# Using external images URL for Avatars

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-external-images-url-for-avatars/319691
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [August 1, 2024, 7:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-external-images-url-for-avatars/319691 "2024-08-01T19:02:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![norberto\_cb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/norberto_cb/32/445824_2.png) [@norberto\_cb](https://meta.discourse.org/u/norberto_cb)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2024, 7:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-external-images-url-for-avatars/319691/1 "2024-08-01T19:02:21Z")

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Hi There,

We have a user database of our own, that will be mapped to Discourse Users. We already have our users’ avatars and want to use the same avatars in Discourse without duplicating the images in both systems.

Is that possible?

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### Author: ![NateDhaliwal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/natedhaliwal/32/313494_2.png) [@NateDhaliwal](https://meta.discourse.org/u/NateDhaliwal)
#### Post date: [August 1, 2024, 11:20pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-external-images-url-for-avatars/319691/2 "2024-08-01T23:20:23Z")

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Hi @norberto_cb , welcome to Discourse Meta!  
This has been requested before, and this was the response given:

> [@Profile Image from URL](https://meta.discourse.org/t/profile-image-from-url/54089/2):
>
> We would always cache this kind of stuff locally, we avoid including inline images from 3rd party sources as a rule. Otherwise images randomly break, network performance can vary widely and we do not get an opportunity to optimise images that are expensive. Not strongly against adding a paste url somehow, but I do not want to clutter the interface.