Image Sizes

YouTube thumbnail size

1280 × 720 16:9

Max 2.0 MB ·JPG, PNG, GIF or WEBP

The duration badge sits bottom right — keep it clear.

1280 × 720

Safe zone

Drop an image to check it Optional — the spec is above either way. Nothing is uploaded. Show the safe zone

Cropped in your browser · your image is never uploaded

Local · design for 168 pixels wide, not 1280

1280 × 720, 16:9, under 2 MB. YouTube accepts a minimum of 640 wide, but 1280 is the standard because it is what gets served on a desktop watch page.

How to use the youtube thumbnail size

1 Read the dimensions above. That is the whole answer if the spec is all you came for.

2 Drop your own image in to check it against the spec — size, aspect ratio and file weight are each checked separately.

3 Turn on the safe zone to see what gets cropped or covered, then download the cropped version at the exact size.

The number that matters is not 1280 — it is 168. That is roughly how many pixels wide a thumbnail is in the mobile search results where most views actually begin, and it is the size your design has to work at. Three or four words is the practical ceiling for legible text; a sentence is unreadable. Two other things get in the way: the duration badge sits over the bottom-right corner, and on the watch page a red progress bar covers the bottom of a previously-watched thumbnail. Keep both corners clear of anything you need seen.

Questions

What size is a YouTube thumbnail? −

1280 × 720 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio, under 2 MB.

Why does my thumbnail get rejected? +

How much text should a thumbnail have? +

What covers the thumbnail? +

Does thumbnail resolution affect ranking? +

Sources

YouTube Help — channel art and thumbnail requirements

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