YouTube thumbnail size and rules
- Size: 1280×720 is the common target (16:9). Minimum width is 640 px. You can go up to 3840×2160.
- Format: JPG or PNG. Keep it under 2 MB if you upload from the mobile app (desktop allows up to 50 MB).
- Shorts: pick a frame or upload a 9:16 image. On home and subscription feeds, vertical videos may show a 4:5 crop, so keep the subject centred.
- Duration badge: the video length covers the bottom-right corner — keep text and faces out of it.
- Policy: thumbnails must follow the Community Guidelines. Profanity, sexual or shocking imagery in a thumbnail limits ads, and a thumbnail that misrepresents the video counts as misleading metadata.
What CTR should a thumbnail get?
YouTube says half of all channels and videos have an impressions click-through rate between 2% and 10%. The estimate above places your thumbnail in that range based on how readable and eye-catching it is at feed size. It's a guide, not a promise: your title, topic, audience and where YouTube shows the video matter just as much. Connect your channel to see the real CTR of every video you've published.
What makes a thumbnail get clicked
At 168 px wide (the "Up next" size) a thumbnail has roughly one second to register. The patterns that hold up: one clear subject, a face showing an emotion when it fits the topic, three or four words at most, strong contrast between subject and background, and a colour that stands out from the rest of the feed. Use the squint test above: if you can't tell what the video is about when it's blurred, simplify.
Sources: Add video thumbnails (YouTube Help) · Advertiser-friendly content guidelines. Last checked October 2026.
Next: review the whole video before uploading or check if your channel can get monetized.