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About

YouTube Thumbnail Size

YouTube’s own help asks for a thumbnail of 3840 by 2160 pixels, a 16:9 frame, as a JPG or PNG, and takes anything at least 640 wide. Drop a picture, a screenshot or a still from your video, and it is cut to that size; drag it to choose what stays, and keep the bottom right corner clear for the video’s length.

What it does

  • A camera photo came out at 3.3 MB as a JPEG at quality 90, and at 1.4 MB at quality 70.
  • YouTube takes 50 MB from a computer and 2 MB from a phone, so a photo uploaded from a phone wants the lower quality.
  • A full-screen screenshot from a 4K display came out at 293 KB as JPEG and 5 MB as PNG.
  • Fill crops a picture of another shape to 16:9, and dragging it chooses the part that stays.
  • A picture smaller than 3840 by 2160 is flagged with how far it would be enlarged: a still from a 1080p video, twice.
  • The channel banner and the profile picture are in the same YouTube group, a tick away.

How to use it

  1. Drop the picture, or a still from the video.
  2. Drag it so the subject and the words are clear of the bottom right corner.
  3. Pick JPEG for a photo, and lower the quality if it will go up from a phone.
  4. Download the 3840 × 2160 file.

What it does not do

  • Words on the picture: add the title in a design program first, since this cuts and sizes what it is given.
  • Uploading it: YouTube Studio takes the file, and a custom thumbnail needs a verified account.

Questions

What size should a YouTube thumbnail be?

3840 by 2160 pixels at 16:9, in a JPG or PNG, as YouTube’s help puts it now; anything at least 640 wide is taken. Guides that still say 1280 by 720 give the size YouTube asked for before.

Why does my thumbnail look blurry?

Usually because the picture was smaller than the size and was enlarged. The window says by how much; start from the largest still you have, such as a frame of a 4K export or a screenshot taken full screen.

JPEG or PNG for a thumbnail?

JPEG for anything photographic: the same photo was 3.3 MB as JPEG and 22.5 MB as PNG. PNG suits flat graphics and big lettering, though a screenshot as PNG still came out past the 2 MB a phone may upload.

Everything here runs in your browser. Nothing you type, paste or open is uploaded, and there is no account and no queue. How that works.

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