YouTube·2 sizes
YouTube video thumbnail 1280×720
The custom thumbnail a long-form video can upload, capped at 2 MB; Shorts cannot take one the way long videos can.
Width
1280 px
Height
720 px
Aspect ratio
16:9
File limit
≤ 2 MB
1280 × 72016:9
16:9 thumbnail preview; the duration chip is illustrative only
Specs
- Recommended size
- 1280 × 720
- Aspect ratio
- 16:9
- Upload limit
- ≤ 2 MB
- Format
- JPG (no transparency needed)
Official numbers
Framing advice
- Design at 1280 × 720, 16:9; the exported JPG has to stay under 2 MB, so compress it if it does not.
- Keep type and the subject away from the edges, then check the crop in YouTube Studio’s own preview.
- Shrink it to mobile preview size and confirm the copy still reads — avoid relying on small type.
- Check on both light and dark backgrounds: YouTube has a dark theme where black-outlined type disappears.
The most common failure
Forcing a 16:9 image into 1:1 before uploading, so the sides are eaten by bars or cropping and the subject drifts out of frame.
Compare inside YouTube
| Specs | Aspect ratio | File limit |
|---|---|---|
| video thumbnail1280 × 720 | 16:9 | ≤ 2 MB |
| channel banner2560 × 1440 | 16:9 | ≤ 6 MB |