What's YouTube's file size limit?

2 MB maximum. At 85% JPG quality, a 1280 × 720 photo comes in around 100–300 KB — well under.

JPG is preferred for photo thumbnails; PNG for graphic/text-heavy thumbnails. You can change format in the tool's controls after resize.

YouTube Thumbnail (1280 × 720 px)

YouTube-ready thumbnail — 16:9, no watermark, in your browser.

No upload
Browser-based
Free
No signup
Image

YouTube's recommended custom thumbnail size is 1280 × 720 pixels (16:9). The file must be under 2 MB and can be JPG, GIF, or PNG. This tool resizes any image to 1280 × 720 in JPG format at a quality that stays under 2 MB.

Choose an image or drag and drop here · JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF

Images are processed in your browser and never uploaded.

What to try next

Crop Image Crop before/after resizing
Rotate Image Rotate or flip
PNG to JPG Convert to smaller JPG

Frequently asked questions

What's YouTube's file size limit?: 2 MB maximum. At 85% JPG quality, a 1280 × 720 photo comes in around 100–300 KB — well under.
PNG or JPG?: JPG is preferred for photo thumbnails; PNG for graphic/text-heavy thumbnails. You can change format in the tool's controls after resize.