YouTube Thumbnail Size
1280 × 720 is the thumbnail size YouTube asks for, and 16:9 is the shape of every player. The numbers are easy; the part people get wrong is the interface drawn on top, which hides the bottom-right corner and the bottom edge of whatever you upload.
YouTube Thumbnail size calculator
Pre-filled with 1280 × 720, the size YouTube expects for a thumbnail.
- Fraction
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- Closest common ratio
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- Reduced by
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Custom Ratio — pick a preset or type your own
- New size
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- Total pixels
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- CSS
aspect-ratio: —;
The 16:9 ratio is locked in. Edit New Width and the thumbnail height recalculates instantly; edit the height and the width follows. Sizes round to whole pixels, because platforms do not accept fractional ones.
Recently used sizes
Saved in this browser only. Click a size to load it back into the calculator.
What size is a YouTube thumbnail?
A thumbnail is 1280 px wide and 720 px tall, which reduces to 16:9 — the same shape as the video frame itself. Because the player, the watch page and the sidebar all draw 16:9 boxes, a thumbnail in that ratio needs no cropping anywhere it appears.
YouTube accepts anything from 640 px wide upwards, but it does not accept much weight: the file has to stay under 2 MB. A photographic 1280 × 720 JPEG at quality 85 usually lands between 150 and 300 KB, so the cap only bites when you upload a lossless export or a very detailed PNG.
YouTube image sizes in one table
Six placements, three shapes. If you remember 16:9 for video and 1:1 for the identity images, you have covered almost everything here.
| Placement | Pixels | Ratio | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video thumbnail | 1280 × 720 | 16:9 | The standard size; 2 MB file cap |
| Thumbnail source at 4K | 3840 × 2160 | 16:9 | Same shape, four times the pixels, no extra display benefit |
| Channel banner | 2560 × 1440 | 16:9 | Only the centre 1546 × 423 survives on every device |
| Channel icon | 800 × 800 | 1:1 | Uploaded square, displayed as a circle |
| Video watermark | 150 × 150 | 1:1 | Branding mark drawn on the player itself |
| Shorts thumbnail | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 | Shorts are vertical, so the canvas flips |
How to crop a thumbnail from a larger image
Most thumbnails are cut out of a still that was shot in another shape. Working out the crop height first stops you from discovering halfway through that the subject no longer fits.
- Start from the width you intend to ship. Use 1280 px unless you have a reason to go larger.
- Divide the width by 16 to get one unit: 1280 ÷ 16 = 80 px.
- Multiply by 9 to get the crop height: 80 × 9 = 720 px.
- Crop the source to 1280 × 720 with the subject inside the upper-left two thirds, then check how it looks at sidebar size before exporting.
- Export as JPEG around quality 85 and confirm the file is under 2 MB.
Worked example
Take a 4000 × 3000 camera frame. It is 4:3, wider than tall but still taller than 16:9 relative to its width. One unit is 4000 ÷ 16 = 250 px, so a 16:9 crop of the full width would need to be 250 × 9 = 2250 px tall. You therefore cut 750 px off the height — which is exactly why the subject has to be composed high in the original frame, since the shorter crop will take the space from wherever you choose.
The bottom-right corner is not yours
YouTube draws the video duration — 12:04, 1:02:33 — into the bottom-right corner of every thumbnail it renders. On a search page it also draws a thin progress bar along the bottom edge for anything you have already started watching.
That badge is opaque and sits above your image, so a logo or a line of text parked in the lower right will be partly or wholly covered. The same corner also carries the menu button when a viewer hovers, which widens the area at risk.
- Keep the lower-right area free of anything you need the viewer to read.
- A useful habit is to place the one element that has to survive — a face, a number, a single word — in the upper left or centre.
- Remember that the thumbnail is also shrunk to roughly 246 px wide in the sidebar. Detail thinner than about 4 px at full size disappears at that scale.
- If your artwork depends on the bottom edge, add a 40 px bottom margin to the canvas before you export rather than hoping the badge lands somewhere harmless.
Thumbnail file limits
The minimum width is generous; the maximum file size is not. Export a JPEG rather than a PNG unless the artwork is flat colour and text.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Recommended size | 1280 × 720 px |
| Minimum width | 640 px |
| Aspect ratio | 16:9 |
| Maximum file size | 2 MB |
| Accepted formats | JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP |
| Badge clearance | Bottom-right ~120 × 40 px |
YouTube Thumbnail size FAQ
What happens if I upload a thumbnail that is not 16:9?
YouTube accepts it, then fits it into a 16:9 box. A taller image gets bars at the sides, and a wider image gets bars at the top and bottom, so the thumbnail ends up smaller on screen than every competing video beside it.
Can I use a PNG instead of a JPEG?
Yes, PNG is accepted. It is worth it only for artwork that is mostly flat colour and text, where the file stays small. For photographic thumbnails a PNG is several times heavier and runs you into the 2 MB cap for no visible gain.
Why is my thumbnail blurry in the sidebar?
Because the sidebar draws it at roughly 246 px wide, a fifth of the 1280 px you supplied. Fine detail and thin strokes are lost at that scale regardless of how sharp the original is, so design with large shapes and few words.
Do Shorts use the thumbnail size?
No. Shorts are vertical, so their frame is 1080 × 1920 at 9:16 rather than 16:9. A landscape thumbnail uploaded to a Short is padded on the left and right, or cropped, depending on which cover frame the app picks.