How to preview your LinkedIn profile before you change it
- Add your banner and photo Open the free LinkedIn profile preview and add both. No banner yet? Make one in the LinkedIn banner maker, or click Try a sample first.
- Write your headline and About The counters follow LinkedIn’s limits, and the preview cuts About where LinkedIn shows “see more”.
- Fill Featured Add carousels, posts or images with a title and see them as the cards visitors see.
- Check every view, then update LinkedIn Switch phone and desktop, light and dark, and download the preview as a picture if someone needs to approve it. Then make the change on LinkedIn.
Your profile stays in your browser: the pictures are read on your device and never uploaded. Writing the words first? The LinkedIn headline generator and the About section generator give you drafts to paste in.
How to see your public LinkedIn profile
Your public profile is the version people see when they aren’t signed in to LinkedIn, for example when they find you through a search engine. You control which sections are in it.
On a computer
- Click Me at the top of LinkedIn, then View profile.
- Click Edit public profile & URL on the right.
- The preview on the left is your public profile. Use the switches on the right to show or hide each section; the preview updates as you go.
You reach the same page through Settings & Privacy › Visibility › Edit your public profile.
In the LinkedIn app
- Tap your photo, then Settings.
- Tap Visibility, then Edit your public profile.
- Tap the preview option at the bottom of the screen (“Preview your public profile”) to see it.
How to see your profile logged out
- Copy your profile address (it looks like linkedin.com/in/yourname). To make it shorter and cleaner, see how to change your LinkedIn profile URL.
- Open a private or incognito window in your browser, where you aren’t signed in.
- Paste the address. What you see is what someone without an account sees, shaped by the switches on your public profile page.
Signed-in members see more than this, depending on your connection to them and your visibility settings. For a quick “how does a stranger see me” check, a friend on their own phone is still the most honest preview.
What to check when you preview your profile
- Photo. Shown as a circle and often tiny, next to posts and comments. Your face should fill most of it. More in LinkedIn profile picture best practices.
- Banner. Your photo covers its lower left, and phones show it differently from computers. Keep words away from that corner. Ideas in LinkedIn banner ideas.
- Headline. It follows your name everywhere, and in lists only the start shows. Say what you do and for whom first. See 60 headline examples.
- About. Only the first lines show before “see more”. Put the reason to read on in them. See About section examples.
- Featured. The covers are small cards. Big words read; screenshots of slides with small text don’t. See how to add a Featured section.
- Light and dark. A logo or banner with thin dark lines can vanish in dark mode.
If you post carousels, visitors compare them with your profile too. Keep the same photo and colours on both: in aiCarousels, a brand kit holds your photo, name and look, and every new carousel starts from it.
LinkedIn profile sizes and limits
| What | Size or limit | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Profile photo | 400 × 400 px or larger | Up to 8 MB; shown as a circle |
| Banner | 1584 × 396 px | Recommended by Hootsuite; Sprout Social lists a larger 4200 × 700 px |
| Headline | 220 characters | Only the start shows in lists and comments |
| About | 2,600 characters | The first lines show before “see more” |
| Company logo | 400 × 400 px | Shown as a square |
From Hootsuite (1 October 2026), Sprout Social (11 May 2026), AuthoredUp (updated 11 August 2026) and unilink (May 2026).
How to preview a LinkedIn Company Page
Company Pages have their own layout: a wide cover, a square logo, a tagline under the name and an overview. The free LinkedIn company page preview shows them on a phone and a computer, light and dark, before you change the real Page. Starting from scratch? See how to create a LinkedIn Company Page.
Example: a profile check you can post
Other profiles to check? The profile preview hub has previews for Instagram, TikTok, X and more, and YouTube has its own guide: how to preview your YouTube channel. For your LinkedIn posts, see LinkedIn guides on posts and profiles.
