Merchant Center image minimum rises to 500 x 500 in January

A blurry image is a warning, not a block

The Low image quality issue covers images Google sees as blurry, pixelated or low resolution. Google's fix page says plainly that your product will keep showing in ads and free listings while the issue is open.

That doesn't make it meaningless. Google says high image quality "correlates strongly with user engagement and clicks," so these are still worth fixing. They just aren't urgent.

Size is what can disapprove a product

The Image too small issue is different. Google disapproves products whose images don't meet the size minimum, and that minimum is going up.

• Today: at least 100 x 100 pixels, or 250 x 250 for clothing.
• Starting January 31, 2027: at least 500 x 500 pixels for every product, for both the image link and additional image link attributes.
• YouTube Shopping ads: images already need to be at least 500 x 500 to serve on TV.

Google recommends going further, to about 1500 x 1500, for the best performance across listing formats.

Google will optimize some small images for you

Google will begin optimizing some images that are smaller than 500 x 500. Those optimized images meet the new requirement and prevent a disapproval without any action from you. Merchant Center marks them with a warning, Image resolution optimizations applied, so you can find them. To replace one, submit a new image larger than 500 x 500 in your product data source.

Google says this is for some images, so don't count on it covering your whole catalog.

How to find the products at risk

1. In Merchant Center, go to Products, then Needs attention.
2. Select View history.
3. Look for two warnings on the right side of the page: Image too small for upcoming enforcement, and Image resolution optimizations applied.
4. Select View fix, then Download impacted products, to get the full list.

My take

Work the size list first, since it's the one with a disapproval attached. I'd also replace the images Google has optimized rather than leave them, because an upscaled small image is still a small image, even if it passes the rule. The low quality warnings can wait for your next round of new product photos.