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eBay Photo Checker

Drop in your listing photos. Get eBay's picture requirements checked against the real pixels — size, borders, focus, exposure, duplicate shots — before a buyer sees a blurry one.

Every measurement runs inside your browser. There is no upload, no server, and no account.

JPEG, PNG, or WebP. Pick the whole set for one item so duplicate angles get caught too.

Free tool · Updated September 2026

eBay picture requirements, and what your photos actually measure

eBay publishes hard limits — 500 pixels minimum, 12MB maximum, 24 free slots, no borders. Those are easy to state and easy to break by accident, because phone editing apps add frames, messaging apps shrink files, and nobody checks the pixel dimensions of a photo before uploading it.

The limits are only half of it. The other half is whether the photo does its job: sharp enough to read a label at eBay’s zoom size, exposed well enough that the buyer does not assume you are hiding something, and different enough from the other seven shots to be worth a slot. This tool measures both, in your browser, without uploading anything.

eBay’s published picture rules

Minimum size500 pixels on the longest side, or eBay rejects the picture.
Zoom threshold1,600 pixels or more turns on zoom and enlarge.
File size12MB maximum per picture.
Photo countUp to 24 pictures per listing at no cost.
BordersNo frames, borders, or added graphics on listing pictures.
Added textNo watermarks or text other than eBay's own.
Stock imagesUsed and pre-owned items need a photo of the actual item.
Gallery cropSearch thumbnails are cropped square from the centre.

What gets measured

Focus

Variance of a Laplacian filter over the frame — the standard sharpness measure. Reported only when there is enough contrast for it to mean something, so a plain backdrop is never mistaken for a soft photo.

Exposure

Read from the middle of the frame, not the whole picture. A seamless white backdrop is normal on eBay and must not be reported as blown out; a dark item in the centre is a real problem.

Frames and letterbox bars

Uniform bars of matching colour and depth on both opposing edges, ending in a straight edge that runs the full width. Requiring the straight edge is what keeps a plain white sweep from reading as a white border.

Duplicate shots

A 64-bit average hash per photo, compared across the set. Near-identical angles are the most common way sellers waste the free slots that should have shown a flaw.

Background clutter

How much detail sits in the outer edge of the frame competing with the item.

Gallery crop

How much of a tall or wide photo eBay's square search thumbnail will cut off.

What it will not do

It does not guess at watermarks or added text. Both are against eBay’s rules, and both are genuinely hard to detect from pixel statistics without accusing patterned fabric and busy packaging of carrying text they do not have. A checker that is wrong a quarter of the time teaches you to ignore it, so those two checks are left to you.

It also cannot tell whether the photo shows the actual item — only you know that. eBay requires a real photo of the item for used and pre-owned goods, and a stock image on a used listing is one of the more reliable ways to collect an item-not-as-described case.

The photos are already the hard part

You shot them, you cropped them, you checked them. FlowLister takes the same photos and writes the title, description, item specifics, and a comp-based price from them, so shooting the item is the whole job instead of the first step.

Turn these photos into a listing →

Frequently Asked Questions

Short answers to common seller questions about this workflow.

Pictures must be at least 500 pixels on the longest side, and eBay only turns on the zoom and enlarge view at 1,600 pixels or more. A single picture cannot exceed 12MB. Borders, frames, added text, and watermarks other than eBay's own are not allowed on listing pictures, and used items need a photo of the actual item rather than a stock image. You get up to 24 pictures per listing at no cost.
Aim for 1,600 pixels on the longest side. That is the threshold where eBay enables zoom, which matters because buyers of used goods zoom in on flaws before they commit. Below 500 pixels eBay will not accept the picture at all. There is no benefit to going far past about 2,400 pixels — you are just making the file bigger.
Borders, frames, and added graphics change what the buyer sees before they see the item, and they break the consistent grid of search results. Collage and editing apps add them by default, which is how most sellers end up with one without meaning to. This checker looks for uniform bars on opposite edges that end in a straight full-width line — the shape a frame or letterbox makes.
No. Your browser decodes the file and measures the pixels locally. Nothing is sent to FlowLister or to any other server, there is no account, and closing the tab discards everything. That is also why the tool works on files you would not want to upload.
eBay gives you 24 free slots and its own seller guidance is 8 to 12. The set that prevents the most "not as described" cases is: front, back, both sides, the label or model plate, a close-up of every flaw, and the item next to a ruler. Extra angles cost nothing and near-identical shots waste a slot that could have shown a flaw.
Deliberately not. Detecting text or watermarks from pixel statistics alone produces false accusations on busy items and patterned fabrics, and a checker that cries wolf is worse than no checker. eBay's rule is simple enough to apply yourself: no added text, logos, or borders on listing pictures apart from eBay's own.
The focus measure is the variance of a Laplacian filter — a standard way of asking how much fine detail is present. It is reported only when the frame has enough contrast for the measure to mean something, so a flat white-on-white shot is reported as low contrast instead of blurry. On a small screen a soft photo often looks acceptable; at eBay's zoom size it does not.

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