YouTube Thumbnail Maker - Free Online, 1280x720 Under 2 MB

Drag to move, corners to resize (Shift for free shapes), top dot to rotate. Double-click a photo box to fill it. The yellow box and the red bar are YouTube's overlays - they are not exported.

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Home feed on a phone

12:34

Up next / search

Tiny - TV and notifications

Nothing selected. Click a layer on the canvas or in the layer list.

Size

CAPITALS Italic

Line spacing

Outline

Thickness

Shadow or glow

Softness

Distance

Background box

Padding

Fill None

Line

Thickness

Corner radius

Colour

Line weight

Outline

Circle badge

Rounded corners

Border

Thickness

Outline

Cutout outline

Drop shadow

Outline follows the shape of transparent PNG cutouts. No cutout yet? Use the Background Remover.

Layer

Opacity

Rotation

Download

Measuring...Real file size of your thumbnail

How to make a YouTube thumbnail

Pick a layout. Start from one of 8 original templates or a blank canvas.

Add your photo. Double-click a photo box, drop an image onto the canvas or paste one with Ctrl+V. Add an outline to cutouts.

Write a short title. Edit the text, font, colour, outline and shadow. Add arrows, stickers and shapes, and drag, resize or rotate anything on the canvas.

Check and download. Keep clear of the timestamp corner, check the phone previews, then download a 1280 x 720 JPG under 2 MB.

What makes people click

Three words, not tenThe title is already under the thumbnail. Add the hook, not a summary, in letters big enough for a phone.

One clear faceA close, expressive face reads at any size. Cut it out and give it an outline so it stands off the background.

Strong contrastLight text on dark, or the other way round. Thick outlines save text on busy photos.

Test it small: if the phone previews still tell the story, the thumbnail works.

YouTube thumbnail size and rules

Size: 1280 x 720 pixels, 16:9, at least 640 pixels wide.

File: JPG, PNG or GIF, up to 2 MB. JPG from this maker is measured and kept under the limit.

Overlays: the video length covers the bottom-right corner; a red bar crosses the bottom for watched videos.

Custom thumbnails need a verified channel in YouTube Studio.

Need the same artwork as an Instagram post or an X header? Run the download through the Social Media Image Resizer, or grab a still from an animation with GIF First Frame.

Frequently Asked Questions

YouTube recommends 1280 x 720 pixels (16:9), at least 640 pixels wide, as JPG, PNG or GIF under 2 MB.

This maker always exports 16:9, at 1280 x 720 or 1920 x 1080, and keeps JPG files under 2 MB automatically.

Choose JPG. The maker measures the real file and lowers the JPG quality only as much as needed to stay under 2 MB - you see the exact size before downloading.

PNG files with photos are often larger, so they get a warning.

YouTube covers the bottom-right corner of every thumbnail with the video length, and shows a red progress bar along the bottom for videos people have started.

The safe-area overlay marks both, so you keep faces and text out of them. It is never included in the download.

Remove the background from your photo first with the Background Remover so it becomes a transparent PNG, then add it here.

Turn on Outline to give it the white or coloured border that makes faces pop on busy backgrounds.

Check the phone previews under the editor - they show your design at the sizes YouTube uses in the home feed and the sidebar.

If a word is hard to read there, make it bigger, shorter or give it a thicker outline.

Yes. Press Save design to download a small design file with your layout, text and images. Open it here next time, change the title and photo, and your series keeps the same look.

It is free with no watermark and no sign-up. Everything is drawn in your browser, so your photos never leave your device.