Klaviyo Email Image Size Guide: Dimensions, Formats & Best Practices

You've designed a gorgeous email for your Shopify store, uploaded the images to Klaviyo, and hit send — only to discover that your hero banner looks blurry on mobile and the email takes five seconds to load. Sound familiar?

Getting Klaviyo email image sizes right is one of those things that seems simple but trips up even experienced email marketers. Too small and your images look pixelated on retina screens. Too large and your email loads slowly — or worse, gets cut off by Gmail. This guide covers everything you need to know about image dimensions, formats, and optimization for Klaviyo.

The Standard: 600px Email Width

Every Klaviyo email template defaults to 600 pixels wide. This has been the industry standard for email marketing since the early days, and for good reason: the average desktop email client viewport sits between 500-600px wide. Going wider risks horizontal scrolling on smaller screens and broken layouts in Outlook.

You can change this in Klaviyo's Styles tab, but unless you have a specific reason (like a specialized layout), stick with 600px. It's the safest width for consistent rendering across Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, and Yahoo Mail.

Here's the important part: 600px is the display width, not the export width. If you export images at exactly 600px, they'll appear blurry on any phone or laptop with a retina display — which is virtually every modern device. More on this below.

Recommended Image Dimensions by Layout

The right image width depends on how your email layout is structured. Here's a quick reference for the most common Klaviyo layouts:

For height, Klaviyo recommends keeping images under 2,000px tall. Anything taller can cause loading issues in some email clients. If your email design is longer than that — which is common for product launches or seasonal campaigns — slice it into multiple horizontal sections.

Why You Should Always Export at 2x (Retina)

This is the single most common mistake in Klaviyo email design: exporting images at their display size instead of 2x.

Retina displays (found on iPhones, MacBooks, and most modern Android phones) pack twice as many pixels into each inch of screen. When you upload a 600px-wide image to a 600px-wide email column, the retina display tries to stretch those pixels across 1200 physical pixels — resulting in a visibly blurry image.

The fix is simple: design at 2x and let the email client scale down. If your email is 600px wide, export your full-width images at 1200px wide. The image file is larger, but the email client will display it at 600px — using all those extra pixels to render a sharp, crisp image on retina screens.

This is especially important for product photography. Your customers are deciding whether to buy based on how your products look in their inbox. A blurry hero image can undermine even the best offer.

File Formats: JPEG, PNG, or GIF?

Klaviyo supports three image formats. Here's when to use each:

JPEG — Best for Photography

JPEG uses lossy compression, meaning it discards some data to achieve smaller file sizes. For photographs and complex visuals with gradients and lots of colors, JPEG is the clear winner. A product photo that would be 2.5MB as a PNG can be compressed to 200-300KB as a JPEG with no visible quality loss.

Best setting: Export at 75-85% quality. Below 70%, you'll start seeing compression artifacts (blocky areas, especially around text and sharp edges). Above 90%, you're adding file size without visible improvement.

PNG — Best for Graphics and Logos

PNG uses lossless compression, preserving every pixel exactly. This makes it ideal for logos, icons, text overlays, and graphics with sharp edges or flat colors. PNG also supports transparency — essential if your logo needs to sit on different background colors.

The trade-off: PNG files are significantly larger than JPEGs for photographic content. A full-width banner with product photography could easily be 1-3MB as a PNG. Use PNG only when you need its specific advantages.

GIF — Best for Simple Animations

GIF supports animation but is limited to 256 colors. Use it for simple animated elements like a countdown timer or a subtle product reveal. For complex product imagery, stick with JPEG. Keep animated GIFs small — they can balloon to several megabytes quickly.

File Size Targets

Klaviyo allows up to 5MB per image, but that doesn't mean you should use all of it. Here are the targets to aim for:

• Per image: Under 200-300KB (after compression)
• Total email: Under 800KB for all images combined
• Resolution: 72 DPI (standard for web/email)

Why these numbers? Because over 50% of emails are opened on mobile devices, often on cellular connections. A 3MB email that loads instantly on your office Wi-Fi might take 5-8 seconds on a 4G connection — and most people won't wait that long. They'll scroll past or delete it.

The sweet spot is compressing each image to the smallest size where quality is still visually indistinguishable from the original. Tools like TinyPNG, Squoosh, or ImageOptim can reduce file sizes by 60-80% without visible degradation. If you want to learn more about compression techniques, check our guide on how to compress images for email marketing.

Mobile Optimization Tips

Klaviyo's templates are responsive by default — images in a 600px-wide email will scale down automatically on mobile screens. But there are a few things to watch for:

• Text in images: If your banner contains text baked into the image, make sure it's still readable at mobile widths (~320-375px). Text that looks fine at 600px can become illegible at 50% size.
• Multi-column layouts: On mobile, Klaviyo stacks columns vertically. Your 300px-wide images will display at full width — which is fine for 2x exports but can look blurry if exported at 1x.
• Tap targets: If your images are clickable (they should be), make sure the link area is large enough for fingers. Apple recommends a minimum tap target of 44x44 pixels.

Common Mistakes and How to Fix Them

Mistake 1: Sending One Giant Image

Uploading your entire email as a single tall image seems easier, but it causes multiple problems: Gmail overlays a download icon on images over ~800px tall, some email clients won't display it at all, and there's nothing for screen readers to read. Slice your email into horizontal sections — typically 4-8 slices per email. This solves the Gmail download icon issue and lets clients load images in parallel, actually making the email faster.

Mistake 2: Not Adding Alt Text

Many email clients (especially Outlook and corporate environments) block images by default. Without alt text, your recipients see empty boxes. Always add descriptive alt text to every image in Klaviyo. It also helps with accessibility for users on screen readers.

Mistake 3: Using the Wrong DPI

Some designers export at 300 DPI (print standard). For email, 72 DPI is all you need. Higher DPI doesn't improve how the image looks on screen — it just makes the file larger for no benefit.

Quick Reference Cheat Sheet

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best image width for Klaviyo emails?

The standard email width in Klaviyo is 600px. For full-width images, use 1200px (2x) so they look sharp on retina screens. For two-column layouts, use 600px per image (300px display width at 2x). This ensures your images are crisp on iPhones, MacBooks, and modern Android devices.

What image formats does Klaviyo support?

Klaviyo supports JPEG, PNG, and GIF. You can upload WebP files, but Klaviyo will convert them to PNG. For most e-commerce emails with product photography, JPEG at 80% quality gives the best size-to-quality ratio.

Why do my Klaviyo images look blurry?

This almost always means you're exporting at 1x resolution (600px wide) instead of 2x (1200px wide). Retina displays need double the pixels to render sharp images. Export at 2x and let Klaviyo scale them down — the extra pixels make images look crisp on modern screens.

What is the maximum image size allowed in Klaviyo?

Klaviyo allows up to 5MB per image, but best practice is to keep each image under 1MB — ideally around 200-300KB after compression. This ensures fast loading, especially for mobile subscribers on cellular connections.

Should I use PNG or JPEG for email images?

Use JPEG for photographs and complex visuals (smaller file sizes). Use PNG for graphics with sharp text, logos, or when you need transparency. Most e-commerce product imagery works best as JPEG at 75-85% quality.