Resize an image for a YouTube thumbnail

The editor above opens set to YouTube’s current thumbnail size, 3840 × 2160. Open any image: if it is not already 16:9, a frame appears over it showing exactly what the thumbnail will keep. Drag the frame to choose, apply, and the export is that size to the pixel. Or switch to Fit the whole image and it is placed whole on black bars instead.

YouTube image sizes, checked October 2026

Each size below comes from YouTube’s own help pages, Add video thumbnails and Manage your channel’s branding. The links open the editor at that size.

Thumbnails may be JPG or PNG. The editor exports JPEG at quality 90 here, which is the right choice for anything photographic; pick PNG in the Compress panel only for flat graphics with large areas of one colour.

1280 × 720 is no longer the recommendation

For most of YouTube’s history the advice was 1280 × 720 and under 2 MB, and most guides still say so. YouTube’s help page now asks for 3840 × 2160, so that thumbnails stay sharp on 4K televisions, and accepts files of up to 50 MB uploaded from a computer. The app on a phone still stops at 2 MB.

1280 × 720 remains a valid thumbnail — it is twice the minimum width — and it is still in the size list above, along with 1920 × 1080. On a phone screen or a laptop, a thumbnail is shown a few hundred pixels wide, and all three look the same.

Does a 4K thumbnail fit the 2 MB app limit?

Only just, for a detailed photo. We cropped the full-resolution original of our sample landscape to 16:9 in the editor and exported it as JPEG at quality 90:

A busier image — foliage, text over a photo, lots of fine noise — can tip a 4K thumbnail over. If you upload from the phone app, switch on Compress to a maximum file size in the Compress panel and enter 1900; the editor then finds the highest quality that stays under 2 MB however the app counts it. From a computer, there is nothing to worry about.

Crop to fill, or fit with bars

Most images are not 16:9. A phone photo is usually 4:3 or 3:2, a screenshot might be 16:10, and a portrait photo is the wrong way round entirely. The size panel gives two ways to get from there to an exact 3840 × 2160:

• Crop to fill the frame. The default. A frame of the right shape opens over your picture, as large as it can be, with the parts that will be cut shaded. Drag inside it to move it, or draw a new one. A 3:2 photo keeps 84% of its area; an upright 3:4 phone photo keeps only 42%, which is why the next option exists.
• Fit the whole image, with padding. Nothing is cut. The picture is scaled to fit inside the frame and centred, and the leftover space is filled with a solid colour — black by default here, like a letterboxed film, though the colour picker takes any. A vertical photo becomes a thumbnail with bars at the sides.

Either way, the note in the panel states the export’s exact size and how much of the picture it keeps, so you know what you are downloading before you press the button.

When the image is smaller than 4K

A screenshot or a downloaded image is often 1920 pixels wide, and making it 3840 wide doubles every pixel without adding any detail. The size panel warns when this happens. Nothing breaks if you go ahead, but the file grows for no gain: our 1920-pixel sample came out at 1.64 MB as a 4K thumbnail and 673 KB at 1920 × 1080. Choose 1920 × 1080 in the list instead; it is exactly half of 4K in each direction. Our resampling guide shows why enlarging softens.

Two things YouTube puts over your thumbnail

• The duration badge sits in the bottom-right corner of most thumbnails. Keep faces and text out of that corner.
• Vertical videos may not use your 16:9 thumbnail at all. In YouTube’s words, vertical videos with 16:9 custom thumbnails “will be replaced by an auto-generated 4:5 thumbnail on the home, explore, and subscription pages.” For a vertical video, make the 9:16 Shorts thumbnail.

For a channel banner the safe area is what matters: YouTube guarantees only the middle 1235 × 338 of a 2048 × 1152 banner is visible on every device. On a 2560 × 1440 banner that becomes about 1544 × 423 in the centre; keep your name and any text inside it.

Questions about YouTube thumbnails

More image tools

Every one of these is the same editor, opened for a different job — and all of them run on your device.

• Instagram resizerPosts, stories and Reels at Instagram’s current shapes.
• LinkedIn resizerPosts, banners and covers at LinkedIn’s exact pixels.
• Resize an imageChange the pixel dimensions with Lanczos3, Catmull-Rom or Mitchell.
• Crop an imageTrim to what matters, freeform or to a fixed ratio.
• Compress an imageShrink a photo for the web, an email or an upload form.

Or start from the full editor, which does all of it at once.