp graphics, since PNG files are usually far larger. Resizing every image to a consistent square and compressing it sensibly is exactly the kind of repetitive task a tool like PixelPrep handles in seconds, letting you prepare a whole batch to AliExpress specs without opening heavy editing software.
Selling across multiple marketplaces
If you also list on Shopee, Lazada, Amazon or Temu, you have probably noticed that every platform wants slightly different dimensions and ratios. Re-shooting for each one is a waste of time. The smarter approach is to capture every product square and at high resolution once, then export resized versions for each marketplace. A single 2,000 x 2,000 master can be down-sized to a perfect 1,000 x 1,000 AliExpress square, a 1,024 x 1,024 Shopee image and any other size you need. Batch-resizing those exports with PixelPrep keeps your whole multi-channel catalogue consistent without manual fiddling per platform.
Your AliExpress image checklist
Before you hit publish on any listing, run through this quick checklist:
- Main image is at least 1,000 x 1,000 pixels and perfectly square.
- Background on the main image is clean and pure white.
- No watermarks, promotional text, price tags or other-platform logos anywhere.
- Any brand logo sits in the upper-left corner and is under 10% of the image.
- All six gallery slots are filled, each doing a distinct job.
- At least one image shows scale against a familiar object.
- Each colour or style variant has its own matching image.
- Every file is JPEG or PNG, under 5 MB, and compressed for fast mobile loading.
- White backgrounds and styling are consistent across your whole catalogue.
AliExpress rewards clarity and consistency. Meet the technical specs, respect the content rules, and use every gallery slot with purpose, and your listings will look credible to both the platform's quality checks and the shoppers deciding whether to tap. Spend a little time getting your image workflow right once, and every future listing becomes faster to prepare and more likely to convert.