WeChat Official Account Guide

What Is a WeChat Official Account?

A WeChat Official Account (微信公众号) is the primary way brands communicate with their followers on WeChat — China's dominant messaging and social platform with over 1.3 billion monthly active users. Unlike a personal WeChat account, an Official Account allows brands to publish articles, send broadcast messages, and build a subscriber base of Chinese consumers.

There are two main types: Subscription Accounts (订阅号), which can publish once per day and appear in a folded "Subscriptions" inbox, and Service Accounts (服务号), which can publish up to 4 times per month but appear directly in the main chat list with push notifications.

Publishing Limits

Understanding the publishing limits is important before planning your WeChat content calendar:

• Subscription Account: 1 message per day, up to 8 articles per message
• Service Account: 4 messages per month, up to 8 articles per message
• Once published, articles cannot be deleted from a follower's feed — only the original can be modified with a correction notice

Step-by-Step: Creating a WeChat Post

1. Log in to the WeChat Official Account platform at mp.weixin.qq.com. The entire interface is in Chinese — you will need to navigate in Mandarin or use a browser translation tool for reference.
2. Go to Content → New Article (素材管理 → 新建图文消息). This opens the WeChat article editor, which works similarly to a rich text editor.
3. Add your cover image. The recommended cover image size is 900 × 500 pixels for the main article image displayed in the subscription list. For the message thumbnail (shown when multiple articles are sent together), use 200 × 200 pixels. Images must be uploaded to WeChat's own CDN — external image links are not supported.
4. Write your article title and content. Titles should be concise and compelling — WeChat truncates titles in the subscription list after approximately 26 Chinese characters. The article body supports rich formatting: headers, bold, images, video embeds and hyperlinks to external URLs.
5. Add author and abstract fields. The author field is optional but helps with brand recognition. The abstract (摘要) is a short description shown in the subscription list below the title — keep it under 120 characters.
6. Preview and publish. Use the "Preview" function to send the article to your own WeChat account before publishing. Once satisfied, click "Publish" (群发). Publishing cannot be undone.

Image Requirements and Best Practices

• Cover image: 900 × 500px minimum, JPG or PNG
• Thumbnail: 200 × 200px for multi-article messages
• All images must be hosted on WeChat's servers — upload directly via the editor
• File size limit per image: 2MB
• GIF animations are supported and widely used in Chinese WeChat content
• Avoid text-heavy images — WeChat's audience reads on mobile where small text is hard to read

Content Best Practices

• Write exclusively in Simplified Chinese — WeChat's audience is mainland Chinese consumers
• Keep articles mobile-friendly — use short paragraphs and break content with images
• Include a clear call to action — WeChat articles can link to mini-programs, product pages or contact forms
• Publish consistently within your allowed frequency — irregular publishing reduces follower engagement
• Use the "Original" label (原创) if the content is your own — it adds a badge and protects against copying