What a Snapchat geofilter is
A Snapchat geofilter is a transparent graphic that sits over a Snap. It's tied to a place and a time, so only people inside the area you draw on the map can use it while it's live. Most custom filters are a border or a banner of text along the top or bottom, with the middle left clear so the person's face shows through.
Custom filters are created and paid for through Snapchat's own Create Your Own tools. Snapchat reviews each filter before it goes live, and the price depends on the size of the area and how long the filter runs.
Snapchat filter size and file rules
Snapchat's filter templates have used a 1080 × 1920 canvas for years, and newer templates use a taller 1080 × 2340 canvas to suit modern phones. Either way the file must be a PNG with a transparent background and kept small (Snapchat has asked for under 300 KB). Check the current template in Snapchat's Create Your Own tool before you submit.
| Spec | What Snapchat expects |
|---|---|
| Canvas | 1080 × 1920 px (newer templates 1080 × 2340 px) |
| Format | PNG with transparency |
| File size | Small; Snapchat has asked for under 300 KB |
| Safe area | Keep artwork near the top and bottom edges |
How to turn your design into a transparent filter
This geofilter maker crops your artwork to a full-screen 1080 × 1920 canvas and saves it as a JPG, which has no transparency. To make the middle see-through, design your artwork on a solid, flat background color, crop it here, then open the result in Image Transparent and remove that background color. That gives you a PNG with transparent areas, ready to compress and upload to Snapchat.
Before you pay for a filter, test the design: put the canvas over a few of your own photos in a photo editor and check that faces stay visible and the text is readable on both light and dark backgrounds.
- Use a background color that doesn't appear in your artwork, like pure green.
- Keep text big and bold; Snapchat shows filters over busy photos.
- Leave the middle 60% of the screen clear for faces.
- Run the final PNG through the Image Compressor if it's over Snapchat's limit.
