Twitter Cards vs Open Graph: What's the Difference?

When optimizing your website for social sharing, you'll encounter two major protocols: Open Graph (used by Facebook, LinkedIn, and others) and Twitter Cards. Understanding the difference is crucial for maximizing your content's reach.

Quick Comparison

Feature	Open Graph	Twitter Cards
Created by	Facebook	Twitter
Prefix	og:	twitter:
Fallback	None	Uses Open Graph
Image sizes	1200x630	Various (see below)
Required	Widely	For Twitter optimization

Open Graph: The Universal Standard

Open Graph was created by Facebook in 2010 and has become the de facto standard for social metadata. Most platforms—Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Discord, Slack, and many others—read Open Graph tags.

<meta property="og:title" content="Your Title" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Your description" />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page" />
<meta property="og:type" content="article" />

Twitter Cards: Twitter-Specific Optimization

Twitter Cards provide additional control over how your content appears on Twitter. The key advantage is the ability to choose different card types.

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Your Title" />
<meta name="twitter:description" content="Your description" />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://example.com/image.jpg" />

Twitter Card Types

1. Summary - Small image on the left, text on the right
2. Summary Large Image - Large image above the text
3. Player - For video/audio content
4. App - For mobile app promotion

The Fallback System

Here's the key insight: Twitter falls back to Open Graph tags.

If you have Open Graph tags but no Twitter Cards, Twitter will use your OG data. This means you can often get away with just Open Graph tags, though Twitter-specific tags give you more control.

The fallback order:

1. Twitter-specific tag (twitter:title)
2. Open Graph equivalent (og:title)
3. Standard HTML (<title>)

Best Practice: Use Both

For optimal results, implement both:

<!-- Open Graph -->
<meta property="og:title" content="Your Title" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Your description" />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/og-image.jpg" />
<meta property="og:url" content="https://example.com/page" />
<meta property="og:type" content="article" />

<!-- Twitter Cards -->
<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" />
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@yourusername" />
<!-- Twitter will use OG tags for title, description, and image -->

Notice we only added twitter:card and twitter:site. Twitter will use the OG tags for everything else.

Image Size Recommendations

Open Graph (Facebook, LinkedIn)

• Minimum: 200x200 pixels
• Recommended: 1200x630 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 1.91:1

Twitter Summary Card

• Minimum: 144x144 pixels
• Maximum: 4096x4096 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 1:1

Twitter Summary Large Image

• Minimum: 300x157 pixels
• Recommended: 1200x628 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 2:1

Common Mistakes

1. Different Images for Each Platform

Sometimes you want a square image for Twitter's summary card but a landscape image for Facebook. You can do this:

<meta property="og:image" content="https://example.com/landscape.jpg" />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="https://example.com/square.jpg" />

2. Forgetting twitter:card

Without twitter:card, Twitter defaults to a basic link with no preview. Always specify the card type.

3. Not Validating

Both platforms have validators:

• Twitter Card Validator
• Facebook Sharing Debugger

Programmatically Checking Your Tags

Building a tool that needs to verify social meta tags? You can use an API to extract all metadata at once:

const response = await fetch(
  'https://api.katsau.com/v1/extract?url=https://example.com',
  {
    headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' }
  }
);

const { data } = await response.json();

// Check Open Graph
console.log('OG Title:', data.title);
console.log('OG Image:', data.image);

// Check Twitter-specific
console.log('Twitter Card:', data.twitterCard);

This is useful for:

• SEO audit tools
• Content management systems
• Social media scheduling apps
• Competitor analysis

Conclusion

While Open Graph and Twitter Cards serve similar purposes, understanding their differences helps you optimize for each platform:

1. Open Graph is the universal standard—implement it first
2. Twitter Cards give you Twitter-specific control
3. Twitter falls back to OG tags, so you don't need to duplicate everything
4. Always validate your tags before launching

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Need to extract and validate social meta tags at scale? Try Katsau's API - free to get started.