YouTube has more than a dozen image and video specifications across thumbnails, banners, profile pictures, Shorts, and standard video, and getting any of them wrong causes cropping, bars, or blur. This cheatsheet lists every official size and aspect ratio in one searchable place.
How it works
Each YouTube surface has a native upload resolution and a display crop. The channel banner is the trickiest: you upload a wide 2560x1440 image, but only the central 1546x423 band is guaranteed visible on every device, with TV showing the full width and mobile showing a narrower strip. Thumbnails and standard video both use 16:9, while Shorts and profile pictures use 9:16 and 1:1 respectively.
The cheatsheet stores the official dimensions, aspect ratios, file formats, and size limits for each asset, plus the safe-zone note where the display crop differs from the upload size, so you can design once and have it look right everywhere.
Example
Designing a channel banner, build the full 2560x1440 canvas, then mark a centred rectangle 1546x423 pixels. Place your channel name and logo inside that rectangle. The area outside it still fills large-screen displays but is cropped on phones, so nothing essential should live there.
Tips and notes
- Thumbnails and standard video share 16:9 — design thumbnails at 1280x720.
- Keep banner text and logos inside the 1546x423 TV-safe centre band.
- Shorts are 9:16 (1080x1920); profile pictures are square and circle-cropped.