What are Square's menu photo requirements?

At least 2000 x 2000 pixels, square. That is Square's own recommendation for item images, and because Square resizes them for you, one large square file covers every place the item appears.

The confusion comes from Square publishing image rules in three different places for three different things. Here is which is which.

Yes, and this is the single biggest difference between Square and every delivery platform. Square states: "Square automatically resizes your item images so they have the perfect size and configuration no matter where they’re displayed."

It also states the reason for uploading large: "We recommend that you upload item photos that are greater than 2000 x 2000 to ensure clear, crisp imagery." Resizing down from a big square is lossless in practice. Resizing up from a small one is not possible, which is why the floor matters more than the ceiling.

Compare that with Toast, which does the opposite. Toast fills a container chosen by your menu template and crops whatever does not fit, so on Toast the framing of the shot decides what survives. On Square, the resolution of the file does.

No. Square states it plainly: "You cannot have different images for the same item across your point of sale app and Square Online."

Square also states that "Images uploaded to your item catalog will sync across your point of sale app and devices, and Square Online." One item, one image, everywhere.

That has a practical consequence worth planning around. The photo has to work as a small thumbnail on a POS screen and as a larger image on your ordering site at the same time. A busy plate shot that reads fine at full size can turn to mush at thumbnail size, and you do not get to swap in a tighter crop for the small surface.

Because Square asks for a 1:1 aspect ratio on item images, and 1:1 is the tightest of the common shapes. A square crop keeps the least width of any ratio a restaurant normally shoots.

If a photo was framed for a delivery app, it is almost certainly not square. DoorDash wants 16:9. Uber Eats recommends a band between 5:4 and 6:4. Cropping a 16:9 file to a square throws away 43.75 percent of its width, which is where plates get clipped and garnish disappears off the edge.

The fix is in the shooting, not the exporting. Leave margin on all four sides and one original crops cleanly to a square for Square and to a wide frame for the delivery apps.

Check your filenames before you check anything else. Square's article on adding images to your online store says: "Make sure each image file has its own unique file name prior to uploading it to the site editor. This will help avoid any unwanted behaviors, such as images swapping places or not loading at all."

That sentence is about images uploaded to the site editor, the same article whose 1000 pixel rule does not govern item photos, and Square's item image article does not repeat it. So for item photos it is a precaution rather than a published rule, and it costs nothing.

This is easy to hit without realizing. Phones and cameras hand out repeating names, and a folder of exports called image.jpg, image-1.jpg and image-1.jpg from two different sessions is a collision waiting to happen. Name files after the dish before you upload: margherita-pizza.jpg, not IMG_0042.jpg.

Square publishes no photo review or approval step, and none appears in the documented upload flow. That is a statement about Square's documentation, not a guarantee about your account.

The structure is the same as Toast. Square is a point of sale system with its own online ordering, not a delivery marketplace, so photos appear on your own storefront and your own POS without a third party moderating them. DoorDash, Uber Eats and Grubhub all run review queues that can reject an upload. Square does not document one.

So nothing stops a weak photo going live, and nothing stops you replacing it the moment you notice.

Square's 1:1 and DoorDash's 16:9 are not compatible shapes, and no export setting reconciles them. This is the same constraint that runs through every platform in this library: the shape is decided when the shutter opens, not when you export.

Shoot wide with the dish centered and margin on every side. One original then crops to a 2000 x 2000 square for Square, a 1400 x 800 landscape for DoorDash, and a 5:4 frame for Uber Eats, and the food is identical in all three.

Square is not in that table for the same reason Toast is not. The three platforms above run a moderation queue and can reject an upload, so their numbers are requirements you have to meet. Square's numbers are recommendations for your own storefront, and Square resizes whatever you give it.