YouTube thumbnail size and 9 rules for clickable thumbnails

The technical requirements

• Size: 1280×720 pixels (16:9), at least 640 pixels wide.
• File: JPG, PNG or GIF, under 2 MB.

If your image is the wrong shape or too heavy, the thumbnail resizer crops or fits it to 1280×720 and compresses it under the limit.

9 rules that make thumbnails work

1. Design for phone size. Most views start on a thumbnail about the width of a thumb. Check every design at that size.
2. One subject. A face, an object or a result. Three competing things read as none.
3. Two to four words at most, and only if they add something the title doesn’t say.
4. Strong contrast. Light on dark or dark on light. Muddy mid-tones disappear in the feed.
5. Readable emotion. If there is a face, the expression should be clear at a glance.
6. Leave the bottom-right corner empty. The duration badge covers it.
7. Make the thumbnail and title a pair. The thumbnail raises the question; the title confirms it. Don’t repeat the title in the image.
8. Keep a recognisable style. Two or three repeated colours and one font help returning viewers spot you. Pull your palette with the colour palette tool.
9. Test it in context. A thumbnail that looks great alone can vanish next to others.

Make, check and preview, free

Cut yourself out of a photo with the background remover, then build the layout with the thumbnail maker: background, cutout and bold outlined text at exactly 1280×720.

Run the result through the thumbnail checker to see it at phone size, in grayscale and blurred, and finally place it among other videos with the thumbnail and title preview.

Questions