PS5 Avatar Guide: Change It, Upload a Picture, Get New Ones

To change your PS5 avatar, select your profile picture on the home screen, choose Profile, then Edit Profile, then Avatar, and pick from the categories with L1 and R1. A custom photo is a separate thing called a profile picture, and you upload it through the PlayStation App or the website rather than on the console. This page covers both, how to get new avatars in 2026 (including the free Saros and Days of Play packs from earlier this year), and how the avatar fits with the rest of your profile.

We checked this against Seeking Tech's PS5 profile walkthrough, Push Square's May 2026 reports on free avatar packs, PlayStation's privacy and trophy support pages and an avatar buying guide last updated in February 2026, in November 2026.

Avatar, Profile Picture and Cover Image

Your PS5 profile has three separate visual pieces, and much of the confusion around avatars comes from mixing them up. The avatar is a picture chosen from Sony's catalog of preset and downloadable avatars. The profile picture is an image you upload yourself. The cover image is the wide banner behind your profile.

Seeking Tech's PS5 walkthrough shows how they connect. Under Edit Profile, the Avatar option lets you choose from the available avatars, while the Profile Picture option lets you choose whether others see your avatar or your uploaded profile picture. The cover image has its own entry, where you select an image, adjust it and save. In other words, you can own a custom photo and still display an avatar, or the other way around, by switching that one setting.

That distinction matters when you go shopping. Avatar packs from promotions and the store add new options to the Avatar menu. They never replace a custom profile picture you uploaded, and a custom picture never appears in the Avatar list.

How to Change Your Avatar on PS5

The steps below follow Seeking Tech's walkthrough of the current PS5 menus:

1. On the home screen, select your profile picture in the upper right.
2. Choose Profile.
3. Move left to Edit Profile.
4. Select Avatar.
5. Press L1 and R1 to switch between avatar categories, then select the one you want.
6. Confirm, then check the Profile Picture option if you want the avatar shown instead of an uploaded picture.

The change applies to your account, so the new avatar shows on your other consoles, in the PlayStation App and on your web profile once it syncs. If you just redeemed a pack and it is not in the list, back out of Edit Profile and reopen it, since new downloads can take a moment to appear.

A few choices make an avatar work harder for you. Pick one with a strong silhouette and contrasting colors, because it is shown tiny in party lists and notifications. Match it loosely to your cover image so the profile page reads as one design rather than two unrelated pictures. And if you mostly play one series, an avatar from that game tells friends at a glance what you are into, which is half the point of having one. Changing it costs nothing, so it is easy to rotate avatars with the game you are currently hunting and switch back whenever you like.

Avatars and profile edits are tied to PlayStation Network, so you need a working connection to make the change. That is different from trophies, which the console can record while offline and upload later, as our guide to PS5 trophies earned offline explains.

Uploading a Custom Profile Picture

If you want your own image rather than a catalog avatar, the console is not where you do it. Seeking Tech states that you cannot directly change your profile picture on the PS5 and points to the My PlayStation website or the PlayStation App instead.

1. Open the PlayStation App, or sign in to your account on the PlayStation website.
2. Go to your profile and choose Edit Profile.
3. Select Edit next to Profile Picture.
4. Choose Change Picture and upload your image.
5. Back on the PS5, use the Profile Picture option under Edit Profile to choose whether your avatar or your uploaded picture is shown.

Pick an image that still reads well as a small circle, because that is how most people will see it: in friend lists, party chat and next to your trophy level. Faces and simple logos survive the crop much better than wide scenery. If you want to go back to a catalog avatar later, switch the Profile Picture setting back to your avatar rather than deleting the photo.

A short note on taste: keep uploaded pictures within PlayStation's community rules, since your profile is visible to other players depending on your privacy settings. If you do not want strangers seeing it, adjust who can view your profile in the privacy menu covered further down.

Getting New Avatars in 2026

Most new avatars now arrive through promotions rather than browsing. Two from this year show how it works, though both date from May 2026 and their codes may no longer redeem as of November 2026:

• Saros avatar pack. Push Square reported on May 3, 2026 that a free pack of six Saros avatars was available: one of the protagonist, Arjun Devraj, and five of the game's bosses. The code was found on the Saros page of the official PlayStation website, and on PS5 you select your avatar, choose Redeem Code and enter it. Commenters on that article reported that codes were region-specific.
• Days of Play 2026 indie avatars. Push Square reported on May 27, 2026 that PlayStation offered free avatars from Baby Steps, Cairn and Lumines Arise with regional download codes, for PS5 and PS4 profiles.

We are not reprinting old codes here, since we cannot confirm they still work. The reliable places to watch are the PlayStation Blog, official game pages on the PlayStation website around major launches, and seasonal promotions such as Days of Play. When a new pack drops, redeem it on the correct regional account as soon as you can, because these offers tend to run for a limited time.

Buying avatars is less straightforward than it used to be. An avatar buying guide updated in February 2026 reports that the PS5 console's PlayStation Store no longer has an Avatars section, and suggests finding avatar bundles through direct product pages on the web store, the PlayStation App or a PS4's store instead. We could not confirm that against an official Sony page, so treat it as a third-party report and check the store on your own console. Purchased avatars attach to your account and then appear under Edit Profile, Avatar on PS5.

The Rest of Your Profile: Online ID and Cover Image

An avatar works best as part of a matching profile. Seeking Tech's walkthrough covers the other pieces you can change from Edit Profile on PS5:

• Cover image. Select Cover Image, then Select Image, choose a picture, adjust it, then Save and Done.
• Online ID. Select Online ID, read the warnings, re-enter your password and type the new name. The first change is free, and later changes are charged.

Read the Online ID warnings carefully before confirming, since the console shows them for a reason and the first change is the only free one. Your trophies are tied to the account rather than the name, so a new ID keeps your full trophy history and level.

That level sits right beside your avatar wherever your profile appears. If you want to understand what the number and its colored icon mean, our guide to how PS5 trophy levels work breaks down the four tiers, and our look at the highest trophy levels on PSN shows what the very top of the scale looks like.

Who Can See Your Profile

Your avatar and profile picture are only as public as your privacy settings allow. PlayStation's privacy support page gives the PS5 path as Settings, then Users and Accounts, then Privacy, where you can pick a preset profile or open View and Customize Your Privacy Settings for individual controls. The same settings can be changed on the web through Account Management.

Under your activity, the controls include who can see your gaming history and an option to hide your games from other players. Those affect what people see alongside your avatar. They are separate from hidden trophies, which are about a game concealing its own trophy descriptions from you; our guide to hidden trophies on PS5 covers that feature and the Reveal All toggle.

It is worth reviewing these settings once after you change your avatar or upload a picture, especially on a younger player's account. A quick check of who can see what makes sure your new look reaches friends without being shown more widely than you intended.

Picking a Classic PS3 Avatar

If none of the current avatars appeal and you miss the large catalog from the PS3 era, the store's Pick Any Avatar Service (PS3 Avatars) lets you choose any PS3 avatar, and its page says it works with PS4 and PS5 profile display. The page also notes that you enter your PlayStation login details at checkout and that setup support is available after purchase.

Because this service needs your login, read the product page fully before ordering and only proceed if you are comfortable with that step. The store's other profile and trophy services are listed together in the main PlayStation trophy section.

Frequently Asked Questions