How to make a favicon for your website
Quick answer
To make a favicon, drop one picture into the Favicon generator and press Make favicons. You get favicon.ico, 16 and 32 pixel PNGs, an Apple touch icon and two Android icons, with the code to paste into your page.
Steps
- Open the Favicon generator and drop in one picture. A square picture of 512 pixels or more works best.
- If it is not square, choose to cut it to a square from the middle, or keep all of it with see-through bars.
- Press Make favicons and download the files, or all of them in a ZIP.
- Put the files in the root folder of your site and paste the code shown into the head of your pages.
What you get
favicon.ico holds the 16, 32 and 48 pixel versions in one file. favicon-16x16.png and favicon-32x32.png are for browser tabs, apple-touch-icon.png (180 pixels) is for iPhones and iPads, and 192 and 512 pixel icons are for Android and installable web apps.
The preview shows your icon at 16, 32 and 64 pixels so you can check it before you download.
Making it look good small
A favicon is tiny, so a simple shape with strong colors reads best. Detailed pictures turn to mush at 16 pixels, so start from a simple logo or a single letter.
A picture smaller than 512 pixels is enlarged for the biggest icons and can look soft, and the page tells you when that happens. A see-through background is kept.
Common questions
What files does a website need for a favicon?
A favicon.ico, 16 and 32 pixel PNGs for tabs, a 180 pixel Apple touch icon, and 192 and 512 pixel icons for Android. The tool makes all of them.
What size should my picture be?
Square and at least 512 by 512 pixels. Smaller pictures work but the big icons look soft.
Is the favicon.ico a real ICO file?
Yes. It holds the 16, 32 and 48 pixel icons in a standard ICO file.
Written by Basic App Company. Last checked against the tool on 12 Nov 2026. The tool runs in your browser, so your pictures are not uploaded.