YouTube Thumbnail Size: Dimensions, Ratio, and File Limits

YouTube thumbnail size, ratio, and file limits

YouTube's help page, Add custom thumbnails, says a custom thumbnail should be as large as possible because it is also the preview in the embedded player. For ordinary videos it recommends 3840 by 2160 pixels, a 16:9 aspect ratio, and an image format such as JPG or PNG. The minimum width it states is 640 pixels.

The same page sets different shapes for other uploads. Shorts thumbnails are 2160 by 3840 at 9:16, with a minimum height of 640 pixels, and YouTube says custom Shorts thumbnails are added in YouTube Studio on a computer. Podcast playlist thumbnails should be 1:1 rather than 16:9. The help page does not name one pixel size for that square.

File size depends on the device you upload from. On mobile, a video thumbnail must stay under 2 MB, and a podcast thumbnail under 10 MB. On desktop, the limit is 50 MB for video, Shorts, and podcast thumbnails. Custom thumbnails also require a verified account. Check the help page again if an upload is rejected, because YouTube changes these rules.

Crop the photo to 16:9 before you resize

A camera photo is often 4:3 or 3:2. Forcing that frame into 3840 by 2160 without a crop stretches faces. Crop Image keeps the pixels you select and throws the rest away, which is the decision you want to make yourself.

Open Crop Image and add a JPG, PNG, or WebP. Choose the Landscape 16:9 preset, or set Shape to 16:9. Move Horizontal position and Vertical position until the subject sits inside the frame. Rule-of-thirds lines are drawn on the overlay so you can place a face off the exact center. Download, then move on to Resize Image if you still need a specific pixel size.

For a Short, use the Story 9:16 preset instead. For a podcast playlist, use the Square preset. YouTube also notes that a vertical video with a 16:9 custom thumbnail is replaced by an auto-generated 4:5 thumbnail on the home, explore, and subscription pages. The 16:9 file still appears on the watch page, in history, and on non-mobile platforms. If your video is vertical, export the 9:16 Shorts size rather than hoping the 16:9 crop survives those feeds.

Resize to the recommended pixel size

After the crop, open Resize Image. Set Resize by to Exact size. For a standard video thumbnail enter 3840 for the width and 2160 for the height. If the shape already matches, Fill & crop trims little or nothing. Stretch (distorts) squashes the picture, so leave it off.

Do not upscale. If the cropped photo is narrower than 3840 pixels, enlarging it to 3840 adds pixels and no detail, and the result looks soft on a big screen. Export at the cropped size instead, as long as the width is at least the 640 pixel minimum YouTube states. Width mode keeps the original proportions if you only need to scale down.

The download panel shows the output width and height before you save. Resize Image can export PNG, JPEG, or WebP. YouTube's help page names JPG and PNG, not WebP, so pick JPEG for a photo or PNG for flat graphics and type. The social media image sizes guide covers the same crop-then-resize order for other posts.

• Video thumbnail from a large original: Exact size, 3840 by 2160, Fill & crop.
• Short from a large original: Exact size, 2160 by 3840, after a 9:16 crop.
• Source already smaller than the recommendation: keep the cropped size. Do not enlarge.
• Subject near the edge: crop with the position sliders first. Fill & crop trims from the middle.

Stay under the YouTube thumbnail file size limit

A 3840 by 2160 JPEG is often fine for the 50 MB desktop cap and sometimes over the 2 MB mobile cap, depending on the photo. The download panel measures the file you are about to save when the image is under 12 million pixels, and 3840 by 2160 is about 8.3 million, so you can see the size before you download.

If the JPEG is over the limit for the device you will upload from, open Compress Image. Leave Longest side on Original so the pixels stay put, and lower the quality slider. It starts at 75% and can go down to 30%. Faces and any words in the thumbnail show damage first, so stop at the highest quality that fits. If quality alone is not enough for the 2 MB mobile cap, set Longest side to 2560px or 1920px and accept a smaller image than YouTube's recommended resolution.

PNG keeps sharp type, and it is often much larger than JPEG. Use it when the thumbnail is a graphic. For a photograph, JPEG is the smaller file YouTube already accepts. The reduce image file size guide walks through dimensions, quality, and format in that order.

Check the export before you upload it

Reopen the downloaded file and confirm three things: the pixel size, the ratio, and the file size on disk. A WebP that you meant to convert is still the wrong format. Use WebP to JPG if the source was WebP, and pick a background color if the file had transparency, because JPEG cannot store it.

Keep words large and the subject away from the extreme edges. YouTube does not publish a safe-zone pixel inset on the help page checked for this guide, but a thumbnail is often shown as a small preview, and the 4:5 replacement noted above crops vertical videos further on some pages.

• Width and height match the row in the table, or your smaller original if you refused to upscale.
• The file is JPG or PNG, under 2 MB if you will upload from a phone, or under 50 MB on a computer.
• The account is verified. YouTube requires that for a custom thumbnail.
• The image follows YouTube's thumbnail policies. A size-correct file can still be rejected.