Quick answer
To make a WhatsApp sticker, cut your subject out of its background, resize the result to exactly 512 × 512 pixels, and export it as a WebP with transparency at 100 KB or less. Group at least 3 stickers into a pack, add a 96 × 96 tray icon, and import the pack through a sticker app.
What you need before you start
- At least three images — a pack cannot ship with fewer.
- A way to remove backgrounds. Most sticker apps do this automatically; any image editor with a selection tool also works.
- A way to export WebP at a fixed size. Sticker apps handle this; general editors may need an export preset.
If you use a dedicated sticker maker, the size, format and tray-icon requirements are handled for you and the rest of this guide is mostly background. If you are building the files by hand, the specification is unforgiving and worth reading first.
Step 1 — cut the subject out
A sticker reads as a sticker because it has no background. Cut tightly around the subject and leave the rest fully transparent. Partial transparency at the edges is fine and helps the cut-out look less jagged, but large semi-transparent regions inflate the file size for no visible benefit.
Stickers are viewed at roughly 64–128 px in a chat. Detail that only reads at full size is wasted; a bold, simple silhouette is what makes a sticker legible.
Step 2 — size it to exactly 512 × 512
Place the cut-out on a square 512 × 512 transparent canvas rather than stretching it to fit. Leave a few pixels of margin so the artwork is not flush against the edge — WhatsApp does not add padding of its own, and a sticker that touches the canvas edge looks cropped.
Step 3 — export as WebP under the size limit
Export to WebP with transparency preserved, targeting 100 KB or less for a static sticker. If you overshoot, reduce the colour count before reducing quality: sticker artwork is usually flat colour, and palette reduction is nearly invisible where JPEG-style quality loss is obvious.
For an animated sticker the ceiling is 500 KB and the loop must be 10 seconds or shorter, with frames of at least 8 ms. Because the first frame is what people see before the animation plays, make it a complete image rather than a blank or partial opening frame.
Step 4 — build the pack
- Collect between 3 and 30 finished stickers. All static, or all animated — a pack cannot mix the two.
- Make a 96 × 96 tray icon under 50 KB. Design it separately rather than shrinking a sticker; fine detail disappears at that size.
- Give the pack a name and publisher name. Both are shown in WhatsApp's import confirmation dialog.
- Import through a sticker app, which performs the handshake with WhatsApp.
Publishing a pack for other people
A pack you build for yourself needs nothing more than the steps above. Publishing to a catalogue adds a rights question: you need the right to distribute the artwork. Photographs of friends, film and television screenshots, and commercial characters are all routinely rejected or taken down, however common they are in practice.
Original artwork, your own photographs, and public-domain or appropriately licensed images are safe. If you are unsure about a source, assume it is not clearable.
