Fix “Invalid image format” in Google Merchant Center
Typical Merchant Center message: Invalid image format
Reviewed October 14, 2026 against Google’s published rules.
Google reports an invalid image format when it does not recognize how your product images are encoded. If you recently changed the image URL, Google keeps showing the previously approved image for up to 30 days.
Formats Google accepts
- JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg)
- WebP (.webp)
- PNG (.png)
- GIF (.gif)
- BMP (.bmp)
- TIFF (.tif, .tiff)
How to fix it
- Check the image link [image_link] and the additional image link [additional_image_link] values of the affected product. They must meet the attribute requirements and use an accepted format.
- Open Products, then Needs attention, and filter for this issue, then correct the image for each product.
- If you re-encode an image, give it a brand-new file name and URL so Google checks it again.
- Google says images are typically recrawled within 3 days (72 hours).
- To fix many products at once, download the .csv list of affected products from the Needs attention tab, correct the image links in your product data and re-upload it.
Check your own catalog for these issues
FeedGuard’s live check reads the real format of the main image on each product page and flags files in unsupported formats such as SVG.
Google’s requirement: support.google.com/merchants/answer/12470638. FeedGuard checks your data against published rules; Google makes the final approval decision.
Independent guidance. Google’s current documentation and decisions control. FeedGuard is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Google or Shopify, and this guide is not an official Google Help Center page.