Image tools
YouTube Thumbnail Size, 1280 × 720 pixels
YouTube Thumbnail pictures should be 1280 × 720 pixels. Choose your photo and it is resized and cropped from the centre to exactly 1280 × 720 pixels, ready to upload. Use a bright, close-up picture with large shapes: thumbnails are seen small on phones. It runs in your browser, so your photo is never uploaded.
or drop files here, or paste with Ctrl/Cmd+V
JPG, PNG, WEBP, AVIF, GIF, BMP, SVG, HEIC · up to 50 images · 50 MB each
No file to hand?
Your files stay on your device. Nothing is uploaded. Check it yourself
How to use YouTube Thumbnail Size
Choose your picture
Press Select images and pick a photo or design. You can choose several and resize them all.
Check the size
The size is already set to 1280 × 720 pixels. Choose Fit inside the size instead of Fill the size exactly if you want the whole picture with space around it.
Resize and download
Press Resize image, download the picture and upload it as a YouTube thumbnail.
Resizing with good quality
Shrinking an image means combining many pixels into fewer. Browsers do that with a small filter, which can make big reductions look jagged, so PlumPDF reduces large images in halving steps before the final size. Lines and text stay smooth even when a 6000 pixel photo becomes a 600 pixel thumbnail.
Photos taken on a phone are turned upright first, using their EXIF rotation tag, so the width and height you type are the ones you see. Transparency in PNG and WEBP is kept, unless you save as JPG.
The presets cover common needs: long sides of 1080, 1280, 1920 and 3840 pixels, and exact sizes for Instagram posts and stories, YouTube thumbnails, and Facebook, X and LinkedIn banners. As with every PlumPDF tool, the work happens in your browser and nothing is uploaded.
Questions about YouTube Thumbnail Size
What size is a YouTube thumbnail?
1280 × 720 pixels. This page resizes and crops your picture to exactly that, so it is not blurred or cut off by the site when you upload it.
What is the YouTube thumbnail size and file limit?
YouTube asks for 1280 × 720 pixels (16:9) as JPG, PNG or GIF, under 2 MB. A JPG at this size is usually far below that; if not, lower the quality setting.
Will my picture be stretched?
No. With Fill the size exactly the picture keeps its shape and the extra edges are cut off evenly; with Fit inside the size the whole picture is kept and the empty space is filled.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. The picture is resized on your own device, inside your browser tab. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Can I resize to another size?
Yes. Pick another size from the list, or type your own width and height in pixels.