summary — A compact card with a small square thumbnail on the left and title/description on the right.

summary_large_image — A large card with a prominent image above the title and description. The most common choice for blog posts, articles, and landing pages.

player — An inline media player for audio or video content. Displays a playable embed directly in the timeline.

The twitter:player URL must serve an HTTPS iframe-compatible page. This card type requires approval (see Approval Requirements below).

app — Displays a mobile app install card with name, description, icon, and an install button. Links directly to the App Store or Google Play.

summary — Homepage, profile pages, documentation, any page where the image is secondary.

summary_large_image — Blog posts, articles, landing pages, product pages — anything where the image drives engagement.

player — Podcast episodes, video content, music tracks, interactive demos.

app — Mobile app promotion pages.

Use summary_large_image as your default unless you have a specific reason for another type. It consistently produces the highest engagement.

twitter:card — Required. No max length. No OG fallback (must be set explicitly).

twitter:title — Required. Max 70 characters. Falls back to og:title.

twitter:description — Recommended. Max 200 characters. Falls back to og:description.

twitter:image — Recommended. Falls back to <a href="https://previewog.com/og-image-guide/">og:image</a>.

twitter:image:alt — Recommended. Max 420 characters. Falls back to og:image:alt.

twitter:site — Optional. The @username of the website's Twitter account.

twitter:creator — Optional. The @username of the content author.

twitter:player — Player card only. URL to an HTTPS iframe-compatible player.

twitter:player:width — Player card only. Width of the player iframe in pixels.

twitter:player:height — Player card only. Height of the player iframe in pixels.

twitter:player:stream — Optional. Direct URL to the video/audio stream.

twitter:app:id:iphone, twitter:app:id:ipad, twitter:app:id:googleplay — App card only. The app store IDs.

twitter:app:name:iphone, twitter:app:name:ipad, twitter:app:name:googleplay — App card only. The app names.

twitter:app:url:iphone, twitter:app:url:ipad, twitter:app:url:googleplay — Optional. Custom deep link URLs.

twitter:site is the @username of the website's Twitter account. twitter:creator is the @username of the content author. Both are optional but recommended for attribution.

Twitter card tags use the name attribute, not property. This is the most common implementation error.

OG tags use property. Twitter tags use name. Mix them up and the crawler will not find your tags.

Twitter's crawler checks for Twitter-specific tags first. If not found, it falls back to OG equivalents:

twitter:title falls back to og:title. twitter:description falls back to og:description. twitter:image falls back to og:image. twitter:image:alt falls back to og:image:alt.

Critical exception: twitter:card has no OG fallback. If you omit it, no card is generated — even if all other OG tags are present. Always set twitter:card explicitly.

This means if you already have complete OG tags, you only need one additional tag for Twitter:

However, Twitter truncates titles at 70 characters and descriptions at 200 characters, which differs from Facebook. If your OG values are longer, add explicit Twitter tags with shorter text.

summary — Minimum 144 x 144 pixels, maximum 4096 x 4096 pixels, max file size 5 MB. Aspect ratio 1:1 (square). Formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP.

summary_large_image — Recommended 1200 x 628 pixels, minimum 300 x 157 pixels, max file size 5 MB. Aspect ratio 2:1 (close to 1.91:1). Formats: JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP.

player — Thumbnail minimum 262 x 262 pixels. Player must be an HTTPS iframe. Max file size 5 MB for the thumbnail.

app — Uses the app icon from the App Store / Google Play automatically.

If you share the same 1200 x 630 image between Facebook and Twitter, it works well for both. The summary card will center-crop it to a square; summary_large_image will display the full width.

The Twitter crawler identifies itself as Twitterbot/1.0. Key behaviors:

No JavaScript execution. Reads raw HTML only. Client-side rendered OG tags are invisible.

Cache duration: approximately 7 days.

Follows redirects: up to a reasonable chain length.

Respects robots.txt for the Twitterbot user agent.

SVG images are not supported. Use JPEG, PNG, or WebP.

To force a cache refresh, use the Card Validator (see below).

The Twitter Card Validator was at cards-dev.twitter.com/validator. As of 2022, it no longer shows a visual preview of your card. However, entering a URL and clicking "Preview card" still forces Twitter to re-crawl the URL, which clears the cache.

How to use it for cache clearing:

1. Go to cards-dev.x.com/validator.

2. Enter your URL.

3. Click "Preview card."

4. The visual preview is no longer rendered, but the re-crawl is triggered.

5. The "Log" section shows whether your tags were parsed successfully.

For verifying how your card actually looks, share the URL in a tweet (you can use a private/locked account) or use a third-party preview tool like PreviewOG.

Since 2018, summary and summary_large_image cards work automatically. No approval or whitelist is needed.

Player cards still require approval. You must apply through the Player Card approval process and have your domain whitelisted before player cards will render.

App cards do not require separate approval.

For most websites, this is all you need alongside your existing OG tags:

If you want Twitter-specific values (shorter title, different image):

Card types: summary, summary_large_image, player, app.

Attribute: name (not property).

Title max length: 70 characters.

Description max length: 200 characters.

Image max file size: 5 MB.

summary image: 144x144 min, 1:1 ratio.

summary_large_image: 300x157 min, 1200x628 recommended, 2:1 ratio.

Crawler user agent: Twitterbot/1.0.

Cache duration: approximately 7 days.

JavaScript: Not executed.

Approval needed: Only for player cards.

OG fallback: All tags except twitter:card.