What it does
A favicon is the small icon in a browser tab, a bookmark list, a phone's home screen, and next to your site's name in Google results. It's tiny, but when it's missing your site looks unfinished, and when it's broken browsers quietly show a blank page icon.
This checker reads the icons your page declares, tries /favicon.ico at the root of your site, and reads the icons listed in your web app manifest. It fetches each one and reports its size, file size and HTTP status, then tells you which parts of a typical icon set you have.
How to use it
- 1Type your site's address into the Website or page URL field. Your home page is usually the right one to check.
- 2Press Check the icons.
- 3Read the four checks: browser tab icon, Apple touch icon, SVG icon, and web app manifest.
- 4Look at the table to see each icon, where it was found, its pixel size and whether it loaded.
A sensible set of icons
You don't need dozens of sizes. A small set covers browsers, phones and installed apps.
- favicon.ico at the root of your site, 32×32, for older browsers and tools that look there first.
- An SVG icon, which stays sharp at any size and can switch colours for dark mode.
- A 180×180 PNG apple-touch-icon, for when someone adds your site to an iPhone home screen.
- 192×192 and 512×512 PNGs listed in a web app manifest, for Android and installable apps.
Favicons in Google search results
Google shows a favicon next to your site's name in results. Its guidelines ask for a square icon declared with a link tag on your home page, and recommend making it larger than 48×48 px. Google also needs to be able to crawl both the home page and the icon file.
Icons are cached hard, by browsers and by Google. After you change one, it can take a while to show up. Giving the new file a different name makes a fresh fetch more likely.
Questions
What size should a favicon be?
Ship a 32×32 favicon.ico, an SVG if you can, a 180×180 apple-touch-icon, and 192 and 512 px icons in a manifest. For Google results, use a square icon larger than 48×48 px.
Why does my favicon not show?
The file may return an error, be served with the wrong content type, or be cached from an older version. The table shows each icon's status so you can see which one fails.
Do I still need favicon.ico?
It's worth keeping. Some browsers, feed readers and tools ask for /favicon.ico directly without reading your HTML.
Should my favicon be an SVG?
An SVG is a good addition, not a replacement. Not every browser and app uses SVG icons, so keep PNG or ICO versions too.
How many icons does it check?
Up to 12: the ones your page declares, /favicon.ico, and up to four of the largest icons in your manifest.