
Google Docs is a free cloud-based word-processing platform and the leading competitor to the ever-popular MS Word. Docs ships with a plethora of features that even surpasses some of its subscription-based rivals out there in many cases.
One of the most important features of Google Docs for many is the ability to insert images in any part of the document being worked on. Google Docs allows users to upload images to their Google Drive accounts (directly on Drive or through Docs) and use those images on any document on Google Docs easily.
However, many users have reported several errors associated with images on Google Docs – one of which is the “unsupported image type” error which mostly occurs when a user tries to upload an image to the platform.
In this article, we will be taking a look at the cause of this error on Google Docs and you will find out how to fix the unsupported image type error on Google Docs using multiple methods.
Why Does It Say Unsupported Image Type On Google Docs?
There are many reasons why you might be getting the “unsupported image type” error on Google Docs – the first (like the error tag suggests) is that you are trying to upload an image whose file type is not supported by the Google Docs platform.
Another reason why you might be getting the “unsupported image type” error on Google Docs could be because your document on Google Docs is corrupted or you’re accessing the web app from an outdated or unsupported browser.
If there are other issues with your document which might be an error from your end or from Google Docs itself, then you might be greeted with an error when trying to upload an image file to your document.
What Are The Image Types Supported By Google Docs?
As mentioned earlier, the major cause of the unsupported image type error on Google Docs we’ve noticed so far is when a user tries to upload an image whose file type is not supported by Google Docs, but you may be asking – which image types are supported by Google Docs?
Well, Google Docs only supports a handful of image types including some of the most popular image types you might know and the platform only allows users to upload images with these file types.
Image types supported by Google Docs include:
- .JPG/.JPEG
- .PNG
- .SVG
- .GIF
- .BMP
- .TIFF
How To Fix “Unsupported Image Type” Error On Google Docs (Multiple Methods)
Since there are various reasons why you might be facing the “unsupported image type” error while dealing with images on Google Docs, the method to consider when attempting to fix the error on your end will depend on what caused the error initially.
Since the major reason why you might encounter the unsupported image type error is uploading the wrong image type or format to Google Docs, simply converting the image to a supported image type and uploading will fix the issue in most cases.
Other ways to fix the error include clearing your browser cache, uploading the image to a fresh document then copying and pasting the image on your original document from there, uploading the image directly to Google Drive, and more.
Below are multiple ways to fix the “unsupported image type” error on Google Docs.
1) Convert to an image type supported by Google Docs.
The reason why you encounter the “unsupported image type” error on Google Docs when trying to upload an image in most cases is because the file extension/image type is not supported by Google Docs.
To fix this, you first have to convert your image into an image type that is supported by Google Docs then re-upload the image back to the platform after conversion and it should work fine.
There are multiple ways to convert an image to another image type including image converter websites, image converter software, native image converter in the Finder app (for MacOS users), and more.
For this guide, we recommend using an image converter website known as “CloudConvert”. CloudConvert allows high-quality image conversions across over 200+ supported formats.
To convert to a Google Doc-supported image format using CloudConvert, open a new tab on your web browser, enter the website URL (https://cloudconvert.com/), and hit ENTER (or return if you’re on macOS).
Next, click [Select File] then choose the image file you want to convert from your device file manager.

After that click on the drop-down next to “Convert to” and select JPG as the image format to be converted to.
Now hit [Convert].

When the process is complete, click [Download] to download the image to your device then click the “X” button to delete the image from the CloudConvert’s servers permanently.

Once the image is done downloading, go back to Google Docs and try re-uploading the new image to your document and it should work fine.
Note: For Mac users, you can simply convert an image to a supported image type (e.g. JPG) directly on Finder. To do this, simply right-click on the image you want to convert and select Quick Actions > Convert Image then pick JPG or JPEG as the format and click “Convert to [Format]” to convert your image easily.

2) Clear your browser cache.
Another reason why you might be getting the “unsupported image type” error when you try to upload an image on Google Docs is that your browser cache may be corrupt.
Caching is a piece of technology that is available on all modern browsers regardless of device. It offers several benefits, including faster page loading times, reduced server load, and improved user experience.
However, in some cases, cache files stored on your browser can get corrupted and this may affect some features on web apps you use often including Docs and other web apps in the Google Workspace lineup.
If you have tried converting your image type to a supported format using the steps outlined in the above method and the error doesn’t go away, we recommend clearing your browser cache before trying again as simply clearing the cache fixes the problem in many of our tests.
Clearing your browser cache is a very easy process and for this guide, we will be showing you how to clear your browser cache on the Chrome browser. You can also follow the steps to clear your cache of other popular browsers including Firefox, Edge, Safari, and others since the steps are quite similar.
To clear your Google Docs cache on Google Chrome, click on the green padlock (while on the Google Docs website) then select [Site settings].

Now you should see the cache size and number of cookies stored and currently in use by Google Docs on your browser. Click [Clear data] and click [Clear] on the confirmation dialog to clear all the Google Docs cached files and cookies.

After clearing, go back to the Google Docs tab and refresh the page then try to re-upload your image when the page is done refreshing.
3) Upload the image to a fresh document then copy and paste.
Another way to fix the unsupported image error on Google Docs is by creating a new document and then uploading your image there. Once the image is done uploading (on the new document), simply copy the image from the new document and paste it into your old document. Tricky, but it works in some cases!
To do this, click File on the menu bar then select “New” > “Document” to create a new document. Once the new document is opened, select “Insert” > “Image” > “Upload from computer” then select the image you want to upload.
Once the image is done uploading, simply right-click on the image or press and hold CTRL (or Command) + C on your keyboard to copy the image.
After that, go back to your old document then right-click on any spot on the document and select Paste. You can also paste the image by pressing and holding CTRL + V on your keyboard or Command + V for users on macOS.
4) Upload the image directly to Google Drive.
If copying and pasting doesn’t work for fixing the unsupported image type error on your Google Docs document or maybe you were still getting the error when trying to upload the image to a new document, then you can try uploading the image directly to Google Drive.
To upload the image directly to your Google Drive storage, head over to the Google Drive website [https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive] then select the Google account where your current Google Docs document is saved to.
Once you’re signed into the correct account on the Google Drive website, click “New” > “File Upload” then select the image file from the system window and click [Open].
Now the image should upload to your Google Drive storage.
After the image has been uploaded successfully to Drive, go back to Google Docs and click “Insert” > “Image” > “Drive” then select the image you uploaded and click [Insert] to insert the image into your document on Google Docs.
5) Update or switch to a new browser.
Using an outdated version of a browser to access the web daily will have you experiencing errors from time to time when you try to access some web apps. This is because there might be new features on a new version of your web browser which a web app might require to function properly.
If all the above methods did not work for fixing the “unsupported image type” error on your end, then we recommend updating your web browser if you currently use an outdated version or switching completely to a new browser with better Google Docs compatibility.
Updating most modern browsers on PC, macOS and Linux is quite easy and requires just a few clicks. The steps to update your browser will depend on the browser you currently use.
To update the Google Chrome browser on PC, macOS, and Linux, click on the More icon at the top right corner of the browser window, then select Help > About Google Chrome or type this address “chrome://settings/help” (without quotes) in the address bar and hit enter.
On the About Chrome window, Chrome will automatically check if there are updates that can be installed. If there is an available update, click [Update Google Chrome] and when the update is done downloading, click [Relaunch] to install the downloaded updates and relaunch the Chrome browser.

And that’s how you can update the Google Chrome browser. As we mentioned before, the process for updating other modern browsers, especially Chromium-based browsers is quite similar.
If your browser is up to date, then consider switching to another browser like Google Chrome, Edge, or Firefox then sign into your Google account and try reuploading the image to your document on Google Docs.
Wrapping Up
The ability to add images to your documents on Google Docs is one of the most useful features of the word processing platform. To add images to your Google Docs document, you can either upload images directly on Google Docs, or by selecting an image from your Google Drive or Google Photos storage.
That said, many users have complained about facing various errors while trying to upload images to Google Docs one of which is the “unsupported image type” error which mostly occurs when a user tries to upload an image type that is not supported by Google Doc to their documents.
There are various fixes for the “unsupported image type” error on Google Docs and fixing the error on your end will depend on the reason why the error occurred in the first place.
The first method to try when attempting to fix the unsupported image type error on Google Docs is to try converting the image to an image type supported by Google Docs before uploading. These image types include PNG, JPG, JPEG, GIF, SVG, TIFF, and BMP.
If converting to a supported image type doesn’t fix the error on your end, then you can try clearing the Google Docs cache on your browser, uploading the image to a new document then copying and pasting to the old document, updating your browser or switching to a new browser entirely.
And that will be it for this guide. If you were searching for a way to fix the unsupported image type error on your Google Docs document, then we hope this guide helped you do that successfully.