Upload a thumbnail and see it where viewers will: in the home feed, search results, the up-next list and on a phone — next to other videos, in light and dark mode.
Drop up to three images, or import one from a YouTube link. Give each one its own title if you want to test wording too.
Channel name, views, upload age and length make the preview feel real. Add a channel picture and the verified badge if you have them.
Flip between the home feed, search, up-next and mobile, switch to dark mode, and run the squint and grayscale tests.
Your thumbnail sits among other videos, so you can judge contrast and standout instead of looking at it alone.
Put up to three thumbnails, each with its own title, in the same feed and see which one pulls the eye.
Blur the page or drop the colour to check that the picture and the text still read when it is small or washed out.
Most views happen on small screens. Check the phone feed and the real pixel sizes YouTube uses.
In the home feed your thumbnail is often about 300 px wide, and in the up-next list only 168 px. Fine detail disappears. Big faces, one clear subject and very few words survive the shrink, so check the Tiny sizes tab before you publish.
YouTube places the video length in the bottom-right corner of the picture. Anything important there is covered. Turn on the duration-badge guide to see exactly what the badge hides.
A thumbnail stands out when it differs from what is around it. Use Compare to see it next to other videos, then try the grayscale test: if it still reads without colour, the contrast is doing its job.
Viewers read them as one unit. Use the title field to test wording, and keep the text on the picture different from the title instead of repeating it. Titles are cut off after about two lines in the feed, so lead with the strongest words.
YouTube recommends 1280 × 720 pixels (16:9) as JPG, PNG or GIF under 2 MB. Other shapes are cropped to 16:9. This tool warns you when your image is not 16:9 or is smaller than 1280 pixels wide.
The layouts here are close look-alikes built for testing. YouTube changes its design often and shows thumbnails differently on TVs, tablets and in apps, so treat the preview as a guide and not a guarantee. The other videos and channels are invented.
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