YouTube Shorts Thumbnail specification
| Dimensions | 2160 × 3840 pixels |
|---|---|
| Aspect ratio | 9:16 |
| Orientation | Portrait |
| Platform | YouTube |
| Best format | JPG for photographs, PNG for flat graphics and text |
| Dimension basis | Exact dimensions stated by the linked primary source |
| Primary source | YouTube Help ↗ |
| Last verified |
Why 2160 × 3840?
YouTube now recommends 2160 × 3840 for Shorts custom thumbnails. It is the 9:16 counterpart to the 3840 × 2160 standard-video thumbnail, with a minimum height of 640 pixels. Vertical video is commonly recorded at 1080 × 1920, so a frame grabbed from your own Short is already 9:16 and needs no cropping, but this page doubles it in each direction to reach the canvas, and a 720 × 1280 frame is tripled, without any prompt. As a portrait size, this page opens on Fit whole image. A 3024 × 4032 phone photo becomes 2160 × 2880 with 480-pixel bands above and below it; switch to Crop to fill and it is scaled to 2880 × 3840 instead, giving up 360 pixels at each side and keeping three quarters of its width.
Before you upload
Custom Shorts thumbnails are uploaded in YouTube Studio on a computer. Desktop thumbnail uploads allow up to 50 MB. Enlarging a small frame to 2160 × 3840 cannot add detail — start from a sharp 9:16 master. YouTube Help adds that the account must be verified, and the upload sits under Content, then the Shorts tab, then Upload file below Thumbnail. Since that upload happens on a computer, the 50 MB desktop limit applies, not the 2 MB phone limit. JPG and PNG are the formats YouTube names, so skip WebP. A landscape 1920 × 1080 frame suits this canvas badly: fitted whole, it fills the width at 2160 × 1215 with bands about 1312 pixels deep, and Crop to fill enlarges it more than three and a half times to keep under a third of its width, always from the middle. Those bands, and any transparent areas of a PNG title card, take the background colour you set. A JPG at quality 82 sits far below 50 MB; PNG output is much larger but still fits. short-cover.png downloads as short-cover-social.jpg, with no camera details from the original. Thumbnail changes can take time to appear, and channels have a daily cap on custom thumbnail uploads.
Source and verification
YouTube recommends a 2160 by 3840 9:16 custom thumbnail for Shorts, with a minimum height of 640 pixels. Check the YouTube Help guidance ↗.
Last verified: . Platform requirements and visible crops can change, so check the linked primary guidance before a time-sensitive upload.
How to resize an image to 2160 × 3840
- Choose a JPG, PNG or WebP image.
- Pick whether to crop to fill the frame or fit the whole image inside it.
- Resize and download the result at exactly 2160 × 3840 pixels.
Frequently asked questions
What size is youtube shorts thumbnail?
2160 × 3840 pixels, an aspect ratio of 9:16. Add an image above and it is resized to exactly that in your browser.
What aspect ratio is youtube shorts thumbnail?
9:16. It is portrait, so this page starts on Fit whole image, which keeps a wider-shaped original whole and pads above and below it; Crop to fill trims its sides instead. Crops are always taken from the centre.
Which file format should I use for a YouTube Shorts custom thumbnail?
JPG is the safest choice for photographs, and most platforms recompress uploads anyway. Use PNG for crisp flat graphics and text, and WebP when file size matters more than compatibility. No format keeps transparency here, because the resizer paints the background colour, white by default, behind every image.
Other image sizes
Need a size that isn't listed? Use the social media image resizer, or resize to any exact pixel size.