YouTube Media Sizes
Prepare a landscape thumbnail, vertical Shorts artwork, and a channel banner without losing the important details.
Working canvas recommendations, not a list of every upload limit. Check the platform and publishing method before exporting. Reviewed September 2026.
| Format | Dimensions | Ratio | Crop image |
|---|---|---|---|
| Video thumbnail canvas | 1280 × 720 px | 16:9 | Use size ↗ |
| High-resolution thumbnail canvas | 3840 × 2160 px | 16:9 | Use size ↗ |
| Shorts canvas | 1080 × 1920 px | 9:16 | Use size ↗ |
| Channel banner canvas | 2560 × 1440 px | 16:9 | Use size ↗ |
Leave room for the crop.
Use a 16:9 thumbnail composition for a standard video. Channel banners are cropped differently on TVs, desktops, and phones, so keep the name and essential branding within the central safe area. A Shorts cover can display differently from a regular video thumbnail.
Work from a high-resolution original and keep important text away from the edges. Cropping changes the framing; resizing changes the pixel dimensions. A larger export will not recover detail that is missing from the source.
YouTube thumbnail help ↗Explore other platforms
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