Favicon Sizes Complete Guide 2026 — Which Sizes You Actually Need
The Required Favicon Sizes
For complete cross-platform support you need: 16x16 (browser tab, bookmarks), 32x32 (taskbar on Windows), 48x48 (Windows site shortcut), 180x180 (Apple Touch Icon for iOS home screen), 192x192 (Android Chrome shortcut), 512x512 (PWA splash screen and high-DPI Android). FreeFaviconGen generates all of these from a single source image.
The favicon.ico vs PNG Question
Modern browsers support PNG favicons directly — you no longer need a .ico file for most use cases. However, .ico still has one advantage: it can contain multiple resolutions in a single file (16x16 and 32x32 stacked), which benefits older browsers and Windows taskbar. For new projects, PNG is simpler; for broad compatibility, generate both.
Apple Touch Icon
iOS uses the apple-touch-icon.png (180x180) when a user adds your site to their home screen. Without it, iOS falls back to a screenshot of the page — usually ugly. Add this to your HTML head: <link rel='apple-touch-icon' sizes='180x180' href='/apple-touch-icon.png'>. This one line dramatically improves the home screen experience on iPhones and iPads.
PWA Manifest Icons
For Progressive Web Apps, the manifest.json requires at least two icons: 192x192 (for the home screen icon) and 512x512 (for the splash screen). The 512x512 icon is also used by Google when displaying your PWA in search results. FreeFaviconGen exports both sizes and generates the manifest.json snippet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Generate all favicon sizes
Use FreeFaviconGen to create favicons for all sizes at once — 16x16 to 512x512, Apple Touch Icon, and manifest icons included. Free, no sign-up.
Open Favicon Generator