YouTube image resizer
Resize any image to the exact dimensions YouTube expects: video thumbnail 1280x720, plus every other YouTube size. Runs in your browser, nothing uploaded.
Your image
Your resized preview appears here.
Size
Options
How to resize an image for YouTube
A thumbnail is designed at 1280x720 and seen at a fraction of that. The channel banner has the opposite problem: it is uploaded large and then cropped hard on every screen except a television.
- Start from the largest original you have, not a copy already exported for somewhere else. Every export is another lossy pass and they stack up.
- Pick the preset you are genuinely posting to. There are 4 YouTube sizes here, starting with the video thumbnail at 1280x720px.
- Choose Cover to fill the frame, which trims the long edge evenly from both sides, or Contain to keep the whole picture and pad the gap. Contain pads white, so a photo destined for a dark layout shows a white border.
- If you export JPEG, remember it has no transparency: a logo with a transparent background lands on a white square. That is the one case worth going back for PNG.
- Export a photographic thumbnail as JPEG and check the file size, because YouTube caps a thumbnail uploaded from a phone at 2 MB and a PNG at 1280x720 can pass it.
- Shrink the finished thumbnail on screen until it is about the width of a sidebar suggestion. Anything you cannot read at that size is doing no work.
Every YouTube image size, and the ratio each one forces
Four sizes: one you design carefully, one that is mostly cropped away, and two round avatars.
- Video thumbnail: 1280x720px. 16:9, and 2 MB is the ceiling when you upload from a phone.
- Channel banner: 2560x1440px, a ratio of 16:9. Safe area 1546x423 in the centre.
- Channel photo: 800x800px, a ratio of 1:1. Displayed as a circle.
- Shorts cover: 1080x1920px. 9:16 full screen.
- The thumbnail is 16:9 at 1280x720. YouTube allows 50 MB when you upload from a desktop browser and only 2 MB from the mobile app, so the same file can be accepted on one and refused on the other.
- The banner is uploaded at 2560x1440 but only the 1546x423 strip in the centre is shown on every device. Everything outside that is background some viewers never see.
- The 800x800 channel photo is the largest avatar source here and is drawn as a circle.
- A Shorts cover is vertical at 1080x1920, so it is a separate design rather than a crop of the 16:9 thumbnail.
What goes wrong when the size is off on YouTube
YouTube punishes detail. Both of its main images are seen far smaller than they are made, and one of them is cropped without asking.
- A thumbnail with a sentence on it: at sidebar size, three or four large words is the ceiling.
- A banner designed across the full 2560x1440: the logo and the upload schedule near its edges are cropped away on a phone and a laptop alike.
- A still grabbed from a 720p video: it is already at the limit at 1280x720, so any crop into it becomes an upscale. The tool warns you, but the fix is a proper still.
When resizing is not the answer
Nothing here makes a soft frame sharp, and a thumbnail is judged on contrast and a single idea rather than on resolution.
- If the thumbnail has to carry a face and text, build it at 1280x720 in a design tool and use this only to confirm the export. Shrinking a finished graphic shrinks the type with it.
- The banner’s safe strip is 1546x423, close to 3.7:1. Anything every viewer must see has to fit inside that, not inside the 2560x1440 you uploaded.
The rest of the job
You just fixed one post. Now do the month.
The youtube image resizer solves one piece of one post. OctoSpark plans, writes and schedules the whole calendar across every network you use, publishes it for you, and reports what actually performed.
- One calendar for every network
- Schedule once, publish everywhere
- Drafts written in your own voice
- See what actually performed
Open the full sign-up page
No card needed. These tools stay free either way.
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Frequently asked questions
How this tool works, what it cannot do, and what happens to what you put into it.
What image size does YouTube use?
The sizes this tool offers are YouTube's own recommendations: Video thumbnail at 1280x720px, Channel banner at 2560x1440px, Channel photo at 800x800px. Picking a preset resizes your image to exactly those pixels.Is my image uploaded anywhere?
No. The file is read, resized and exported by your own browser using a canvas. It never reaches a server, so there is nothing to delete afterwards.Will resizing make my image blurry?
Scaling down is lossless-looking; scaling a small image up cannot invent detail, so start from the largest original you have. The tool tells you when your source is smaller than the target.Which format should I export?
PNG for graphics, text and screenshots; JPEG for photographs, where it is far smaller at the same visible quality. Both are offered after resizing.Is my data private?
Yes. This tool does its work in your browser, so whatever you type, paste or upload stays on your device. Nothing is sent to our servers, which is also why it keeps working if you go offline after the page has loaded.Is this really free?
Yes. Every tool here is free with no account, no credit card and no usage cap. They exist so that the people who need our scheduling product find us, which only works if the tools are genuinely useful on their own.Do I need an account?
No. Open the page and use it. An account is only for OctoSpark itself, where you plan, schedule and publish a whole calendar rather than fixing one post at a time.Can I use the output commercially?
Yes. Anything you produce here is yours, including for client and commercial work. We claim no rights over it and we do not watermark it.