Merchlint – Product Image Size Checker for Google Merchant Center

From 31 January 2027 Google Merchant Center requires product images of at least 500 × 500 pixels, for the main image (image_link) and for the additional images (additional_image_link). Merchant Center already shows the warning "Image too small for upcoming enforcement" on offers whose images are smaller. Google may reject such an image or replace it with an enlarged copy. A shop that has been adding products for years can have hundreds of such images and no way to see them: WordPress shows every picture as a neat thumbnail. This plugin measures every image that goes to Google and tells you which products need attention, and how much work each one is. What it checks

• The main image of every published product and the own image of every variation.
• Gallery images, up to 10 per product — Google takes up to 10 additional images.
• A product with no main image: the first gallery image, because that is the one Google for WooCommerce sends as the main image.

The size is read from the image file itself, the full-size file that feeds send to Google. A verdict for every product

• Quick swap — the main image is too small, but a large one is already there: in the product gallery or on the server.
• New photo needed — the main image is too small and there is no larger one anywhere.
• Small gallery images — the main image is fine, but some gallery images are under 500 × 500 px.
• Not checked — the size of an image could not be read, so the plugin does not guess.

Images under 100 × 100 px are marked separately: Google Merchant Center rejects those already today (clothing: under 250 × 250 px). Larger originals already on the server Very often a small product image is a thumbnail — a file whose name ends in -300x300 — that was uploaded or imported as an image of its own, while the full picture is still there. The plugin looks for:

• the full image with the same name in the Media Library;
• the full image as a file in the same folder, outside the Media Library;
• an image cropped in the WordPress image editor, whose untouched original WordPress keeps ("Restore original image").

Where you see the result

• One screen under Tools: the number of products to fix, the days left until 31 January 2027, and a card for each verdict with thumbnails, sizes, where the large image is, and a link to edit the product.
• A CSV file with one row per image: product, SKU, size, verdict and where the larger image is. Semicolon separated, opens in Excel and Google Sheets.
• WP-CLI: wp merchlint-product-image-size-checker scan, with --export=file.csv for the full list.

What it does not do It never changes your products or images. It does not enlarge images and does not add frames: an enlarged small picture gets bigger, not sharper. Every finding shows the size that was read, so you can check the claim before you act on it. The check runs in a single request, so on a very large catalogue it can run into your host's time limit — the screen says so when that becomes likely, and the WP-CLI command has no such limit. A small part of Merchlint This plugin comes from the author of Merchlint, a free audit of the whole WooCommerce catalogue: products that sold in the past year and can no longer be bought, products with no price or no photo, duplicate SKUs, sale prices that should have ended and images with no alt text, each with the money at stake. This plugin carries its own copy of the scanning engine with its own class names, so both can run side by side.

1. Install and activate.
2. Open Tools → Product Image Size Checker.
3. Press Check images now.

For large catalogues there is a WP-CLI command: wp merchlint-product-image-size-checker scan.

0.1.0

• First release.