A featured image represents the contents, mood, or theme of a post or page and is used throughout your site. This guide will show you how to work with featured images on your website.
There are a couple of ways to set the featured image for a page or post. You can either use the page/post settings, or assign an image that you’ve added to your page/post.
To set a featured image on a post or page through the page or post settings, follow these steps:
- While editing a page or post, open the page settings sidebar.
- Click on the “Set featured image” box, which will appear if an image is not already present.
- Choose an image from one of the available options in the list that appears:
- Media Library (click “Add new” here to upload a new image)
- Your Phone (using the Jetpack app)
- Generate with AI
- Google Photos
- Pexels Free Photos
- Openverse
- Click the “Publish” or “Save” button to save your featured image.
To assign an image that you’ve added to your page or post as the featured image, follow these steps:
- While editing a page or post, add or select an Image block.
- In the block toolbar that appears, click the Options icon (⋮).
- Select the “Set as featured image” option from the drop-down menu.
- Click the “Publish” or “Save” button to apply your changes.
You can generate a featured image with AI that’s based on your page or post content.
To generate a featured image for a post or page with AI, follow these steps:
- While editing a page or post, open the page settings sidebar.
- Click on the “Set featured image” box, which will appear if an image is not already present.
- If a featured image is already present, click the “Remove” button first.
- Click the “Generate with AI” option, which will use AI to create a new image based on the post/page content.
- If you don’t like the first image, you can use the text box to describe the image you’d like to create and click the Generate button.
- You can repeat this process as many times as you like, and you can browse the previously generated images using the arrows below the image. All AI-generated images are automatically added to your website’s Media Library.
- With your desired featured image selected, click the “Set as featured image” button.
- Click the “Publish” or “Save” button to apply your changes.
To change or remove a featured image on a page or post, follow these steps:
- While editing a page or post, open the page settings sidebar.
- The featured image section will show your featured image with buttons to replace or remove the featured image.
- To replace a featured image, click the Replace button, then select a new image from your media library or the other available options.
- To completely remove the featured image from the page or post (but not from your Media Library), click the Remove button.
- Click the “Publish” or “Save” button to apply your changes.
You may want to keep your featured image so that it appears in social previews and search results, but you don’t want it to appear on your actual page or post.
If you are using a block theme, you can remove the Featured Image block from the page template or post template.
Classic or third-party themes may have other options for hiding the featured image from your content. Check your theme’s documentation for more information.
Featured images are used in many ways by themes. Here are some examples of places where featured images may appear, depending on your theme:
- Search results
- Blog Page
- Portfolio Page
- Featured Content on the homepage:
If a featured image does not appear as expected, check your theme settings to ensure the theme is set up to display featured images. The setup can vary depending on the type of theme your site uses:
- Block Themes: Use the Featured Image block in your template.
- Universal, Hybrid and Classic Themes: Check the Customizer for “ Options” or a similar section. Your theme may have a setting here to show or hide the featured image in certain areas.
- Third-Party Themes: Check your theme documentation for details.
If your featured image is the wrong size, please refer to your theme’s documentation for recommended dimensions to use. Certain themes use featured images in ways that may require a specifically sized image to work correctly. Visit our Optimize Your Images guide for more.
Most WordPress themes typically do not display captions with featured images, but you may be able to display captions with a featured image caption plugin.
Social media sites like Facebook will often use the page’s featured image when you share it on social media. Here are examples from Facebook and LinkedIn:
Learn more about how you can control your site’s social media previews.
