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Adding pictures to your listing helps you increase sales, gives your buyers a more accurate picture of what to expect, and distinguishes your listing from others of its kind. We offer different options for you to upload photos to eBay depending on your computer's software and your needs. You can also include photos that you've stored on another website.
Standard features and upgrade options
You can add one picture for free with each listing. The picture appears in your listing and next to your item's title in search results. This picture, also called the gallery picture, is always copied from the first picture you add to your listing, and it's the same as the picture that's automatically displayed at the top left of your listing. The gallery picture is generated after a listing is accepted. It usually appears in a few minutes, but may be delayed by a few hours when the eBay site is very busy.
You can also add up to 11 more pictures per listing. These pictures all display in a viewer at the top left of your listing. In some cases, fees apply for additional photos. We store standardized copies of your photos on eBay, and they stay in your completed listings for up to 90 days, so they can be re-used when you relist or sell similar items.
When fees apply, you can choose the Picture Pack listing upgrade. With this upgrade, you can add up to 12 supersized images for one price. You can also use the Gallery Plus listing upgrade to show larger pictures that appear in search results.
Types of photo uploaders
An uploader lets you add (or upload) a picture to your listing. We offer 3 types of uploaders:
You can also use self hosting to display pictures that are stored on a website other than eBay. This option doesn't require uploading to eBay.
If you're new to eBay, you'll see only the Standard and Basic Uploaders. The Standard Uploader is normally the default. To use it, you'll need to have Adobe Flash Player 9 or above installed on your computer, and you'll need an updated version of Flash Player (10 or above) to use the more advanced features. If you don't want to use the Standard Uploader, you can select the Basic Uploader, which has limited features and uploads more slowly.
When you add a picture to your listing, try to use a picture that is at least 1600 pixels on the longest side. This will give you a better result. However, we recommend you don't enlarge smaller images to make them 1600 pixels.
If your picture is in JPEG format, it should have a quality of 90 or higher on the 0-99 JPEG quality scale. We'll then optimize it for display in your listing. You can upload pictures in these file formats (in order of what will give you the best results):
JPEG (.jpg file extension)
PNG (.png file extension)
TIFF (.tif file extension)
BMP (.bmp file extension)
GIF (.gif file extension)
Tip: Before you start the upload process, rename your photo files with names that will help you remember what they are, and put them in a folder on your computer where you can find them quickly and easily in case you need them again. For example, on a Windows PC, you can store your photos in the My Pictures folder.
Here's a closer look at our different uploaders and the self hosting option:
Basic Uploader |
Default for new users who don't have Adobe's Flash Player 9 or above installed on their computer |
Operating system (OS): Mac or Windows Web browser: Latest version of Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari
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7 MB |
Select one picture at a time. All selected pictures are uploaded one after another. Standardizes size after upload to eBay.
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Standard Uploader |
Default for new users who have Adobe's Flash Player 9 or above installed on their computer |
Web browser: Latest version of Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari Adobe Flash Player 9 or above
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7 MB |
Select multiple pictures at the same time. Reduces upload time by pre-standardizing your pictures before they're uploaded and uploading multiple pictures at the same time. Displays status while upload is in progress. If you're using Adobe's Flash Player 10 or above, you can preview, crop, rotate and adjust brightness and contrast of pictures selected in the uploader before uploading them.
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copy web files uploader |
In the Bring your item to life with pictures section of the listing form, select the Add or remove options link, and then select the Show option for copying picture files to eBay from a web server check box. |
Web browser: Latest version of Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari
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7 MB |
Lets you upload pictures from your picture-hosting website using a web address (URL) from that site. Standardized copies are stored on our website for eBay use.
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self hosting |
In the Bring your item to life with pictures section of the listing form, select the Add or remove options link, and then select the Show option for linking to pictures on your
web server (Self Hosting) check box. |
Web browser: Latest version of Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari
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50-100 KB |
Lets you store your pictures on your own website or server or on a web-hosting service. Standardized copies are stored on our website for eBay use.
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Using the Standard or Basic Uploader
To add pictures to your listing:In the Bring your pictures to life section of the listing form, click the Add Pictures button. A pop-up window will appear with the Standard tab selected. If you don't have the Adobe Flash Player 9 or above installed on your computer, the tab will prompt you to install it by going to the Adobe website. You can click the Basic tab to switch to the Basic Uploader.
Click the Browse button and find the picture or pictures you want to add to your listing.
Select the picture you want to add, and then click the Open button. To select multiple files, you can hold down the Ctrl key (Windows) or the Command key (Mac) while you select the files you want to open.
The Standard tab will be shown with the picture you've added. If you're having trouble with the Standard Uploader, you can use the Basic Uploader instead, by clicking the Basic Uploader link on the top-right corner.
If you're using Adobe's Flash Player 10 or above, you can crop, rotate, apply AutoFix to automatically correct exposure, and adjust the brightness and contrast of the picture shown in the preview by clicking the button with the appropriate icon. Then click the Apply button.
Note: If you're using Flash Player 9, you can still use this uploader, but you won't see the crop, rotate, brightness, and contrast options, and there's no preview before uploading to eBay.
If you'd like, you can select optional picture upgrades. (These options may be pre-selected for you if they are free for your listing). Then when you're ready to upload the pictures you've added and edited, click the Upload button.
The picture will be uploaded in the Bring your item to life with pictures section on the listing form.
Using the copy web files uploader
You can upload your pictures from a website instead of from your hard drive using the copy web files uploader. Your pictures will then be optimized automatically for use on eBay and will be stored by eBay.
For the copy web files uploader to be available, you need to select the Show/Hide
Options in the Bring your item to life with pictures section of the listing form.
To add pictures to your listing:In the Bring your pictures to life section of the listing form, click the Add pictures button.
Select the Copy Web Files tab.
Enter the web address or URL, find the pictures you want to upload, and then click the Add button.
The web address (URL) will appear in the Pictures URL column with the status Complete.
Click the Copy to eBay button.
The picture will be uploaded to the listing form, in the Bring your item to life with pictures section.
Replacing pictures
We don't automatically overwrite and upload pictures that you've updated or edited on your computer after you use them in a listing. To replace a picture with a newly edited version, select Revise your item in My eBay to delete the existing picture from your listing, and then upload the picture again.
Adding a watermark to your picture
If you decide to add a watermark to your picture, you can use our camera icon, your eBay user ID, or both.
If your user ID is more than 24 characters, the ID watermark is automatically shortened to 24 characters so it will fit the picture. However, we won't apply watermarks to pictures we display at sizes less than 200 pixels on the longest side.
Here's how to add a watermark:Go to the Bring your pictures to life section of the listing form.
Click the Add or remove options link, and then select one or both watermark options:
Enable watermarking with my eBay user ID
Enable watermarking with the eBay camera icon
Continue filling out the form.
When your upload your picture, we'll apply the watermark you selected.
Note: The watermark you selected applies only to pictures you've just uploaded. Changing your selection won't add or remove watermarks from previously uploaded pictures. Watermarks also aren't supported for pictures that were uploaded using our simple listing form.
Using self hosting for your pictures
You can link to pictures you've stored on another website (sometimes called self-hosting) rather than on eBay. For example, if you store pictures on an online storage space that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) has given you, or on a website that stores pictures for you, you can enter the web address (URL) of a picture that's stored there using the Self Hosting tab. That picture will then appear in your listing.
If you don't see the Self Hosting tab, select Add or remove options in the Bring your pictures to life section of the listing form. The Self Hosting tab will then be available (see the screen below).
To show more than one self-hosted picture on eBay, you need to use HTML in your listing. And to make your picture appear fairly quickly, the file size should be between 50 and 100 kilobytes (KB), depending on its dimensions. The maximum dimension should not exceed 1000 pixels so the picture can display without needing to scroll to view it.
Tip: If you already store pictures on another website or your own web server, consider using the copy
web files uploader for at least the first picture in your listing. That allows us to store a copy of the picture at the standard size used on eBay pages. It also reduces the traffic load on your website and, in most cases, loads the picture faster on the page.
To add pictures to your listing:In the Bring your pictures to life section of the listing form, click the Insert pictures button. A pop-up window will appear.
Select the Self Hosting tab.
Enter the web address or URL to select the picture you want to use.
Click the Insert Picture button.
If you're self hosting your images, eBay will try to use your first image to create an eBay hosted picture so that buyers can enlarge it and see more detail. Sometimes, we're not able to do this. If you see a message that we had a problem creating an eBay hosted picture, you don't need to do anything. We'll still show your pictures in your listing. If you want to try again, wait 24 hours to see if the problem resolves itself. If not, you can submit your image again.
