diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/avatar-template.js.es6 b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/avatar-template.js.es6
index 731a2047d89..4d2fdb2bf74 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/avatar-template.js.es6
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/lib/avatar-template.js.es6
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ function defaultAvatar(username, letterAvatarColor) {
 
   if (Discourse.SiteSettings.external_letter_avatars_enabled) {
     const url = Discourse.SiteSettings.external_letter_avatars_url;
-    return `${url}/letter/${username[0]}?color=${letterAvatarColor}&size={size}`;
+    return `${url}/letter/${username[0]}/${letterAvatarColor}/{size}.png`;
   } else {
     return Discourse.getURLWithCDN(`/letter_avatar/${username.toLowerCase()}/{size}/${version}.png`);
   }
diff --git a/app/models/user.rb b/app/models/user.rb
index aa46dd7c77f..75d732ea679 100644
--- a/app/models/user.rb
+++ b/app/models/user.rb
@@ -454,7 +454,7 @@ class User < ActiveRecord::Base
           [((result << 5) - result) + char.ord].pack('L').unpack('l').first
         end
 
-        avatar_template = split_avatars[hash.abs % split_avatars.size]
+        split_avatars[hash.abs % split_avatars.size]
       end
     else
       letter_avatar_template(username)
@@ -471,7 +471,7 @@ class User < ActiveRecord::Base
   def self.letter_avatar_template(username)
     if SiteSetting.external_letter_avatars_enabled
       color = letter_avatar_color(username)
-      "#{SiteSetting.external_letter_avatars_url}/letter/#{username[0]}?color=#{color}&size={size}"
+      "#{SiteSetting.external_letter_avatars_url}/letter/#{username[0]}/#{color}/{size}.png"
     else
       "#{Discourse.base_uri}/letter_avatar/#{username.downcase}/{size}/#{LetterAvatar.version}.png"
     end