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Favicon Checker

Check if any website has a correctly configured favicon — including link tags, Apple Touch Icon, web manifest icons, and theme-color.

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Why a Proper Favicon Setup Matters

A favicon is not just the small icon in a browser tab. A complete favicon setup covers browser tabs, bookmarks, iOS home screens, Android PWA installs, Windows taskbar tiles, and search engine result previews. Missing any of these means your brand appears broken or incomplete in those contexts.

Google uses a site's favicon in mobile search results — the small icon shown next to your domain name in the results list. A missing or low-resolution favicon shows a generic grey placeholder instead. This directly affects click-through rate for branded searches.

Apple Touch Icon

When an iOS or macOS Safari user adds your site to their home screen or reading list, Safari uses the apple-touch-icon link tag. The recommended size is 180×180px. Without it, iOS generates a low-quality screenshot thumbnail of your page instead.

Web Manifest Icons

Android and Chrome use the icons defined in your manifest.json for PWA install prompts and home screen icons. You need at least a 192×192px and a 512×512px icon. Without these, Chrome cannot show an "Add to Home Screen" prompt.

The favicon.ico File

Older browsers (IE, early Firefox) ignore link tags and look for /favicon.ico at the root of your domain automatically. Tools like Slack's link unfurler, RSS readers, and some browser extensions also fall back to this file. It is worth having even if modern browsers use your PNG links.

Theme Color

The meta name="theme-color" tag sets the colour of the browser's address bar and status bar on Android Chrome and Safari on iOS. It makes your site feel like a native app when visited on mobile. Use your brand's primary colour here.

The complete favicon checklist

  • 01./favicon.ico at root — 32×32px minimum, serves as the fallback for all browsers and tools.
  • 02.<link rel="icon" sizes="32x32"> — PNG at 32×32 for modern desktop browsers.
  • 03.<link rel="icon" sizes="16x16"> — PNG at 16×16 for small browser tab icons.
  • 04.<link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180"> — For iOS home screen and Safari Reading List.
  • 05.Web manifest with 192×192 and 512×512 icons — For Android home screen and PWA install prompts.
  • 06.<meta name="theme-color"> — Brand the mobile browser UI with your colour.

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, in a direct way. Google shows your favicon next to your domain name in mobile search results. A missing or broken favicon shows a grey placeholder icon instead of your brand. This affects how users perceive your result and can reduce click-through rate on branded queries.
At minimum: 16×16 and 32×32 PNG for browser tabs (plus a favicon.ico fallback at root), 180×180 PNG for Apple Touch Icon, and 192×192 and 512×512 PNG in your web manifest for Android and PWA. Optionally add 48×48 for Windows taskbar and 270×270 for Microsoft Tile Image.
Yes, in modern browsers. Use <link rel="icon" type="image/svg+xml" href="/favicon.svg"> alongside your PNG and ICO fallbacks. SVG favicons support dark mode via the prefers-color-scheme media query inside the SVG file. However, iOS Safari and older browsers do not support SVG favicons, so you still need PNG fallbacks.
Browser favicon handling varies. Chrome picks up your link tag immediately. Firefox caches favicons aggressively and may take a full browser restart to show a new one. Safari on iOS only uses the apple-touch-icon for home screen icons. If your favicon works in Chrome but not elsewhere, check the specific link rel type and file size for that browser.
They are functionally identical in modern browsers. "shortcut icon" was the old Internet Explorer convention. "icon" is the HTML5 standard. Both work in all current browsers. You will often see both included for maximum compatibility, but using just rel="icon" is the correct modern approach.
Use our Favicon Generator — it takes an image and exports all required sizes as a ZIP: favicon.ico, 16×16, 32×32, 180×180, 192×192, and 512×512 PNGs, plus a manifest.json snippet. If you have an SVG logo, use the SVG to Favicon converter instead.

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