# Allow external URLs for feature images **URL:** \ **Category:** Ideas\ **Created:** [January 30, 2019, 5:35am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364 "2019-01-30T05:35:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![luciandavidescu](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/luciandavidescu/32/2270_2.png) [@luciandavidescu](https://forum.ghost.org/u/luciandavidescu)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 5:35am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/1 "2019-01-30T05:35:59Z")
Would it be possible to have an option to enter the url for an already existing image as an alternative to uploading it? I see that the Unsplash option does just this, so I guess the heavy-lifting setup is already in place. ---
**Author:** ![John](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/john/32/29288_2.png) [@John](https://forum.ghost.org/u/John)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 5:39am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/2 "2019-01-30T05:39:13Z")
You can do this with a markdown card already, eg. ```markdown ![alt text](https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/0fa31acb-2258-45b4-938f-14d3b5e1868d/190124-Ladies-in-Black-BTS.jpg) ``` but, now you mention it, if would be nice if pasting a valid image URL into the editor would just “unfurl” it - similar to oEmbed 🤔 Is that a possibility @Kevin? ---
**Author:** ![luciandavidescu](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/luciandavidescu/32/2270_2.png) [@luciandavidescu](https://forum.ghost.org/u/luciandavidescu)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 5:42am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/3 "2019-01-30T05:42:48Z")
I mean the featured image ---
**Author:** ![marvin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/marvin/32/2455_2.png) [@marvin](https://forum.ghost.org/u/marvin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 8:43am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/4 "2019-01-30T08:43:50Z")
This would be nice. You got my vote. ---
**Author:** ![Kevin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/kevin/32/32_2.png) [@Kevin](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Kevin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 9:38am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/5 "2019-01-30T09:38:40Z")
> [@John](#): > > would be nice if pasting a valid image URL into the editor would just “unfurl” it - similar to oEmbed 🤔 > > Is that a possibility @Kevin? Other than the markdown option already suggested, you can use slash-menu shortcuts. This would create an image card using the pasted url: `/image {url}` Enter We could also expand the embed to fetch the URL and check if it’s an image - I remember discussing that in the past but we didn’t get as far as implementing it. ---
**Author:** ![Kevin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/kevin/32/32_2.png) [@Kevin](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Kevin)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2019, 9:39am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/6 "2019-01-30T09:39:55Z")
> [@luciandavidescu](#): > > I mean the featured image I’ll change the topic title then as the current wording suggests something completely different. _Note: Changed topic title from “Embed externally hosted images” to “Allow external URLs for feature images”_ ---
**Author:** ![mishelshaji](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/mishelshaji/32/5401_2.png) [@mishelshaji](https://forum.ghost.org/u/mishelshaji)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 3:57pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/7 "2020-03-09T15:57:22Z")
Any update here? ---
**Author:** ![DavidDarnes](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/daviddarnes/32/3533_2.png) [@DavidDarnes](https://forum.ghost.org/u/DavidDarnes)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2020, 4:30pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/8 "2020-03-09T16:30:28Z")
Feature images can’t use external URLs, but images in the editor can be embedded using the `/image command like so: ![image-unfurl](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/ghost2/original/2X/4/4131d8f89c3714502699f97f7cc5cbf7cda62798.gif) ---
**Author:** ![fakruzaruret](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/fakruzaruret/32/10946_2.png) [@fakruzaruret](https://forum.ghost.org/u/fakruzaruret)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2020, 8:21pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/9 "2020-12-05T20:21:40Z")
Why Feature images can’t use external URL? I think this provides more advantage. ---
**Author:** ![ghostusera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9fc348/32.png) [@ghostusera](https://forum.ghost.org/u/ghostusera)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/10 "2021-03-23T14:39:25Z")
bump this as I was just looking for the same to make file management easier. ---
**Author:** ![Jatin794](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/jatin794/32/14385_2.png) [@Jatin794](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Jatin794)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2021, 11:13am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/11 "2021-08-29T11:13:42Z")
Yup, that’d be pretty useful. As it stands, Ghost behaves pretty inconsistently with images - the inline uploaded images are just exported as links to the original site, while if you want to externalise your asset library to fix that, there is no way because the cover and featured images can’t take URLs and are exported within the json. ---
**Author:** ![boycottseattle.xyz](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/boycottseattle.xyz/32/17854_2.png) [@boycottseattle.xyz](https://forum.ghost.org/u/boycottseattle.xyz)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2022, 4:51am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/12 "2022-10-03T04:51:34Z")
Earlier versions of ghost allowed this, but not now. ---
**Author:** ![drk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@drk](https://forum.ghost.org/u/drk)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2023, 8:09am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/13 "2023-06-03T08:09:10Z")
Upping this one. Wondering how else would one host featured images via CDN/External storage. For now I have to upload my featured images to Ghost. The rest of the images are pulled from external CDN URLs on my site… ---
**Author:** ![einar](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/einar/32/30105_2.png) [@einar](https://forum.ghost.org/u/einar)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2024, 7:20pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/14 "2024-05-21T19:20:30Z")
Any feedback from the Ghost team? I expected this to “just work” and was a bit surprised to see it not be the case. Would be awesome of this could be fixed, and it does not seem like such a big task? ---
**Author:** ![viharm](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/viharm/32/26050_2.png) [@viharm](https://forum.ghost.org/u/viharm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 5:40pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/15 "2025-01-13T17:40:59Z")
Does _Ghost_ cache such external images? What if the external source is no longer available? ---
**Author:** ![vlavrynovych](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/vlavrynovych/32/31432_2.png) [@vlavrynovych](https://forum.ghost.org/u/vlavrynovych)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/16 "2025-01-13T22:25:26Z")
@viharm, it doesn’t replace it by any kind of local images, never. BTW same as images in the bookmarks. That is why threre are two reasons to never use bookmarks: - Image from external website can gone - Loading of external images directly affects your page loading speed ---
**Author:** ![Stromfeldt](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/stromfeldt/32/13572_2.png) [@Stromfeldt](https://forum.ghost.org/u/Stromfeldt)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 8:00am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/17 "2025-01-14T08:00:43Z")
Actually, since September Ghost now fetches and stores images for bookmark cards, including the favicon. > cc @viharm ---
**Author:** ![vlavrynovych](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forum.ghost.org/vlavrynovych/32/31432_2.png) [@vlavrynovych](https://forum.ghost.org/u/vlavrynovych)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2025, 9:19am UTC](https://forum.ghost.org/t/allow-external-urls-for-feature-images/5364/18 "2025-01-14T09:19:35Z")
My bad, I was wrong. All my recent articles currently have re-uploaded images in bookmarks. But the old articles stay w/o updates (which is ok), that is where I checked before posting it here