A featured image represents the contents, mood, or theme of a post or page. Your site displays featured images in many places, such as blog listings, search results, and social media previews. This guide covers how to set, replace, resize, and manage featured images.
There are two ways to set a featured image for a page or post: use the page or post settings, or assign an image already added to your content.
To set a featured image on a post or page through the page or post settings, follow these steps:
- While editing a page or post, open the page settings sidebar.
- Click on the “Set featured image” box, which will appear if an image is not already present.
- Choose an image from one of the sources in the list that appears:
- Media Library (click “Add new” here to upload a new image)
- Your Phone (using the Jetpack app)
- Generate with AI
- Google Photos
- Pexels Free Photos
- Openverse
- Click the “Publish” or “Save” button to save your featured image.
To assign an image that you’ve added to your page or post as the featured image, follow these steps:
- While editing a page or post, add or select an Image block.
- In the block toolbar that appears with the Image block, click the Options icon (⋮).
- Select the “Set as featured image” option from the drop-down menu.
- Click the Publish or Save button to apply your changes.
You can generate a featured image with AI. The steps depend on which AI tool your site uses.
By default, Jetpack AI is enabled for all sites. If you used our AI website builder to create your website or if you’ve enabled the AI assistant, follow the WordPress AI Assistant instructions in the tabs below.
Jetpack AI will generate a featured image based on your page or post content. You can adjust the prompt to update the image.
To generate a featured image using Jetpack AI, follow these steps:
- While editing a page or post, open the page settings sidebar.
- Click on the “Set featured image” box, which will appear if an image is not already present.
- If a featured image is already present, click the “Remove” button first.
- Click the “Generate with AI” option, which will use AI to create a new image based on the post/page content.
- If you don’t like the first image, you can use the text box to describe the image you’d like to create and click the Generate button.
- You can repeat this process as many times as you like, and you can browse the previously generated images using the arrows below the image. All AI-generated images are automatically added to your website’s Media Library.
- With your desired featured image selected, click the “Set as featured image” button.
To change or remove a featured image on a page or post, follow these steps:
- While editing a page or post, open the page settings sidebar.
- Look for the featured image section, which displays Replace and Remove buttons below the current image.
- To replace a featured image, click the Replace button, then select a new image from your media library or the other available options.
- To completely remove the featured image from the page or post (but not from your Media Library), click the Remove button.
- Click the Publish or Save button to apply your changes.
You can keep a featured image for social previews and search results while hiding it from the page or post itself.
If you are using a block theme, you can remove the Featured Image block from the page template or post template.
Classic and third-party themes may offer their own settings for hiding featured images. Check your theme’s documentation for details.
Your theme determines where featured images appear across your site. Depending on your theme, featured images may show in the following places:
- Search results
- Blog page
- Portfolio page
- Featured content on the homepage
If you see the same image appear twice in a post or page, it’s likely set as both the featured image and placed directly in the content. To avoid this, use a featured image or add the image to your content — not both. If you want to use both a featured image and images in your content, use a different image for each.
If a featured image does not appear as expected, check your theme settings. The steps vary depending on your theme type:
- Block themes: Use the Featured Image block in your template.
- Universal, hybrid, and classic themes: Open the Customizer and look for an “Options” section or a similar panel that controls featured image visibility.
- Third-party themes: Check your theme’s documentation for details.
If the featured image looks too large, too small, or cropped unexpectedly, you can adjust it. The steps depend on your theme type:
- Block themes: You can resize and customize the featured image directly in your template. See Resize the featured image in your template below.
- Universal, Hybrid, and Classic themes: Check your theme’s documentation for recommended featured image dimensions. Some themes require a specifically sized image to display correctly. Visit our Optimize Your Images guide for help preparing images at the right size.
- Third-party themes: Check your theme’s documentation for details.
For block themes, you can resize and customize the featured image by editing the Featured Image block in your page or post template. To access and edit your template, visit our guides on editing the post template and editing the page template.
Select the Featured Image block in your template to open the block settings sidebar. Under the Block tab, you can adjust the following settings:
- Open the Dimensions section to set custom Padding and Margin values.
- Select an Aspect Ratio from the dropdown menu to control the image’s proportions. Options include Original, Square, Classic 3:2, and others.
- Enter specific Height and Width values in pixels for precise sizing.
- Choose a Scale option to control how the image fills the space:
- Cover: scales and crops the image to fill the entire space without distortion.
- Contain: scales the image to fit within the space, which may leave empty areas.
- Fill: stretches the image to fill the space exactly, which may distort it.
- Open the Border & Shadow section to add a border, adjust the border radius, or apply a shadow.
- Save the template to apply your changes across all posts or pages that use it.
Changes to the template apply to every post or page that uses it. To resize the featured image for one specific post, consider uploading a pre-cropped image at your preferred dimensions instead.
When you share a page or post on social media, sites like Facebook and LinkedIn display the featured image. Here are two examples:
For additional details, see our guide to social media previews.
